Corporate Governance

The Limestone Cops ? Tips on Madoff Red Flags Never Escalated at SEC

Posted on September 05, 2009
It’s hard to believe that with all the resources poured into government following the adoption of Sarbanes Oxley Act in 2002, the escalation process in the SEC failed in the Madoff case. New reports show that junior SEC staff neglected to involve more seasoned enforcement officers and failed to stop what ended up to [...

Whither Cloud Computing?

Posted on March 10, 2009
If you?ve heard of cloud computing and all the security issues that surround it, and if you?re wondering if you should trust the security of your sensitive and confidential data to a third party service provider, well, all I can say is that you?re like the old timer who hoards his wad of cash in [...

Protecting Privilege ? New Rule 502 mitigates the risk of inadvertent e-discovery disclosures

Posted on February 27, 2009

CVS Pays $2.25 Million and Toughens Practices to Settle HIPAA Privacy Case

Posted on February 19, 2009
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Trade Commission today announced that CVS, the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain, will pay the U.S. government a $2.25 million settlement and take corrective action to ensure it does not violate the privacy of its millions of patients when disposing of patient information such [...

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Feds Set Sights on ?Gatekeepers? in Fraud Investigations

Posted on February 19, 2009
Joe Palazzolo Legal Times Federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday they are targeting lawyers, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers and other “gatekeepers” who perpetrated fraud that contributed to the current economic crisis — a clear warning shot as the federal government is pumping billions of dollars into the financial sector...

Tough Times for Corporate Legal Departments

Posted on February 03, 2009
Lexakos asked law department leaders again about their concerns, priorities and resource allocation plans for 2009. This year’s benchmarking survey covers reporting metrics, outsource planning for IP and litigation, budget pressures, e-discovery, privilege waiver management in relation to new Federal Evidence Rule 502, and other compliance priorities...

New Data Breach, Privacy Bills in Congress

Posted on January 12, 2009
Richard Adhikari One year after trying unsuccessfully to introduce legislation on data breaches and protection of individual privacy, California Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is trying again. This week, she introduced Bills S.139, the Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act and S...

Kill the Billable Hour? A British Response

Posted on January 12, 2009
As much as the legal sector experiences a change in momentum, such a change seems to be occurring now. Last week, The Am Law Daily picked up on a piece penned by Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s Evan Chesler in the latest issue of Forbes magazine, entitled “Time to Kill the Billable Hour...

A Mark to Market Rule for Lawsuits?

Posted on January 11, 2009
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has proposed a new standard for public disclosure of pending lawsuits. This raises interesting legal technology and management questions for general counsels. Reporting Rights in the January 2009 issue of InsideCounsel reports on FASB Statements No...

E-Discovery Trends in 2009 ? New developments in e-discovery will affect enterprise general counsel and compliance officers, law firms serving corporate clients, and IT departments

Posted on January 10, 2009
By Christine Taylor, January 9, 2008, 12:10 PM A few years ago, the Taneja Group coined the term “Information Classification and Management” (ICM) to describe the technology of locating and classifying data throughout the enterprise. ICM covered sub-technology sectors such as e-discovery, compliance, data security control, and data management...

E-Discovery Requirements Are About to Hit Canadian Firms

Posted on January 09, 2009
As Canadian firms brace for new e-discovery rules, they can look to their U.S. counterparts for technology lessons. By Anne Rawland Gabriel Time is growing short for Canadian securities firms to prepare for the scheduled April enforcement of the new Canadian National Instrument 31-103 (NI 31-103), regulation that significantly expands record keeping requirements for electronic communications...

Judge OKs legal settlement for Mo. gov.?s e-mails

Posted on January 07, 2009
By DAVID A. LIEB The Associated Press A judge has approved a legal settlement that requires outgoing Gov. Matt Blunt to hand over thousands of e-mails to investigators, but leaves unresolved the question of whether Blunt’s office violated public records laws...

Performance Efficiency Comes to the Beltway ? Obama to create new government position called ?Chief Performance Officer?

Posted on January 07, 2009
In these tough economic times, government, like businesses, need to be more efficient and collaborate better in order to reduce deficits and improve performance.  Shareholders expect it, and so do the “American People.” President-elect Barack Obama today will announce his pick for “chief performance officer,” a newly created position that will work on the federal budget [...

