[Editor’s Note: Tom O’Connor is an attorney, educator, and well respected e-discovery and legal technology thought leader. A frequent lecturer on the subject of legal technology, Tom has been on the faculty of numerous national CLE providers and has taught college level courses on legal technology. He has also written three books on legal technology and worked as a consultant or expert on computer forensics and electronic discovery in some of the most challenging, front page cases in the U.S. Tom is the Director of the Gulf Coast Legal Technology Center in New Orleans, LA ]

If you were practicing in federal court before email, ECF filing, and in the days when Joe Montana threw to Jerry Rice then you probably remember discovery productions were typically hardcopy documents you picked up at the US Attorney’s Office. The volume was so small it easily fit into your briefcase. Those were the days when everyone complained about not getting enough discovery. The challenge was moving to compel for more discovery when you didn’t know what you didn’t have.