I hold the position of Professor of the Practice in the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies, in College Park, focusing on the intersection of law, archives, and information retrieval. My current research interests include practical applications of AI, including providing enhanced public access to government records through the Freedom of Information Act. See Baron, et al., 2022; Baron et al. 2023; Branting et al., 2023.
Immediately prior to this appointment, I served as Of Counsel at Faegre Drinker LLP, in the firm’s Information Governance and eDiscovery practice group. I previously spent 33 years in public service, including serving for 13 years as the first appointed Director of Litigation at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, and before that as a trial attorney and senior counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. I also have served on the adjunct faculty of American University’s Washington College of Law, and as an adjunct faculty member in the University of Maryland’s iSchool, where I taught the first graduate level seminar on e-discovery in the U.S. to PhD and Masters degree candidates in information science.
As part of The Sedona Conference, I have served as Co-Chair of the Working Group on Electronic Document Retention and Production (WG1), and as an Editor-in-Chief of The Sedona Conference Best Practices Commentary on the Use of Search and Information Retrieval Practices in E-Discovery (2007 & 2013 eds.), and The Sedona Conference Commentary on Achieving Quality in the E-Discovery Process (2009 & 2013 eds.). I was a founding coordinator of the TREC Legal Track, an international research project evaluating search and retrieval methods used in e-discovery sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and served as coordinator of the Track between 2006 and 2009. I also co-founded the international “DESI Workshop” series, a unique forum for academics and lawyers to discuss issues of mutual interest involving e-discovery, information retrieval, and artificial intelligence. I have also served as Chair of the D.C. Bar Litigation Section’s E-discovery & Information Governance Committee and on the Board of Directors of ARMA International. Among my publications, I served as lead editor of the book titled: Perspectives on Predictive Coding And Other Advanced Search Methods for the Legal Practitioner, published by the American Bar Association in 2016.
I frequently write and speak in the U.S. and internationally on subjects involving preservation of and access to electronic records. In connection with various recordkeeping controversies, I have appeared on CNN special coverage programs with Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper, CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight, New Day, and Smerconish, MSNBC’s The Last Word with Laurence O’Donnell, NBC News, Good Morning America, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and have been quoted in media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, and numerous others.
My complete CV is available here.
I also have set up a nonprofit foundation to provide international educational assistance to children, including in Cambodia and India. See http://www.thechellyfoundation.org and http://www.facebook.com/thechellyfoundation for more information.
My current email address: jrbaron@umd.edu
Jason R. Baron 