Records Destruction: Privacy and Privilege Versus Spoliation

Moderator

Hon. Ronald J. Hedges (Ret.)

Former U.S. Magistrate Judge
Ronald J. Hedges LLC, Hackensack

is Senior Counsel for Dentons in New York City and a member of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Group. He has extensive experience in e-discovery and the management of complex civil litigation matters, and has served as a special master, arbitrator and mediator. He also consults on the management and discovery of electronically stored information (ESI).

Admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York, Texas and the District of Columbia, and before several federal courts, Judge Hedges is a former United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (1986-2007), where he was the Compliance Judge for the Court Mediation Program, a member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee, and a member of and reporter for the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Committee. A member of the Advisory Group of Magistrate Judges from 2001-2005, he has also been a member of the American Law Institute, the American and Federal Bar Associations, and the Historical Society and the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Judge Hedges has served on the Sedona Conference Judicial Advisory Board; the Sedona Conference Working Group on Protective Orders, Confidentiality, and Public Access; and the Sedona Conference Working Group on Best Practices for Electronic Document Retention & Protection. He has also been a member of the Advisory Board of the Advanced E-Discovery Institute of Georgetown University Law Center. He is a former Fellow at the Center for Information Technology of Princeton University and has been a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas.

Judge Hedges has been an adjunct professor at Rutgers School of Law-Newark and is a former adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and Seton Hall University School of Law, where he has taught courses on electronic discovery and evidence and mediation skills. He is the author of “Rule 26(f): The Most Important E-Discovery Rule” (New Jersey Law Journal, 5/18/2009) and has authored, edited and co-edited a number of other publications on ESI topics including Discovery of Electronically Stored Information: Surveying the Legal Landscape (BNA, 2007). He is the principal author of the third edition of the Federal Judicial Center’s Pocket Guide for Judges on Discovery of Electronic Information.

Judge Hedges received his B.A. from the University of Maryland and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
(8/23)