Colson Hicks Eidson Partners Serve as Panelists at the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists 2012 Conference

Colson Hicks Eidson Partners Serve as Panelists at the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists 2012 Conference

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (April 23, 2012) Attorneys Ervin A. Gonzalez and Patrick S. Montoya, partners at the Coral Gables-based law firm Colson Hicks Eidson, recently spoke at the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists 2012 Conferenceheld Monday,  April 2 – Wednesday, April 4 in Hollywood, Florida.

Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists conferences are CLE-accredited and provide attendees with the opportunity to interact with and hear from in-house and trial counsel experts as they share best practices and techniques to effectively deal with major challenges in e-discovery – in the private and public sectors.

Gonzalez, a board certified specialist in Civil Trial Law and Business Litigation by the Florida Bar and the National Board of Trial Advocacy, discussed the topics of “Succeeding in catastrophic cases like BP Oil, Penn State and Siemens – Preserving evidence and executing winning strategies on offense and defense” as well as “International e-discovery — Getting data in countries with tough data protection and privacy laws, but little or no discovery.”

Montoya, a trial lawyer with more than 10 years of experience, discussed the topics of “You can’t spell Sunshine without ‘ESI’: What you should expect under the new Florida e-discovery state rules” as well as “Paying your opponent’s e-discovery bills – Facing and navigating the risks of the US ‘Taxation of Costs’ laws.”

Gonzalez is one the nation’s premier trial attorneys and has obtained 27 verdicts in excess of a million dollars throughout his career.  He has also settled numerous multi-million dollar cases, including a $100 million class action settlement. He currently serves on two national plaintiff steering committees, including the PSC for the multi-district litigation surrounding the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill and the PSC for the Chinese Drywall multi-district litigation. He specializes in products liability, class actions, business litigation, medical malpractice and personal injury.

Past president of the Dade County Bar Association and Dade County Trial Lawyers Association, and past member of the Florida Bar Board of Governors, Gonzalez has written many articles on various aspects of litigation, including e-discovery. He teaches litigation and trial skills as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law.

Montoya focuses his practice on general personal injury litigation, commercial litigation, products liability, class action, wrongful death and aviation law.  He has multiple multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements to his credit. He lectures nationally to attorneys and paralegals on a variety of legal issues and is a former adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law in the Legal Research and Writing program.  He is a former president of the Miami Chapter of the American Inns of Court and a member of the Review Board for the Institute of Paralegal Education.

Montoya is a member of the American Association for Justice and Dade County and American Bar Associations and previously served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida’s Ad Hoc Committee on Rules and Procedures and the Executive Committee for the National Conference of Community and Justice (NCCJ), Greater Miami Region. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Davidson College and his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law.