
W. Russell Taber III
Phone: (615) 320-3700 ext. 152 - rtaber@rjfirm.com
Russell Taber primarily practices in the area of trial and appellate civil litigation on behalf of individual and corporate clients with a focus on resolution of business disputes. His clients’ cases have involved breach of contract, business torts and unfair competition, information privacy and data theft, healthcare, intellectual property and entertainment, shareholder disputes and business separations, commercial and residential real estate, and other subjects. He counsels and advises in-house legal departments on eDiscovery and other issues.
Two law schools have used his book Electronic Discovery in Tennessee: Rules, Case Law and Distinctions as a textbook. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee largely adopted as Administrative Order No. 174-1 proposed revisions to the Court's Default Standard on eDiscovery prepared by a drafting committee he chaired.
Russell has taught Cyber Law at the Belmont University College of Law and eDiscovery at the Nashville School of Law. He also holds a CIPP-US certification, a non-legal certification provided by the IAPP for information privacy professionals.
Russell is a member of the Local Rules Committee for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. He has co-chaired the Nashville Bar Association Federal Court Committee, is a Fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation, and has been a member of a Federal Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel and of the Tennessee Bar Association Leadership Law program. Earlier in his career, the Nashville Business Journal recognized Russell as one of Nashville’s Top 40 Under 40. He is AV Preeminent® rated by Martindale-Hubbell.
Prior to joining Riley & Jacobson, Russell served as a law clerk for the Honorable Gilbert S. Merritt Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. At Vanderbilt Law School, Russell was a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review, the Order of the Coif, and the Moot Court Board. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Georgetown University with a B. A. degree.
News, Publications and Speaking Engagements:
- Co-Presenter – Artificial Intelligence & the Law: Specific Uses, presentation for a regional law firm (July 18, 2024).
- Panelist - Healthcare Matters | eDiscovery Learning Series (Jan. 31, 2023).
- Co-Presenter - A Practical Conversation about E-Discovery: Considerations and Strategies for Your Next Case, Memphis Mid-South Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (Sept. 10, 2021).
- News Article - TBA Selects Attorneys for Leadership Law Class, Knoxville Daily Sun (Dec. 21, 2019).
- Interview - 40 Under 40: Russell Taber, Riley Warnock & Jacobson PLC, Nashville Business Journal (Jan. 23, 2019).
- Author - eDiscovery 2.0: Nashville Federal Court Upgrades ESI Rules, Nashville Bar Journal Online Article of the Month (Jan. 2019).
- Presenter - ESI, 2018 Trial Skills Conference for Tennessee Practitioners (Dec. 14, 2018).
- Co-Presenter - Update on e-Discovery Law and Technology, Tennessee Bar Association (Apr. 5, 2018).
- Presenter - Cyber-Theft and Data Breaches: What to Do When Your Tennessee Client is Hacked, Tennessee Attorneys Memo Webinar (Dec. 14, 2017).
- Author - You've Been Hacked: Tennessee Law Updates Your Obligations After a Data Breach, 53 Tenn. B. J. 11 (Nov. 2017) (Cover Story).
Education
Vanderbilt Law School, J.D. 2005
Georgetown University, B.A. 2001
Bar Admissions
Tennessee, 2005
Memberships
American Bar Association
Tennessee Bar Association
Nashville Bar Association
IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) - CIPP/US