Tessa K Jacob

Professional Memberships

Georgetown Law eDiscovery Training Institute

Johnson County Bar Association

Kansas Bar Association

The Missouri Bar

ASU-Arkfeld eDiscovery and Digital Evidence, Advisory Committee

NeLi, National eDiscovery Leaders Institute, Advisory Board

University of Florida's eDiscovery Conference, Advisory Board

The Sedona Conference, Working Group 1 (Electronic Document Retention and Production) Steering Committee, 2022-2025

Career

Tessa leads Husch Blackwell’s cutting edge eDiscovery Solutions team and has spearheaded the firm’s efforts to provide consistent, defensible and repeatable eDiscovery solutions for our clients.

She is responsible for establishing and implementing best practices for eDiscovery as well as providing the related education and training for our attorneys and litigation technology staff.

A practicing attorney for 29 years, Tessa’s strong understanding of the substantive and strategic aspects of litigation informs the counsel she provides to clients and case teams on all aspects of eDiscovery. She works with clients and case teams to create strategic, cost-effective and defensible discovery plans.

Tessa is knowledgeable in both the legal and technical aspects of eDiscovery. She has vast experience in using and assessing the value of using data mining tools, technology assisted review and various review platforms. She provides discovery management to our clients, including legal hold implementation, identification, preservation and collection of client data as well as assessment of risks and costs of specific discovery strategies.

Tessa has served as lead eDiscovery counsel in class action cases and has led eDiscovery efforts for numerous companies that were the target of government investigations by the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Her skills in early case assessment, search term development and strategy, and the use of analytics and technology assisted review not only saved clients’ money but helped to ensure early favorable results.

Tessa’s experience in handling eDiscovery in active litigation and her understanding of the legal and technical issues that complicate discovery makes her uniquely qualified to assist clients in creating legal hold processes and ordinary course processes. She has assisted numerous companies of varying sizes in a variety of industries in creating and implementing such plans. Her practical approach focuses on creating a repeatable, defensible process that causes minimum interruption to a company’s daily business.

Tessa frequently speaks on issues related to eDiscovery and is on the advisory boards for National eDiscovery Leadership Institute and the University of Florida eDiscovery Conference. She was recently appointed to the Sedona Conference Working Group 1 Steering Committee for a three-year term. Prior to that, Tessa was the co-editor-in-chief of the Sedona Conference, Commentary on Rule 45 Subpoenas to Non-Parties, Second Edition, 22 SEDONA CONF. J. 1 (2020). Tessa is also rated by Chambers and Partners under E-Discovery & Information Governance, USA Guide 22. She is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law where she teaches a semester-long, upper level eDiscovery course. Tessa also serves on Husch Blackwell’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She founded and runs the firm’s unique Diversity Liaison Program, a one-on-one mentoring, coaching, and sponsorship program for over 100 racially diverse and LGBTQ+ attorneys.