Producing Electronically Stored Information: Review Sets, Forms of Production, and Defensible Delivery

Nicole Marie Gill, Chair and Managing Member | Cozen O’Connor

Nicole Marie Gill is the chair and managing member of CODISCOVR, Cozen O’Connor’s eDiscovery and information governance business, and the first woman to lead the group. She partners with attorneys and clients across the firm to shape discovery management strategies fitted to each case, using advanced technologies and analytics to run complex, high-profile eDiscovery projects while working through domestic and foreign data and privacy protection laws.

• Education & Credentials

Nicole earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law in 2015. She holds an M.A. (2005) and a B.A., magna cum laude (2002), both from Villanova University. She is admitted to the bars of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and to the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.

• Recognition & Leadership

Nicole wrote the American Bar Association’s book on eDiscovery, Best Practices for E-Discovery: A Practical Handbook, which has been featured in eDiscovery Today, and she contributed commentary to eDiscovery Today’s State of the Industry Report on the future of eDiscovery technology and practice. Promoted to chair and managing member of CODISCOVR in 2024, she serves as vice co-chair of the firm’s Women’s Initiative. Her articles have appeared in The Legal Intelligencer, Bloomberg Law, The Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, Thomson Reuters, the American Bar Association’s online content, and The Philadelphia Lawyer.

• Professional Involvement

Nicole is a member of the Sedona Conference Working Groups 1 and 6 and currently sits on the WG6 Drafting Committee examining data privacy issues in the exportation of data from the People’s Republic of China. She has spoken on eDiscovery panels at Georgetown Law’s Advanced eDiscovery Institute, the International Legal Technology Association’s EVOLVE conference, the Construction Super Conference, the Sedona Conference, the Master’s Conference, the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Annual Conference, and Law.com’s Women, Influence & Power in Law Conference. Her memberships include the Philadelphia Chapter of Women in eDiscovery, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Innovation Center, the CEOs vs. Cancer Committee for the American Cancer Society, the Forum of Executive Women (Spark member), the Power of Professional Women of Philadelphia, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and ILTA.

• Experience

Nicole participates in 26(f) conferences; negotiates agreements and stipulations governing the preservation, search, and production of electronically stored information; directs the use of artificial intelligence in discovery; and negotiates technology assisted review and predictive coding protocols. She advises on collection methodology, search and retrieval methodology, FRE 502(d) orders, and production specifications, and develops internal and external discovery guidelines addressing each phase of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model. Her work includes discovery-related motion practice, such as drafting affidavits in support of cost-shifting, and implementing quality control procedures to mitigate risk. Earlier in her career, she was an associate at the Philadelphia office of a Northeast-based law firm defending health care providers and companies in malpractice and negligence actions, a judicial intern for the Honorable Marjorie Rendell of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and a summer law clerk for the Honorable Juan Sánchez.

Nicholas Berenato, Associate & Information Governance Principal | Cozen O’Connor

Nicholas Berenato works with clients to address the legal and financial exposure created by their information assets through information governance and electronic discovery. He builds strategies and policies that let organizations manage data in ways that reduce cost while still supporting business processes, and he guides clients through the defensible disposition of information assets.

• Education & Credentials

Nick earned his law degree, magna cum laude, from Rutgers Law School in 2019, where he was the business editor of the Rutgers University Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif upon graduation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from James Madison University (2016) and is admitted to the Pennsylvania bar.

• Recognition & Leadership

Nick serves as an Information Governance Principal with CODISCOVR, Cozen O’Connor’s eDiscovery and information governance business. His published work includes a Legal Intelligencer article co-authored with Nicole Gill on why information governance matters in mitigating risk and improving litigation preparedness, along with client alerts on Pennsylvania and New Jersey construction-industry developments.

