Patrick Oot > Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP > Washington DC, United States > Lawyer Profile

Patrick Oot

202.783.8400 oot@shb.com View profile

Work Department

Data and Discovery Strategies

Position

Partner and Co-Chair, Data & Discovery Strategies Practice Group

Career

Patrick is a diverse, Chambers-ranked Band 1 litigator and globally recognized practice leader in pre-trial litigation and government investigations. He is ranked by Who’s Who Legal as a global “Thought Leader” and is at the top of the very short list of practitioners who clients seek to lead coordinated efforts in high-stakes MDL, class action, mass-tort, product liability and deceptive practices litigation supported by his  roles in six of the nation’s largest MDLs. Patrick co-chairs the firm’s Data and Discovery Strategies Practice, ranked a Tier 1 practice by Legal 500.

Patrick represents and advises six of the world’s largest life sciences companies, three of the world’s largest financial services organizations, one of the world’s top-three retailers and one of the world’s largest airlines on litigation and investigative matters.

Patrick is co-lead coordinating counsel for Unilever in MDL No. 3068 IN RE: Unilever Aerosol Products Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability and aerosol spray cases nationally, representing the company against plaintiffs’ reliance on false and misleading testing claims made by Valisure. Patrick serves on the Defense Steering Committee in the In Re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation MDL for GlaxoSmithKline. He is also presently a member of the national leadership team representing Gilead in the TDF Products Liability Litigation and as national coordinating counsel in the nationwide opioid litigation for IQVIA. He has also served as national coordinating discovery counsel in complex litigation, including for Sanofi in the Taxotere MDL and for Bayer in the Essure Products Liability Litigation. In his privacy practice, Patrick has successfully litigated, argued and shut down a class action involving the Stored Communications Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, California Invasion of Privacy Act and Right to Financial Privacy Act.

He has led investigative responses to demands by Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) grand jury subpoenas and state attorneys general. Patrick’s court appearances are balanced by his work advising clients on information governance, data privacy and discovery practices to avoid litigation on technology issues altogether. Editor-in-chief of The Electronic Discovery Institute’s Guide to Spoliation Law (5th ed.), Patrick has both successfully defended against spoliation claims and has efficaciously obtained adverse inferences to benefit his clients.

Patrick’s courtroom credibility is built upon his experience as senior counsel in the SEC’s Office of the General Counsel and work as director of electronic discovery and senior litigation counsel at Verizon. He has testified on behalf of both organizations in federal litigation and has testified and commented to the federal Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and Committee on Evidence Rules advocating Federal Rules of Evidence changes, including testimony in which he presented his position on proposed Federal Rule of Evidence 502. The committee included language incorporating his suggestions in its draft to the Judicial Conference.

Patrick’s legal work and testimony is supported by his commitment to educating the bench and bar by volunteering at The Electronic Discovery Institute (EDI), and his educational work for the Government Investigations and Civil Litigation Institute (GICLI). Patrick is a co-founder of both organizations. Along with a diverse group of practitioners and members of the federal judiciary, he also works on planning committees and as faculty for the Federal Judicial Center’s annual electronic discovery training program. He is executive editor of The Federal Judges’ Guide to Discovery (3rd ed.) and editor-in-chief of The General Counsel’s Guide to Government Investigations (3rd ed.). In 2007, Patrick appeared with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at Georgetown University Law Center’s H5 Summit on Electronic Discovery. He is also a long-time advisory board chair and regular keynote for ALM’s Legaltech News and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

During his tenure at SEC, Patrick co-chaired the agency’s cross-divisional Electronic Discovery Action Team and co-authored The SEC Electronic Discovery and Litigation Response Manual. He counseled SEC senior leadership and agency staff on best practices and guidance for discovery and litigation strategy and privilege protections, and on strategically significant matters involving forensics, technology and Electronic Communications Privacy Act interpretation for subpoena enforcement. Patrick appeared twice as SEC’s 30(b)(6) deponent to defend the agency’s discovery practices, with favorable outcomes to the agency. He designed and implemented SEC’s preservation process as well as a federal government-wide educational program that included the participation of federal judiciary.

Before serving at SEC, Patrick was an experienced in-house counsel leading Verizon’s electronic discovery practice. Patrick was one of the nation’s first in-house attorneys charged to create and deploy defensible policies, guidelines and procedures for litigation response. While at Verizon, Patrick testified as the company’s Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) witness, defending the same policies and guidelines that he helped design and implement. In 2006, he was nominated for the Verizon Excellence Award after playing a key role in the successful completion of Verizon’s response to the DOJ’s Second Request for documents in its acquisition of MCI. As a result of his work, Inside Counsel magazine named Verizon’s eDiscovery Team as one of the ten most innovative legal groups of 2007, the group’s second year winning the title.

Outside of his regular practice, Patrick lectures regularly at educational events and legal conferences internationally. He has appeared on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and has been interviewed by The Economist.

Memberships

• American Bar Association Technology for the Litigator Committee (2010-Present)
• International Legal Technology Association (2005-Present)
• Martindale-Hubbell, Counsel-to-Counsel Program, Chair (2007-2009)
• The Sedona Conference Institute CLE Program, Founding Faculty Member (2006-2012)
  • Working Group 1, Faculty and Member (2005-Present)
  • Working Group 6 (2006-Present)
• American Lawyer Media Legaltech, Educational Advisory Board, Chair (2007-Present)
• Electronic Discovery Institute, Co-Founder (2006-Present); Certificate Program, Editor-in-Chief (2012-Present)
• Georgetown Law Advanced e-Discovery Institute, Board Member (2006-Present)
• Georgetown Law e-Discovery for the Government Practitioner, Board Member (2013-Present)
• Georgetown Law e-Discovery Training Academy Mentor (2013-Present)
• Guidance Software Strategic Advisory Board, Board Member (2008-Present)
• Inside Counsel Superconference, Board Member (2007-2013)
• Kroll Ontrack, Strategic Advisory Board, Board Member (2009)
• Law Technology News, Editorial Advisor Board (2006-Present)
• Microsoft Electronic Discovery and Compliance Counsel (2010-Present)
• The Georgetown Law CLE: Advance Corporate E-Discovery Institute, Program Chair (2008)

Education

• LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center, 2005 (Taxation)
• J.D., Syracuse University, 2001
• B.A., Syracuse University, 1996

Personal

• “He [Patrick] is very intuitive and understands what the issues might be, and he frames the advice so that it can go to the C-suite easily. He is well connected with the plaintiffs and defendants, which is a great asset, and he is aware and conscious of cost.” – Chambers USA
• Former Senior Special Counsel at U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Former Director and Senior Litigation Counsel at Verizon
• Editor-in-Chief, The General Counsel’s Guide to Government Investigations (4th Edition) 
• Editor-in-Chief, The Electronic Discovery Institute’s Guide to Spoliation (5th Edition) 
• Chair of ALM’s Legalweek Advisory Board and Law Technology News Innovator