In a review of Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts (3d ed. 2012), U.S. Magistrate Judge Randolph F. Treece writes about a chapter that Blawgletter co-authored:
Two chapters I hope readers would not overlook are "Techniques for Expediting and Streamlining Litigation" and "Litigation Technology". The former chapter is replete with commonsensical practical approaches to litigation.
Reflecting upon the complex litigation that has come before me, I have observed litigators twist themselves into knots with superfluous litigation machinations and strategies, and extravagant, unnecessary and, of course, expensive litigation approaches. These litigators and litigants forget or ignore the cardinal aspiration of litigation within the federal system: litigants should ―secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action and proceeding. With well-considered, clear, concise, and cogent advice, these authors drive this very point home.59 Constrained by space and time, I cannot mine for you all of the abundant and invaluable nuggets of experience set forth in this chapter, but here is one to consider. Something that I constantly urge battling litigators when hearing obstreperous disagreements over sweeping discovery demands is succinctly and aphoristically stated by these two authors: when ―reduc[ing] expense without sacrificing . . . success, less discovery is better than more because excess discovery is often counterproductive, primarily because most complex cases generally involve only several hundred documents rather than thousands or millions. But, when it comes to disclosing documents, caution urges more production than parsimoniousness and recalcitrance.61 On another note, it is grueling for federal judges to convince parties to eschew deposing the world of witnesses on every detail or minutiae. Our authors plainly tell us that ―[y]ou don’t need to look under every stone. You just need to know where the boulders are. Or, that there is ―no such thing as a bad witness—only one who has been ill-prepared. What advice could be more simply stated, yet be incredibly indispensable, than this? This chapter should be a required text for any law school’s practical skills courses, because, right now, our law graduates, as many law firms exclaim, are devoid of such litigation insights and thus unprepared for the world of litigation.
Randolph F. Treece, "Book Review: Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, Third Edition", 76 Alb. L. Rev. 253, 259-60 (2013) (without footnotes).