Jason M. Shinn is a senior associate with Lipson, Neilson, Cole, Seltzer & Garin, P.C., a full-service business law firm dedicated to counseling local, national, and international business organizations in everyday and extraordinary business matters and, if necessary, to protect the organization’s legal interests in state, federal, and regulatory proceedings. Mr. Shinn is licensed to practice law in Michigan and is also admitted to the Federal District Courts for the Eastern and Western District of Michigan, Northern District of Ohio, and the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan.

Mr. Shinn’s practice includes working with Business Leaders and their organizations to address:

• Trade secret protection, noncompete law, and other non-patent intellectual property issues;
• Employment issues arising under state, federal, and agency investigations;
• Cyberlaw and e-commerce issues;
• Drafting non-compete/restrictive covenants, record retention policies, employee manuals, and technology policies;
• Defending and pursuing claims under the Federal Computer Fraud & Abuse Act;
• Compliance with data breach notification laws concerning employee and consumer confidential information;
• Contract drafting, review, and negotiation, especially in the areas of technology transactions and outsourcing; and
• Issues concerning preference claims arising under bankruptcy law.

Mr. Shinn is an experienced trial attorney available to litigate these issues and other business torts, if necessary. Litigation, however, increasingly takes place against the backdrop of technology. And all lawyers, especially lawyers working with business organizations, need to be aware of how technology can impact their clients and to advise them to use, or in some cases not use, certain technologies to best protect their business objectives.

Accordingly, Mr. Shinn leverages his extensive technology and e-discovery experience gained working with local and national companies and their IT personnel to prevent technology and e-discovery issues from becoming a means to leverage a quick settlement, working with management to avoid claims of discovery misconduct that often become a distraction from the merits (or lack thereof) of actual litigation, and to avoid or minimize the interruption of a company’s overall business operations due to overreaching litigation, and arguing against demands for direct access to corporate databases. Mr. Shinn has also successfully addressed arguments unique to technology and ESI issues, including cost-shifting and limiting the universe of discoverable ESI to the “reasonably accessible.”

Additionally, Mr. Shinn has consulted with law firms and inside counsel on establishing e-discovery “best practices.”This experience in the “litigation trenches” has allowed Mr. Shinn to lecture and write extensively on the subject of e-discovery and litigating technology issues.

Published Works and Presentations

• The Impact of the Electronic Revolution on Employment Liability Claims, Continuing Education Presentation to various insurance claim professionals, 2008

• Adding to the Playbook: Protecting Against Misappropriation of Competitive Advantages, Article appearing in Michigan Manufacturing Insight, 2008

• The Corporate Playbook: Responding to E-discovery Challenges, Presentation to in-house counsel and C-Level management of various companies, 2008

• Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e)’s Safe Harbor: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Firm and Your Clients, Podcast for Legal Technology Radio, 2008

• Breaking from the Digital Flock: Responding to Litigation Involving Electronically Stored Information, Article appearing in Mich Bus Law Journal, 2007

• Taming Pandora’s Electronic Box? Piecing together the Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, In-house Presentation for Lipson, Neilson, Cole, Seltzer & Garin, P.C., 2006

• Employees Beware: The CFAA Provides Employers with a Cause of Action Against Employees Who Destroy Company Digital Data, Article in Labor & Employment Law Notes, 2006

• Conducting Electronic Discovery in Employment Litigation, Lucas County Bar Association Presentation, 2003

• Pandora’s Electronic Box: Electronic Discovery in Litigation, Ohio Judicial Conference, 2003

Feel free to contact Jason Shinn for more information about his practice, the content on this Blog, and his availability to present to your organization on these subjects at 248-593-5000 or jshinn@lipsonneilson.com.

Jason Shinn in Yosemite National Park