• Professional Involvement

During law school, Nick was a summer associate at Cozen O’Connor in 2018 and a judicial extern for the Honorable Ann Marie Donio, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey. He also interned for the Honorable Nelson Johnson and the Honorable Bernard E. DeLury in Atlantic County, N.J.

• Experience

Nick develops policies governing an organization’s information — data retention policies and email policies among them — builds document retention schedules, and steers clients through defensible disposition. Drawing on his prior experience as an associate in Cozen O’Connor’s commercial litigation department, he supports litigation attorneys with discovery strategy and creates bespoke workflows that combine generative AI, machine learning, and human review to conduct discovery efficiently and effectively while minimizing unacceptable risk.

Caitlin L. Oyler, Counsel | Cozen O’Connor

Caitlin L. Oyler concentrates her practice on information governance and electronic discovery in high-stakes commercial litigation, pharmaceutical patent litigation, antitrust matters, and internal and government investigations. With more than a decade of eDiscovery experience, she counsels clients on the preservation, collection, analysis, review, selection, production, and protection of electronically stored information, and she is sought out for litigation preparedness and for cost-effective, efficient, and defensible solutions.

• Education & Credentials

Caitlin earned her law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law in 2011 and her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Pepperdine University in 2007. She is admitted to practice in California and the District of Columbia, and she is a fluent Spanish speaker.

• Recognition & Leadership

Caitlin joined CODISCOVR, Cozen O’Connor’s eDiscovery and information governance business, in 2024 as its first member on the West Coast, opening the group’s presence out of the firm’s Los Angeles office.

• Professional Involvement

Caitlin is a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of Women in eDiscovery. During law school, she served as a legal intern for the Honorable Lloyd U. Nolan of the D.C. Superior Court.

• Experience

Caitlin advises on every phase of the eDiscovery lifecycle and manages teams of internal and external contract employees and third-party vendors. She assists clients with assessing legal hold notices, conducting custodial interviews, developing solutions to novel collection issues, coordinating document review and production, advising on the use of technology-assisted review, and drafting document review protocols, legal memoranda, and court briefs. She has managed document review projects in toxic tort, products liability, insurance litigation, pharmaceutical patent litigation, and FCPA investigation matters, and has assisted in representing large technology, consulting, pharmaceutical, health care, and media companies in criminal and civil enforcement investigations and prosecutions, internal investigations, and civil litigation. Caitlin also brings extensive experience managing and counseling others on Relativity, Brainspace, and Ringtail, including designing workflows, setting up batches and coding panels for review, and conducting complex searches.

SESSION 1 – From Review to Production: Defensible AI Workflows and ESI Protocols in 2026 | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session covers the end-to-end workflow for building a defensible, producible ESI set — from TAR/CAL protocol negotiation to the application of new AI tools — and for selecting the correct form of production under FRCP 34(b)(2)(E). Attorneys will learn how courts are grappling with issues created by AI in 2025 and 2026 decisions and how ESI protocols are evolving to accommodate these issues. Attendees leave with a framework for negotiating ESI agreements in light of new AI-related issues, validating technology-assisted review and AI workflows, and avoiding production-format mistakes.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Assembling and Defending the ESI Production Package | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session explores how attorneys can build, validate, and defend a modern ESI production package in an era increasingly shaped by generative AI and AI-assisted review. Participants will examine the end-to-end workflow, from production specifications and load file integrity to AI-generated content, privilege protection, redaction quality control, and Rule 26(g) certification obligations.

As courts confront disputes involving AI-assisted document review, AI-generated business records, and the use of generative AI in discovery workflows, attorneys must understand how traditional production requirements intersect with emerging technologies. The session will address evolving expectations for validating AI workflows, documenting quality-control measures, preserving metadata associated with AI-generated content, structuring effective Rule 502(d) clawback protections, and responding to challenges concerning completeness, reliability, and transparency.

Attendees will leave with a practical framework for producing and defending ESI in the AI era while avoiding production-format mistakes, certification pitfalls, and sanctions exposure.