Obama Administration Could Mean More Compliance Regs

Posted on January 07, 2009
January 5, 2009 By Drew Robb Just as accounting scandals earlier this decade led to new regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley, last year’s global financial meltdown coupled with Democratic control of the White House and Congress seems like a recipe for a host of new compliance regulations ? and thus more business for storage vendors [...

Litigation: Lawsuits are only thing ?up? on Wall Street in past year

Posted on January 07, 2009
From USA Today: The worst bear market since the 1930s has left investors wanting to see Wall Street pay.  Investors filed 210 federal securities class-action lawsuits in 2008, up 19% from 176 in 2007, according to Stanford Law School?s Securities Class Action Clearinghouse (SCAC) and Cornerstone Research...

Data breaches rose sharply in 2008, study says Most of the lost data was neither encrypted nor password-protected

Posted on January 07, 2009
By Jeremy Kirk January 7, 2009 (IDG News Service) More than 35 million data records were breached in 2008 in the U.S., a figure that underscores continuing difficulties in securing information, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC)...

Networkers Beware: Fake LinkedIn profiles promise prurient pics, send patsies malware instead

Posted on January 07, 2009
Expect more attacks to come from social networking services, says security expert By Gregg Keizer Hackers have seeded LinkedIn Corp.’s business networking service with bogus celebrity profiles that link to malicious sites serving up attack code, a security researcher said today...

Hard times spark falling-out of partners in leading law firms

Posted on January 06, 2009

Judge: In a Down Economy, Should SEC Bargain Law Firms Down?

Posted on January 06, 2009
Posted by Dan Slater When the SEC shops around for receivers in a down economy, how thrifty must it be? In August, before Dreier and Madoff became household names on Wall Street, there was Steven Byers and Joseph Shereshevsky, the owners of WexTrust who allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme targeting Orthodox Jews...

Reviewing Your Email and Internet Usage Policies

Posted on January 04, 2009
Written by Sue Walsh on January 2, 2009 As the year comes to a close it?s good time to review your Email and Internet usage policies and insure that they are clear and comprehensive. The folks over at SmartBiz have published some helpful tips to assist you...

Welcome to 2009: the year of the regulator

Posted on January 02, 2009
Michael Herman British businesses will have to navigate a ?regulatory minefield? in 2009 as global law enforcement agencies and regulators step up activity in response to the economic downturn, leading lawyers warn. Neil Gerrard, head of the regulatory and litigation practice at DLA Piper, said: ?I have no hesitation in calling the developing situation [...

Nine Web sites IT pros should master in 2009 ? Keeping up with the latest Internet innovations

Posted on January 01, 2009
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World Here’s a time-saver for IT executives swamped by last-minute budget cuts and end-of-the-year performance reviews: We’ve written your 2009 goals for you, with [...]

10 tips to preserve data for the long haul ? A better model for preserving data is needed and it requires worldwide collaboration, according to a task force on digital preservation and access

Posted on January 01, 2009
The growth of digital data is threatening to spiral out of control. More than 452 exabytes of information have been created and replicated this year — an amount higher than the world’s available storage capacity , according to IDC. Not all data should be preserved, but efforts to save important information are being [...

Popeye the Sailor copyright free 70 years after Elzie Segar?s death

Posted on December 31, 2008

Court Enforces Clawback Agreement, Denies Motion to Compel

Posted on December 31, 2008
Bro-Tech Corp. v. Thermax, Inc., 2008 WL 5210346 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 11, 2008) On the eve of trial in this case in which plaintiffs alleged trade secret theft, the court granted an extension ?on urgent party request? so that additional discovery could be accomplished...

Former GC: BigLaw Really Is Better

Posted on December 29, 2008
When Ron Friedmann recently derided general counsel for staying with time-worn practices in their hiring of outside counsel, even in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, he heard from one former GC who said that large companies will not be abandoning their BigLaw outside counsel anytime in the foreseeable future...

?Silo? Thinking Let Us Down ? Actions that made sense in isolation guaranteed a financial crisis when added together

Posted on December 29, 2008
By Stefan Szymanski Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” Business schools set out to prepare people to manage by telling them the truth about business, so [...

