Ruth Hauswirth

Ruth is special counsel and head of Cooley’s litigation and eDiscovery services and information retention counseling practice, which strategically leverages legal technology and data analytics to handle electronically stored information in complex litigation matters – from evidence preservation, collection, review and production through trial. Ruth also advises clients on enterprise information retention, disposition and governance, including functional policy development, implementation, and compliance in numerous regulatory and jurisdictional areas.

Ruth advises businesses on creating effective litigation readiness and legal hold response programs, as well as proactive information management practices focused on vendor management, bring your own device (BYOD), social media and other policies. Ruth also serves on Cooley’s risk management committee, and she is involved in the creation and implementation of risk management policies and compliance programs for the firm.

Ruth currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, where she teaches eDiscovery law and practice. In 2018, she also taught law and technology at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Ruth is a member of the San Diego ESI Forum Steering Committee and The Sedona Conference Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production. Ruth is a trained mindfulness facilitator through UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

Ruth was included on Relativity’s 2023 AI Visionaries list, which recognizes early adopters in legal, compliance and risk who play a key role in advancing the use of artificial intelligence tools in their organizations. From 1999 to 2000, Ruth served as assistant dean for law and technology at the Santa Clara University School of Law. During her tenure, she developed and managed the law school’s nationally recognized High Tech Law Program and intellectual property curriculum. Ruth also served as an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Ruth speaks frequently at local and national conferences and publishes on various legal topics, including:

• Moderator, “Surfing the Wave of AI: A Look at the Current and Future State of AI in Litigation/eDiscovery Practice,” The Masters Conference San Diego, January 2024
• Panelist, “Legal Project Management: Navigating Trends and Overcoming Challenges in the Legal Landscape,” Legalweek New York, January 2024
• Presenter, “2023 eDiscovery Case Law Update,” San Diego ESI Forum, December 2023
• Presenter, “Guardians of Data: Ethics and Governance for Legal Professionals in an AI-Driven World,” Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) webinar, December 2023
• Panelist, “AI Beyond eDiscovery,” Women in eDiscovery (WiE) SoCal Tech Conference, October 2023
• Presenter, “Managing Burnout in the eDiscovery Industry,” Relativity Fest Chicago, September 2023
• AI Visionary event anchor, 2023 Relativity AI Bootcamp: Powering the Future of Legal, June 2023
• Presenter, 2022 Relativity AI Bootcamp: Building Your Practice With AI, September 2022
• Presenter, “From Inner Critic to Inner Coach: Making an Ally of Our Self-Talk,” National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) IP and Technology Affinity Group webinar, April 2022
• Presenter, “Information Retention and eDiscovery: New Practices and Developments,” Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) event, September 2021
• Presenter, “Mental Health and Work/Life Balance: Tools and Techniques to Avoid Burnout,” International Legal Technology Association event, August 2021
• Presenter, “Defensible Preservation of Relevant ESI,” Driven Inc. webinar, June 2021
• Presenter, “Free-Range Mindfulness: Practice in Real Life,” Lawyers Club of San Diego, Life & Law Committee webinar, April 2021
• Presenter, “Key to Competence: Be Mindful of Your Well-Being,” California Lawyers Association webinar, October 2020
• Presenter, “Mindfulness Overview and Practice for Legal Professionals,” Ankura Consulting webinar, September 2020
• Presenter, “Wellness for Legal Teams,” Relativity Fest 2020 webinar, September 2020
• Presenter, “When Collaborating Apps Stop Cooperating,” WiE webinar, July 2020
• Presenter, “Skills for Resilience in Legal Practice,” NAWL Women in IP and Technology Law webinar, May 2020
• Presenter, “Overwhelmed? What Mindfulness Research Teaches Us About Benefits of Being Present,” ACC webinar, April 2020
• Presenter, “Preparing for the California Consumer Data Privacy Act and Discovery,” Techno-Security & Digital Forensics Conference San Diego, March 2020
• Presenter, “Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Legal Professionals,” Lawyers Club of San Diego Life & Law Committee, March 2020
• Presenter, “Mobile Data: Issues in Data Privacy and Data Protection,” Legalweek New York, February 2020
• Presenter, “GDPR and the Law of Data Privacy,” Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, July 2019
• Presenter, “Addressing Imposter Syndrome – A Presentation for Legal Professionals,” WiE event, Southern California chapters, July 2019
• Moderator, “Back to the Future: Emerging Tech in eDiscovery,” San Diego ESI Forum, May 2019
• Presenter, “Impermanence in eDiscovery: Effects of Ephemeral Messaging,” Techno-Security & Digital Forensics Conference San Diego, March 2019
• Presenter, “Impermanence in eDiscovery: Collection of Ephemeral Messaging, Social Media and Other Emerging Media and Applications as Evidence,” San Diego ESI Forum, June 2018
• Presenter, “Using Emerging Technology to Execute Forensic Collections From Slack, Jira, HipChat and Other Cutting-Edge Data Sources,” Legalweek New York, January 2018
• Panelist, “Teaching Through Technology,” Association of American Law Schools event, January 2018
• Presenter, “2017 Case Law Update,” Epiq Systems webinar, December 2017
• Presenter, “The New Scope of Discovery-Rule 26(b)(1) Proportionality – Sea Change or Minor Tweak?” Today’s General Counsel event, Los Angeles, December 2017
• Presenter, “The New Rule 37(e) – Preservation and Sanctions,” Today’s General Counsel event, San Francisco, October 2017
• Presenter, “Electronically Stored Information: How eDiscovery Is Really Working,” Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, February 2017

Articles, podcasts and blogs

• Guest, “Privacy, Data, and the World of Transformational Governance,” TransPerfect Legal Services’ “NEXT” podcast, February 2019
• Guest writer, “EU’s Sweeping Privacy Rules Impact on US Discovery,” eDiscovery Bits & Bytes Judicial Newsletter, fall 2018
• Interviewee, “FRCP: Playing by the New Rules,” Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, February 2017