Today was the last class of the semester for the Electronic Discovery & Digital Evidence course I teach at the University of Texas School of Law.  It’s been a great semester thanks to a luminous group of students who patiently endured fourteen three-hour classes and shined in six practical exercises on data mapping, encoding, legal hold, metadata and hash analysis, meet-and-confer and search and review.  But, there is nothing I could have done to make our final class more remarkable and memorable than the  excitement and joy of having today’s distinguished guest speaker, Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm, confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the nation’s newest Article III District Judge at the very moment he was concluding his videoconference with my class.

Congratulations, Judge Grimm!  No one more richly deserves this rare distinction, and everyone in the class will long remember that they were privileged to be part of the moment.  Thank you.

That Judge Grimm took the time during the Senate roll call vote to keep his promise to teach the class is so characteristic of the man’s honor, generousity and longstanding commitment to legal education, especially with respect to electronic discovery and digital evidence.  It felt like President Obama was teaching my Constututional Law class on election night.  Thanks again, Your Honor, and congratulations!  May you enjoy a long and healthy life to go with your new lifetime appointment.

Photo credit: Chris Dale