GCs Starting to Bring the Work Back Home

Posted on December 24, 2008
Leslie A. Gordon GC California Magazine December 18, 2008 Like many in-house lawyers, Shannon Dwyer, general counsel at St. Joseph Health System in the Southern California city of Orange, has been gearing up for the 2010 budgeting cycle. The $4 billion, nonprofit organization, which runs 14 hospitals in three states, has a “responsibility to be a good steward [...

Will Tough Economy Push Companies to Outsource Legal Work? Some companies see big savings in ?offshoring? legal work - But how?s the quality?

Posted on December 24, 2008
David Hechler Corporate Counsel December 22, 2008 Martin Shively directs the worldwide IP operations of Microsoft Corp. But he doesn’t commute to the company’s campus in Redmond, Wash., every day. The associate GC works in a remote office in New Delhi, where he’s been based for 18 months overseeing not call centers, but outsourced patent work...

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Bernard L. Madoff and Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (S.D.N.Y. Civ. 08 CV 10791 (LLS)) SEC Obtains Preliminary Injunction, Asset Freeze, and Other Relief Against Defendants

Posted on December 23, 2008
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission announced that on December 18, 2008, the Honorable Judge Louis L. Stanton, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, entered a preliminary injunction order, by consent, against Bernard L...

SEC Files Settled Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Charges Against Siemens AG for Engaging in Worldwide Bribery With Total Disgorgement and Criminal Fines of Over $1.6 Billion

Posted on December 23, 2008
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a settled enforcement action on December 12, 2008, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charging Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (”Siemens”), a Munich, Germany-based manufacturer of industrial and consumer products, with violations of the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [...

SEC Files Settled Books and Records and Internal Controls Charges Against Fiat S.p.A. and CNH Global N.V. For Improper Payments to Iraq Under the U.N. Oil for Food Program ? Fiat Agrees to Pay Over $10 Million in Disgorgement, Interest, and Penalties

Posted on December 23, 2008
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed Foreign Corrupt Practices Act books and records and internal controls charges against Fiat S.p.A. and CNH Global N.V. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Fiat S.p.A., an Italian company, provides automobiles, trucks and commercial vehicles...

SEC Files Settled Enforcement Actions Against UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Former General Counsel in Stock Options Backdating Case

Posted on December 23, 2008
Litigation Release No. 20836 / December 22, 2008 The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil injunctive action against UnitedHealth Group Inc., a Minnetonka, Minnesota health insurance company, alleging that it engaged in a scheme to backdate stock options...

Local Government Botches E-Discovery and Legal Hold ? County Underestimates Value of Its Own E-mail Records

Posted on December 22, 2008
Some public agencies don’t realize that in ligation their own good records can be their best defense. Commonly a defendant in a lawsuit is reluctant to search through its e-mails ? and incredulous that a court would force it to dig deep for them...

Desperate IT workers who have been laid off will go rogue in 2009, selling corporate data and using crimeware, reports have predicted

Posted on December 21, 2008
The credit crunch will drive some IT workers to use their skills to steal credit-card data using phishing attacks, and abuse their privileged corporate computer access to sell off valuable financial and intellectual information, forensic experts have warned...

When U.S. E-Discovery Meets EU Roadblocks

Posted on December 20, 2008
By Shannon Capone Kirk, Emily Cobb and Michael Robotti The National Law Journal December 22, 2008 One of the most challenging aspects of electronic discovery arises when U.S. litigation crosses borders into European Union countries with strong privacy laws...

25 Percent of Reported E-Discovery Opinions in 2008 Involved Sanctions Issues

Posted on December 18, 2008
Sheri Qualters The National Law Journal December 17, 2008 One-quarter of the reported electronic discovery opinions issued in the first 10 months of the year involved sanctions issues, according to a new Kroll Ontrack Inc. study. The Kroll Ontrack software division of risk consultant Kroll Inc...

