30(b)(6) Depositions: Practical and Legal Considerations from All Angles (Presented by the Federal Bar Association’s Corporate and Association Counsel Division and Judiciary Division)

A Rule 30(b)(6) deposition does not test a witness—it binds the organization itself, which means a single notice can lock a company into positions it must defend through trial. Recent federal case law has sharpened the fights over notice scope, the selection of the corporate designee, and the grounds for quashing or narrowing an overbroad demand, and courts now diverge enough that yesterday’s assumptions no longer hold. Litigators on both sides—those serving notices and those defending corporations—are already exposed every time they treat the device as routine discovery rather than a strategic inflection point. Two federal magistrate judges, outside counsel,…