Gareth T. Evans

Practice Areas

E-Discovery & Information Governance

Career

Gareth T. Evans, Partner at Redgrave LLP, is one of the nation’s leading eDiscovery litigators and advisors. Over the course of his career, he has made hundreds of court appearances, taken and defended countless depositions, and counseled clients in significant and contentious disputes. Gareth’s extensive experience spans a broad range of information law issues, and he counsels clients on practical and effective approaches to discovery strategy, including devising innovative approaches to privilege and confidentiality in matters.

A passion for eDiscovery and information law drives Gareth’s commitment to tackling challenging issues in the field, and he leverages his extensive knowledge and experience to steer complex litigation across various industries, including manufacturing, transportation, finance, healthcare, technology, and energy. His work as discovery counsel involves overseeing the investigation, preservation, and collection of relevant ESI, formulating technology assisted review strategies, defending review and production processes in court proceedings, and challenging the adequacy of the opposing party’s processes.

Gareth also leads teams in tackling complex privilege and confidentiality matters and employs strategic approaches to asserting and defending privilege claims and sealing confidential information, including trade secrets and other proprietary and sensitive information. His work related to privilege and confidentiality has resulted in numerous successful outcomes, including Gareth’s work in a high-stakes healthcare antitrust and pricing litigation where all privilege claims were successfully defended and the judge upheld hundreds of sealing requests.

Gareth works with clients to develop efficient strategies for challenging issues, often evaluating how technology can influence effective legal solutions. He appropriately scopes legal holds and evaluates and implements legal hold technology strategies, develops approaches for expedited and cost-effective search and review of large document populations, and is skilled in finding key facts early in litigation and investigations using technology-assisted review and other methodologies. Gareth also advises clients on defensible disposition, data remediation, and records retention policies and practices. He prides himself on his dedication to helping clients achieve optimal outcomes both inside and outside the courthouse.

As a thought leader in the information law space, Gareth is a frequently published author and speaker on various eDiscovery and information governance topics. Chambers USA has recognized him as a leading lawyer in the field of E-Discovery and Information Governance for several years, and he is recognized by Who’s Who Legal: Litigation in the area of eDiscovery.

Prior to joining Redgrave LLP, Gareth was a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP for 20 years and a lawyer with the firm for 28 years, focusing on eDiscovery, information law, complex business litigation, securities litigation, insurance litigation, and governmental investigations. He was a founder and chair of the firm’s eDiscovery and Information Law Practice Group and the lead author and editor of the firm’s highly acclaimed eDiscovery Year-End and Mid-Year Reports. Gareth also served as a law clerk to the Hon. Gordon Thompson, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

Professional Memberships

Featured Professional Memberships

• Member, Steering Committee, The Sedona Conference® Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production Working Group 1

• Member, The Sedona Conference® Working Group on International Electronic Information Management, Discovery, and Disclosure Working Group 6

• Member, The Sedona Conference® Working Group on Data Security and Privacy Liability Working Group 11

• Board Member, Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society

Publications

Selected Publications

• “The Sedona Conference TAR Case Law Primer, Second Edition, The Primer” (The Sedona Conference Working Group 1) (May 2023) (Served on Drafting Team)

• “Privilege Logs: Mitigating The Burden of Privilege Logging While Improving Usefulness” (Washington Legal Foundation) (March 17, 2023) (with Ted Hiser)

• “Supremes Bury Privilege Case After Oral Argument” (Legaltech News) (February 7, 2023) (with Daniel Zagoren and Ana Cabassa-Torres)

• “The Sedona Conference® TAR Case Law Primer, Second Edition” (February 2023) (public comment version) (drafting team member)

• “Texas Supreme Court Rejects Overbroad Discovery of Cell Phone Data” (Legaltech News) (January 10, 2023)

• “E-Discovery Trends in 2022” (Westlaw Today) (December 16, 2022)

• “Supreme Court to Resolve Circuit Split Regarding Attorney-Client Privilege” (Legaltech News) (October 25, 2022) (with Ted Hiser)

• “Steps Companies Can Take to Mitigate Privilege Labeling Risk” (Law360) (June 14, 2022) (with James Hertsch)

• “A Tale of Two Cases: TAR Trouble Arises From ESI Protocol” (Legaltech News) (January 2021) (The Legal Intelligencer 2021 E-Discovery Special Section March 2021)

• “6th Circ. Opioid Opinion On Federal Rules Helps Cos. In MDLs” (Law360) (May 11, 2020) (with Nick Snavely)

• “The Sedona Conference® Primer on Social Media—Second Edition” (February 2019) (drafting team member and Working Group 1 Steering Committee Liaison)