Lack of policy adds to e-discovery cost and complexity ? Large percentage of companies lack legal holds

Posted on December 17, 2008
IT and legal teams must work together to establish e-discovery policies. In fact, one-third of companies lack formal policies and procedures for legal holds, according to a recent poll of attorneys and executives conducted by Deloitte. A legal hold is the process by which companies preserve evidence subject to discovery for lawsuits and other legal [...

Technology Predictions for 2009

Posted on December 16, 2008
By The CMS Watch Analyst Team 16-Dec-2008 It’s that time of year again. The CMS Watch analyst team ponders what to expect next year, and offers 12 predictions that we think will shape content technologies in 2009. Clearly, the economic downturn will have a substantial impact on buyers and vendors alike, and economic concerns underpin several of our [...

Law firm fees defy gravity

Posted on December 08, 2008
As the recession gathered, legal fees grew, and one firm broke the $1,200 per hour barrier. Leigh Jones / Associate editor December 8, 2008 Despite the rancid economy of 2008, attorney billing rates continued their escalation trend, with nearly 71% of law firms reporting an increase in the amount that they charged clients compared with 2007...

Judge Looks Past Inadvertent Disclosure Protection Rule

Posted on December 08, 2008
Shannon P. Duffy The Legal Intelligencer December 8, 2008 In one of the first decisions to interpret a new rule of evidence that governs “inadvertent disclosure” of privileged documents, a federal judge has held that if the “reasonableness” of the accidental disclosure remains in dispute, courts should continue to apply the traditional five-factor test to determine whether the [...

43% of Law Firm Leaders Surveyed Expect to Hire Fewer New Associates

Posted on December 05, 2008
Posted Dec 1, 2008, 06:13 am CST By Debra Cassens Weiss Only 38 percent of more than 100 leaders of large law firms who responded to a survey are optimistic about their firm?s prospects next year. Instead, a majority?53 percent?told the American Lawyer they were uncertain about the next year...

Things You Should Never Put in an E-mail

Posted on December 05, 2008
Posted Dec 3, 2008, 12:37 pm CST By Molly McDonough Over at the Wichita Eagle blog What the Judge Ate for Breakfast, there’s a caution about e-mail during office hours on office computers. Courts reporter Ron Sylvester quips, “My wife says you should never put anything in a company e-mail that you don?t want to be [...

Lexakos acquires IT staffing operation

Posted on December 03, 2008
Lexakos Consulting LLC, a company that focuses on legal compliance areas, announced Tuesday it acquired assets of The Wilson Group, an information technology staffing firm, including its recruiting team. Terms of the deal were not announced. The acquisition adds to Lexakos’ specialties, which include working with corporations and law firms to assist with records management, compliance [...

Lexakos Launches Second Annual Chief Legal Officer Strategic Planning Survey

Posted on December 03, 2008
Legal business consulting and IT staffing firm Lexakos is asking law department leaders again about plans for litigation support and records management compliance over the next year. Subjects covered include budget benchmarking, reporting metrics, outsource planning, litigation preparedness and privilege waiver management in relation to new Federal Evidence Rule 502 and other strategic priorities for [...

U.S. Federal Rule of Evidence 502

Posted on December 03, 2008
Ronald J. Hedges - December 2nd, 2008 The Federal Rules of Evidence have now been amended to include a new Rule 502 [PDF], which should represent a sea change in the law of waiver in the United States. Rule 502 is intended to introduce uniformity in the law of waiver of attorney-client privilege and work production [...

Rule 502 May Not Deliver Promised Cost Relief

Posted on December 03, 2008
By Thomas F. Munno and Benjamin R. Barnett New York Law Journal December 3, 2008 Federal Rule of Evidence 502, enacted on Sept. 19, 2008, has been heralded as a significant development which “will effectively limit the skyrocketing costs of discovery...

Lexakos Acquires Information Technology Staffing Group to Complement Growing Legal Business Consulting Practice

Posted on December 02, 2008
Corporations Focused on Mitigating Information Management Risk Have Struggled to Harmonize the Legal, Compliance, IT and Operational Components of Effective Compliance; Lexakos Consulting Stabilizes These Cross-Functional Challenges Through Specialized Technology Staffing Solutions on a Temporary and Permanent Basis NEW YORK, NY–(MARKET WIRE)–Dec 2, 2008 — Organizations seeking to reduce risk, contain [...

