Live Blogging Civil Procedure Lecture

Tonight I'm privileged to be sitting in on what is sure to be a compelling lecture by Norman Greenspan on the Federal Rules of Discovery and Rule 26 in particular. I'm going to live-blog it for everyone that's interested.

5:27 – Norman Greenspan is at the podium getting ready to talk about the Rules of Civil Procedure. He’s got a sharp suit on, but he looks tired and disheveled, pobably due to his ongoing trial duties. Tonight we’re talking about “Discovery” in a civil suit and Federal Rule 26 specifically. It should be exciting.

5:32 – Somebody behind me sneezed. Greenspan paused and said “gadzunteit.”

5:51 - Things are really chugging along in here. After a brief review of pretrial-disclosures, he's gone into a rhetorical dialogue with himself about the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege and discovery requests. I'm guessing this is going to lead to a discussion of Upjohn Co. v. U.S. . . . and there it is!!!

6:01 - A question about the scope of the work-product privilege followed by awkward silence. Nobody is listening. Guilt and pity took over so I answered the question and I answered it well, though I think the tone of my voice made it obvious that I don't give a shit.

6:11 - He just said "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." I have no idea what that means, but he said it in reference to Electronically Stored Information (ESI). There's no Civil Procedure issue hotter in the Federal Circuits than the relation of privileges and ESI and I guess there's no way he could avoid the issue. He ended up serenading us with some war stories of his latest trial and the ESI issues he encountered there regarding privileged internal emails.

6:32 - I'm really getting to like this guys look. He looks pretty similar to Joe Biden and he's wearing a lot of different hues of blue. Dark Navy suit, navy & crimson striped tie, and a lightish blue shirt. Also, I think he may have bought that shirt at Brooks Brothers.

6:41 - Greenspan just laid down a pretty hard dis on the State of Georgia and their local rules of discovery.

6:59 - How can a person drink 40oz. of Pepsi in an hour and a half? The only time I ever drink that much soda is when I'm hungover and eating chicken wings. My favorite place for chicken wings was this little joint back in Lawrence called Mojo's, but I think they went out of business some years ago. They had about 20 different styles of wings ranging from standard Buffalo to Jamaican Jerk with all sorts of variety in between. I would guess that I was hungover on about 95% of the Saturdays and Sundays during my time at University and there was no better cure than drinking a gallon of soda while eating Mojo's wings.

7:12 - I'm still trying to figure out what "If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander" means. I'm guessing that there is some alternate meaning for the word gander (as opposed to a fleeting glimpse) that is intended and only when I discover this alternate definition will I solve the puzzle.

7:22 - Things are starting to wrap up and what have we learned? I sort of learned some stuff about depositions and when the attorney can compel a client to refuse answering a question and I learned a bit about strategic use of expert witnesses during the discovery process. I wonder if Leslie has anything worked up for supper?