Recent Speaking Engagements

• Panelist, “Two’s Company, Three Can Be a Waiver: Preserving Privilege in an Increasingly Collaborative World,” Annual EDI Leadership Summit (October 2023)

• Moderator, “Drafting Team Report: Discovery of Modern Communications and Collaboration Platforms,” The Sedona Conference Working Group 1 (WG1) ( October 2023)

• Panelist, “Standing at the Edge of Privilege,” American Bar Association’s 17th Annual National Institute on E-Discovery (May 2023)

• Panelist, “The Sedona Conference TAR Case Law Primer, Second Edition,” The Sedona Conference Webinar (March 16, 2022)

• Presenter, “Mobile Device Forensics and Case Development,” 2022 Virtual Hawaii State Bar Association Annual Bar Convention and Annual Meeting (October 12, 2022)

• Presenter, “California Roundtable – A Discussion of the 2020 changes to handling eDiscovery under California law,” San Diego Paralegal Association and ACEDS Orange County Chapter’s eDiscovery Summer Refresher 2.0 Virtual Conference (August 2021)

• Panelist, “Working Group 1 Virtual Town Hall on Technology Assisted Review (“TAR”),” The Sedona Conference® Virtual Town Hall (March 2, 2021)

• Panelist, “AI and Privilege Review Today—and Tomorrow,” Corporate Counsel Business Journal CLE Webinar Panel (February 24, 2021)

• Panelist, “Demystifying AI - Robotic Process Automation (“RPA”) – Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Neural Networks and Natural Language Processing (“NLP”),” Corporate Counsel Business Journal Inner Circle E-Discovery Event (December 9, 2020)

• Panelist, “Ephemeral Messaging – Navigating Risk Amid Increasing Adoption,” Redgrave LLP Webinar (January 2019)

• Panelist, “Legal Holds 2.0 – Modernizing Your Legal Holds,” Redgrave LLP Webinar (December 2019)

• Moderator, “Litigating at the Intersection of Sedona Principle 6 and Cooperation and Transparency: Guidance on How to Find the Right Balance,” The Sedona Conference® Working Group 1 Annual Meeting (Los Angeles, California; October 25, 2018)

• Panelist, “eDiscovery Trends and Recent Developments: What You Need to Know,” Redgrave LLP Webinar (October 23, 2018)

• Panelist, “Sedona: IG Pros Can Be Proportionality Super Heroes!” ARMA Live! 2018 Conference (Anaheim, California; October 22, 2018)

• Speaker, “Authentication and Admissibility of Social Media Evidence,” Webinar, The Sedona Conference® Social Media Primer—Second Edition (August 8, 2018)

Work Highlights

• The primary author of briefs in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and United States Supreme Court regarding whether courts may compel production of documents hitting search terms without further review, resulting in the production of documents beyond the permitted scope of discovery under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(1) (relevant to the claims and defenses and proportional to the needs of the case).

• Serving in a lead role in handling eDiscovery and privilege issues in high-stakes healthcare antitrust and alleged fraudulent billing litigation matters, including briefing and arguing motions challenging privilege logs, overseeing sealing work and handling motions to seal, leading meet and confer matters, correspondence and meetings with opposing counsel, and developing sampling procedures for structured data on healthcare and financial information systems.

• Serving as special discovery counsel for a large healthcare company in multiple high-stakes healthcare antitrust and pricing litigation matters involving large volumes of electronically stored information and addressing an extensive number of privileged documents and complex confidentiality sealing issues.

• Representing a transportation company in a significant, complex, and high-stakes litigation involving large document volumes from complex data sources, involving ongoing matters in many global jurisdictions, multiple law firms, and vendors.

• Working with a global automotive company to provide ongoing guidance on eDiscovery, information governance, and privacy issues, including providing advice on the defensible disposition of information and scoping of legal holds related to multiple matters in various global jurisdictions.

• Leading privilege logging and defense of privilege in multidistrict litigation and numerous state actions in litigation related to the marketing of newly developed products.

• Serving as a lead team member in a restructuring matter where Redgrave LLP acted as Discovery counsel for the debtor, an energy industry provider of engineering, construction, and installation services.

• Serving as discovery counsel in highly contested, high-profile litigation in the gaming industry, which included developing significant electronically stored information and technology assisted review strategies.

• Assisting a client in pursuing spoliation claims and taking depositions of the opposing parties’ key executives and experts in a healthcare fraud case in which his client obtained a $34 million jury verdict at trial.

• Handling electronic document discovery and discovery disputes in securities litigation involving numerous custodians on behalf of one of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers.

Education