President Signs Bill for New Federal Evidence Rule 502

Posted on October 16, 2008
On 9/19/08, the president signed S 2450 (PL 110-322) to amend the Federal Rules of Evidence to address the waiver of the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine.       

FASB Delays Lawsuit Disclosures ? The board responds to companies? distaste for its proposed rule on contingent liabilities

Posted on October 16, 2008
Sarah Johnson - CFO.com The Financial Accounting Standards Board has changed the deadline for when companies would have been required to provide new disclosures about their contingent liabilities under a controversial proposal. Companies with a calendar fiscal year-end had been expected to comply with the rule in mid-December...

Remarks as Delivered by Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip at American Bar Association Securities Fraud Conference

Posted on October 16, 2008
Arlington, Virginia Thursday, October 2, 2008 - 12:30 P.M. EDT Good afternoon. It?s a pleasure to be here. I?m very grateful for the chance to speak about an issue that I know is of great importance to both this group and the Department of Justice: the role of attorney-client privilege in the investigation of corporations...

Justice Department Revises Charging Guidelines for Prosecuting Corporate Fraud

Posted on August 28, 2008
NEW YORK ? Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip announced today that the Department of Justice is revising its corporate charging guidelines for federal prosecutors throughout the country. The new guidance revises the Department?s Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations, which govern how all federal prosecutors investigate, charge, and prosecute corporate crimes...

H.R. 6610: To amend the Federal Rules of Evidence to address the waiver of the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine

Posted on July 29, 2008
Texas Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D) has introduced HR 6610, a bill that is in the first step in the legislative process toward having a new, codified law governing inadvertent disclosure and waiver of attorney-client and work product privileges...

Morning Bell: Time Running Out to Protect a Fundamental Civil Right

Posted on July 18, 2008
Posted July 17th, 2008 at 9.05am in Rule of Law. The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that ?in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy ? the assistance of counsel for his defense.? Fundamental to ensuring the constitutional right to an attorney is the attorney-client privilege...

Responding to Auditors Without Waiving Attorney Work-Product Protection A practical guide for counsel

Posted on July 14, 2008
Alan I. Raylesberg and Lawrence E. Buterman Special to Law.com In order to comply with various provisions of the federal securities laws, a public company must have its financial statements audited by an independent accounting firm. In connection with the preparation of an auditor’s opinion as to whether those financial statements have been prepared in accordance [...

AG Mukasey Hints at Revision of McNulty Memo, Spars With Senators at Hearing

Posted on July 10, 2008
Pedro Ruz Gutierrez Legal Times Wednesday morning’s oversight hearing of the Justice Department by the Senate Judiciary Committee got off to a contentious start between Attorney General Michael Mukasey and the committee’s top senators. And then Mukasey dropped the bombshell: The so-called McNulty memorandum may be revised and is likely to be replaced by a new set of [...

Backers Expect Attorney-Client Privilege Bill to Pass

Posted on June 25, 2008
  Zach Lowe The American Lawyer 06-25-2008   A bill that would protect attorney-client privilege during federal investigations of corporations gained another major supporter Tuesday when Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., added his name to the sponsors list.   The bill, which passed the House of Representatives on voice vote, now has the backing of a dozen high-profile senators, 32 former federal prosecutors [...

Subpoenas Seeking E-Mails Meet Resistance

Posted on June 18, 2008
By Tresa Baldas The National Law Journal Civil litigants are increasingly trying to get their hands on e-mails to prove their cases, but Internet service providers are starting to challenge their subpoenas — and courts are starting to rule in their favor...

E-Mail at Work: Tips to Keep You Out of Trouble

Posted on June 18, 2008
by Heidi Glenn Ever wonder whether your boss is looking over your shoulder as you write e-mails from work? You’re not being paranoid. Companies large and small have turned to monitoring employee e-mail, looking for everything from proprietary data leaks to cyberslacking...

The email age?

Posted on June 18, 2008
E-mail. It was supposed to make communication easier, maybe even make life more manageable. The benefits are obvious ? speed, global reach, mobility. But many people feel burdened rather than liberated. NPR looks at the e-mail assault and how to fight back...

