NEW YORK — U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola of the District of Columbia, one of the bench’s most knowledgeable experts on the evolving topic of electronic data discovery (EDD), will discuss the critical concepts of competence and cooperation in the EDD process in a keynote address at Incisive Media's upcoming LegalTech New York conference.

LegalTech New York 2009, the world’s largest legal technology conference and trade show, will be Feb. 2 to 4 at the Hilton Hotel in New York City. Complete conference information is available at www.legaltechshow.com.

The keynote will take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 4, in the Grand Ballroom. This session is open to all attendees and has been approved for one hour of CLE/CPD credit.

Facciola will review the history of the latest amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. While intended to expand cooperation among parties, the rule changes can yield the opposite result: a widening gulf between parties who understand EDD and those who do not.

Facciola was appointed a U.S. magistrate judge in 1997. He received an A.B. from the College of the Holy Cross and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. After law school, he served as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan from 1969 to 1973 and was in private practice in the District of Columbia from 1974 to 1982. He joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in 1982 and served as chief of the Special Proceedings Section from 1989 until his appointment as magistrate judge. He is an adjunct professor of law at Catholic University, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the Board of Governors of the John Carroll Society.