Congratulations to Phil Favro on the Opening Favro Law PLLC

It was great to hear that my friend, Phil Favro, recently opened his own law firm—Favro Law PLLC—where he offers a wide array of services, including as a Special Master, counselor on ESI and discovery issues, as well as mediation and expert witness services.

Phil combines all of the attributes of someone you’d like to work with.  He is smart and “knows his stuff.”  And, he is also a pleasure to work with.

While I blogged about some of his work as a court-appointed Special Master, author, and ESI expert advisor, I can’t say it better than the Hon. Jeffrey Cole:

“I have determined that the Special Master in this case should be Philip Favro, who, as expressed in my contemporaneous Order in this case is, in my opinion, as knowledgeable about issues like those involved in the present case as anyone in the country.”

Deal Genius, LLC v. O2COOL, LLC, 2022 WL 17418892, at *1 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 23, 2022).

Phil’s analysis is published at Deal Genius, LLC v. O2COOL, LLC, 682 F. Supp. 3d 727, 732, passim (N.D. Ill. 2023). His description of validation and elusion testing, for example, is both clear and concise.  Id. at 734-35.[1]

In addition, as a Special Master, Phil has issued directives regarding the adequacy of search efforts using Microsoft 365 Purview eDiscovery and he published “Microsoft Purview eDiscovery: Key Features and Limitations.”

Phil’s report as a Special Master in Shumway v. Wright, 2019 WL 8137128, at *1 (D. Utah Nov. 25, 2019),[2]  was adopted by the Court in  2020 WL 1042211 (D. Utah Jan. 8, 2020).  There, his task was to “locate and isolate all misappropriated trade secret information” found on defendants’ devices, email, and cloud accounts, and paper records, that were seized pursuant to the Seizure Order.   One of his later reports was accepted by the Court in its entirety.  Shumway v. Wright, 2020 WL 3037207, at *1 (D. Utah June 5, 2020).

Phil was a court-appointed Special Master in Rayome v. ABT Elecs. Inc., 2024 WL 4296755, at *1 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 24, 2024).  There, the Court ordered the parties to confer and wrote:

“The Parties are hereby ordered to include Mr. Favro in this process in order to better ensure the just, speedy, and inexpensive disposition of these disputes.”

In Moore v. Westgate Resorts, 2020 WL 113352, at *12 (E.D. Tenn. Jan. 9, 2020), the Court wrote that:

“Plaintiffs also filed the declaration of Philip Favro [Doc. 78-1], a consultant for an international electronic discovery firm, regarding the background of electronic discovery and why ESI protocols are a common practice and reduce the expense and burden of discovery in proposed class action matters. Mr. Favro’s declaration also details how a properly negotiated and developed ESI protocol can decrease the concerns set forth by Defendants….”

I have also mentioned Phil’s work as an expert witness, particularly his testimony in In re Uber Techs., Inc.  ESI Protocol Dispute – “Modern Attachments” and the “Humpty Dumpty Issue”  (Apr. 29, 2024).

In addition to his contributions as a Special Master and expert witness, courts have cited Phil’s writings. Groves Inc. v. R.C. Bremer Mktg. Assocs., 2024 WL 4871368, at *3 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 22, 2024);  DR Distributors, LLC v. 21 Century Smoking, Inc., 616 F. Supp. 3d 769, 787 (N.D. Ill. 2022);  Winfield v. City of New York,  2017 WL 5664852, at *10 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 27, 2017); Rio Tinto PLC v. Vale S.A., 306 F.R.D. 125, 128 (S.D.N.Y. 2015); U.S. ex rel. Carter v. Bridgepoint Educ., Inc., 305 F.R.D. 225, 238 n. 23 (S.D. Cal. 2015); Quintana v. Claire’s Boutiques, Inc., at *2 n 13 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 21, 2014).

I won’t try to summarize everything Phil has published or co-authored. A few of many examples are: “A New Frontier in Ediscovery Ethics: Self-destructing messaging applications,” published in the 2018 Utah Bar Journal;  “Protecting Privilege Claims in Discovery,” in same publication; “Changing the Culture of Discovery,” published in the American Journal of Trial Advocacy; “The New ESI Sanctions Framework Under the Proposed Rule 37(E) Amendments” and “Getting Serious: Why Companies Must Adopt Information Governance Measures to Prepare for the Upcoming Changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,” published in the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology; “Navigating the Discovery Chess Match Through Effective Case Management,” published in the Akron Law Review; and. many others.  Reuters Practical Law Journal published his “Solving the Privilege Conundrum.”

While practicing at Favro Law, Phil will continue volunteering his services for The Sedona Conference. Phil’s Sedona Conference biography is at The Sedona Conference®.

Phil co-authors Sedona’s semiannual case law summaries with Jason Moore of Winston & Strawn LLP.  The latest iteration has the usual excellent content addressing a wide variety of key cases on ESI and discovery issues. Here is a link to the 2025 Sedona Conference publication.

The  2023 publication was described in Sedona Conference’s 2023 Case Law Bibliography by Phil Favro (Dec. 6, 2023), and prior ones at Book Review:  Phil Favro’s “Selected eDiscovery and ESI Case Law from 2022-23″ (May 18, 2023), and Sedona Conference “Selected eDiscovery and ESI Case Law from 2021-22” (Apr. 21, 2022).

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[1] Phil’s updated report is at 2023 WL 3445759 (N.D.Ill. May 8, 2023)(addressing additional disputes).

[2] Phil also authored a report, Shumway v. Wright, 2019 WL 8135701 (D. Utah Oct. 9, 2019), setting an evidentiary hearing.