Defense Counsel Journal

Editor's Page - Volume 92, Number 1

February 05, 2025

Peter J. Pizzi

Peter J. Pizzi

Peter J. Pizzi is a founding member of Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga LLP, a 33-lawyer majority women-owned firm with offices in Newark, New York City, and Philadelphia. Peter is a trial lawyer with decades of experience in commercial litigation, business valuation and close corporation disputes, the defense of class actions, and healthcare and information law. He holds the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Certified Civil Trial Lawyer designation and the CIPP/US certification. Currently the Defense Counsel Journal’s Editor-Elect, Peter has served in various leadership positions within the IADC and the New York State Bar Association, and regularly participates in CLE programs and writes on information privacy, data security, and eDiscovery topics. Awarded the Best Lawyer® recognition, Peter was the recipient of the IADC’s 2022 Yancey Award for excellence in the Defense Counsel Journal writing for his article “Social Media Immunity in 2021 and Beyond: Will Platforms Continue to Avoid Litigation Exposure Faced by Offline Counterparts.” He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Fordham Law School.

This Defense Counsel Journal issue arrives at the same time as the new U.S. administration descends upon Washington, D.C. In a relatively short time, the Trump administration has announced a head-spinning number and variety of abrupt policy changes and reversals. Political rhetoric aside, the Trump administration’s highly publicized pronouncements about DEI initiatives call upon law firms and their clients to carefully consider the 2023 SCOTUS decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023). Fortunately for our readers, the article in this issue from members of the IADC DEIB Committee delves into the Harvard decision in detail, providing sound guidance at this critical time. I am grateful to Ken Sharperson and Lucy Dollens, the authors, and to Melissa Lin for her leadership efforts in this sphere.

Equally timely to the present moment is James Fraser’s contribution addressing the demise of Chevron deference to U.S. federal regulation, focused on the FDA but with lessons for other administrative agencies.

An article by healthcare in-house counsel and DCJ Board of Editors member Maureen Mahoney and outside attorney Deana I. Davis explores how the “reptile theory” can be used by plaintiffs to exploit the often iterative process by which electronic evidence is gathered and produced in civil litigation, in an effort to elevate the process of eDiscovery vastly above the actual merits of the underlying claims.

Finally, this issue presents an international law primer on obtaining evidence in Canada for U.S. civil actions.

As you browse through this issue, please remember that the DCJ welcomes article submissions from IADC members and non-members alike, with the range of topics as broad as the legal imagination.

Best,    
Peter J. Pizzi, Editor and Chair of the Board of Editors of the IADC Defense Counsel Journal

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