Discovery at the Court of Federal Claims: Tips from the Judiciary and the Bar

The United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Federal Claims Bar Association are pleased to announce their next joint educational program:  “Discovery at the Court of Federal Claims: Tips from the Bar and the Judiciary.”  This brown bag program will take place on Friday, March 18, from 12:00pm – 1:15 pm.  The Honorable Judge Mary Ellen Coster Williams will be a featured panelist on our highly qualified panel.  She will be sharing some of her tips from the judiciary about how discovery should be conducted.  Senior Litigation Counsel Sarah Himmelhoch will focus on the challenges and pitfalls of E-discovery.  Debra S. Katz will be addressing how to deal with annoying and sometimes abusive discovery tactics.

Judge Mary Ellen Coster Williams has been on the United States Court of Federal Claims since 2003.   Prior to serving on the USCFC, Judge Williams served as an administrative judge for 14 years on the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals, where she resolved federal government contract cases.  Prior to her service as an administrative judge, Judge Williams was a partner in the law firm of Janis, Schuelke and Weschler, focusing on civil litigation, and she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice.

Sarah D. Himmelhoch is the Senior Litigation Counsel for E-Discovery for the Environment & Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She has been with that division in the Department of Justice since 1992, serving as a trial attorney, senior counsel, special counsel, and now as the senior litigation counsel.  Her practice has focused on complex civil environmental enforcement claims against industries pursuant to statutes such as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the Superfund statute.  Her caseload has included a prominent role in the multi-district litigation arising out of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, pursuant to which she has worked with over 15 federal agencies to preserve, collect, and (for some agencies) produce massive volumes of electronically stored information.

Debra S. Katz is a founding partner of Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP, an 18-lawyer plaintiff-side law firm based in Washington, DC.  For over 30 years she has been a high profile litigator of employment discrimination, whistleblower protection cases, Title IX, and other civil rights and civil liberties matters.  Among her honors was the selection by Best Lawyers as the “Best Civil Rights Lawyer” in Washington, DC in 2013, and by Lawdragon as one of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America.”  She is a frequent panelist and lecturer on discovery issues.

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