A New Breed of Attorney Enters the Fray

Posted on June 15, 2008
By Irene Gamer New Jersey Law Journal June 13, 2008 In an article entitled “E-Discovery Attorneys: Hot or Not?” published at Law.com, a recruiter named Seth Davis contended that the recent technology boom has produced great demand on the part of corporations and law firms for a new kind of attorney — the e-discovery counsel...

Backdating probes lead to changes

Posted on June 12, 2008
Pamela A. MacLean / Staff reporter National Law Journal June 09, 2008 In the two years since the U.S. government indicted its first corporate executive in the stock-options backdating scandal, more than 130 companies have restated financial results ? producing nearly $14 billion in charges ? and dismissed nearly 100 executives...

Failure to take ?reasonable precautions? before producing privileged communications in email leads to loss of attorney-client privilege

Posted on June 10, 2008
A federal judge in Maryland has ruled that a company being sued for copyright infringement waived attorney-client privilege for 165 documents accidentally disclosed to opposing counsel during the e-discovery process. In a 43-page opinion issued in federal court in Baltimore, using language from the proposed new Rule 502 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the court held [...

Comply Or Die: Data Disposition Must Be A Priority

Posted on June 09, 2008
IT groups rethinking the “save everything forever” approach find deletion and retention policies and tools must be razor sharp to cut through a morass of regulations.   By Andrew Conry-Murray While the oil and gas refined by CVR Energy will someday run out, the company generates a seemingly inexhaustible supply of data: 3 to 5 TB of [...

Financial Firms Still Coming to Grips With E-Discovery

Posted on June 08, 2008
Despite the penalties for inadequate e-discovery capabilities, many firms still are challenged to establish effective programs. By Melanie Rodier  A year and a half after amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) ushered in critical new e-discovery obligations for parties to lawsuits in federal court, Wall Street firms still are scrambling to come to grips [...

Unified communications bring e-discovery headache

Posted on June 02, 2008
To its advocates, unified communications is considered the answer to a number of business communication issues. The integration of all communications, including voice and data, over the Internet is gaining wider adoption as organizations pursue it for cost savings, businesses process transformation, enhanced collaboration, and even ?green? benefits...

Proper Proposals

Posted on June 02, 2008
Last year Exelon Corp. launched a massive RFP process to contract its outside legal service providers for 2008 through 2011. Forty-four law firms received invitations to participate, and 42 submitted proposals. In the end, the utility company rewarded 35 firms with positions on its preferred providers list...

E-mail Archiving Demands Overwhelm Backup Alternative

Posted on May 19, 2008
By Kieron Dowling One look at the numbers makes it clear that e-mail archiving is still in its early stages. While most large enterprises have deployed first-generation solutions, the mid-market has yet to answer the call to e-mail archiving even though all organizations are subject to the same regulatory pressures and IT demands...

Lack of Understanding of E-Discovery and Regulatory Requirements Exposes Businesses to Legal and Compliance Risks

Posted on May 15, 2008
RESTON, Va.–Surety, LLC, the leading provider of data integrity solutions, today announced the results of the 2008 Email Security and Authentication Survey. The survey of more than 800 IT security, email security and compliance professionals revealed that 65 percent of respondents lack confidence that their organization’s email records would be admitted as authenticated evidence in [...

US Government Accountability Office Releases Report on Challenges in Implementing an Electronic Records Archive

Posted on May 15, 2008
On May 14, 2008, the GAO released a status report on the efforts to implement an Electronic Records Archive for the Federal Government.  The 21-page report chronicles the numerous challenges encountered in the massive project started back in 2001. Cost over-runs and delays in the project plan make clear that the public sector faces the same challenges as [...

Electronic Communications Preservation Act ? Government?s Attempt to Tame Electronically Stored Information

Posted on May 15, 2008
Finding “what you need when you need it” sounds simple enough, but the dramatic explosion of electronically stored information generated worldwide over the last few years has left individuals, business organizations, and even governments seriously challenged with knowledge management...

Rule 702 and the Reliability of Evidence Obtained through Concept and Other Automated Search Methodologies

Posted on May 14, 2008
After my longest stint of silence in the history of The Datakos Blawg, this important subject has awakened me from a protracted slumber. It’s good to be back! The link below will bring you to a very important article (well, the topic is important at least)...

