Introduction: The Need for Privilege Reform

Of all of the tasks involved in complex litigation, few if any consume more time and money, while doing less to advance resolution of disputes, than the preparation of privilege logs. There is a wide consensus among members of the bar and the bench that privilege log reform is needed. As Judge John Facciola noted in Chevron v. Weinberg Group, 286 F.R.D. 95, 98-99 (D.D.C. 2012), in this era of big data and generic privilege log descriptions, the modern privilege log has become “as expensive as it is useless.”