GCs: In-House Life Overloaded With Meetings, Bureaucracy

Posted on February 21, 2008
Katheryn Hayes Tucker Fulton County Daily Report Establishing trust with businesspeople is a key to success for a general counsel, according to a panel of GCs who offered advice and tips in a program for the Association of Corporate Counsel Georgia chapter last week at the Cumberland Maggiano’s Little Italy...

Senate Judiciary Committee Passes Evidence Rule 502

Posted on February 14, 2008
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved S. 2450 without amendment.  The bill would amend the Federal Rules of Evidence to add new Evidence Rule 502. See Library of Congress.  The legislation addresses waiver of the attorney-client privilege and work product protection and is identical to proposed language approved by the Judicial Conference of the United States and submitted to Congress [...

Amid scandal, NY archivist calls for better record keeping

Posted on February 13, 2008
BY JOSEPH SPECTOR Albany Bureau ALBANY — The state’s archivist warned Tuesday that New York may be entering the “digital dark ages” if it doesn’t better account for electronic records being produced at the state Capitol. The strong message from Archivist Christine Ward came during a hearing by Senate Republicans on accusations that the Spitzer administration had deleted [...

New niche for e-discovery: special masters

Posted on February 12, 2008
CORREY E. STEPHENSON Dolan Media Newswires BOSTON ? The increased use of electronic discovery has resulted in a new set of practitioners: e-discovery special masters. A special master is an officer of the court appointed to help with its proceedings, and may perform functions such as taking testimony or advising the court as a neutral expert...

Datamaps Mitigate Risk under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Meet Evolving Attestation Requirements under Section 404 of Sarbanes Oxley Act

Posted on February 11, 2008
Employees perform,collaborate and execute tasks more efficiently when able to find the information they need when they need it; there are legal discovery cost savings to realize to consider as well. The impetus for developing a so-called datamap comes from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, specifically the procedural requirements of Rule 26(f)...

Greenberg Traurig Freezes Equity Partner Pay, Cites Cost-Conscious Clients

Posted on February 08, 2008
By Debra Cassens Weiss Equity partners at Greenberg Traurig won?t be getting an immediate pay raise because of a $10 million shortfall in year-end collections, driven in part by clients who want legal bills reduced. A memo from chief executive officer Cesar Alvarez said the salaries would remain “at present levels until we get a better [...

Did Lawyer?s E-Mail Goof Land $1B Settlement on NYT?s Front Page?

Posted on February 08, 2008
By Debra Cassens Weiss An outside lawyer for Eli Lilly & Co. apparently has two people named ?Berenson? in her e-mail address book. One is a reporter for the New York Times and the other is her co-counsel assisting in confidential negotiations on a possible $1 billion settlement between the pharmaceutical company and the government...

Seminar Helps Organizations Manage Electronic Data Risk ? 2nd Annual E-Discovery and Beyond Set for New York, March 31st

Posted on January 22, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Ashley Flynn ARMA International 913.312.5561, aflynn@arma.org   Judges are getting tougher every day and are far less likely to listen to what they regard as feeble explanations for mishandling of electronically stored information...

White House Admits Recycling Tapes, Hedges on Missing E-Mail

Posted on January 20, 2008
By Chris Maxcer E-Commerce Times Part of the ECT News Network   Conflict is igniting over official White House e-mails that some say have gone missing, though the Bush administration has officially denied that there is any reason to believe any have been lost...

Ernst & Young Forensic Technology and Discovery Services team in the U.S. Ranked among Top 10 providers of e-Discovery Services in 2007 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey

Posted on January 16, 2008
CHICAGO (January 9, 2008) ? Ernst & Young’s Forensic Technology and Discovery Services team in the U.S. has ranked among the top providers in the 2007 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey.  The global professional services organization, provides forensic technology and e-discovery services as part of its Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services practices, which have more than [...

Football player files missing - Fingers point to Rodriguez

Posted on January 15, 2008
By Dave Hickman Staff writer MORGANTOWN ­- West Virginia officials are wondering if assistant coaches aren’t all that Rich Rodriguez took with him to Michigan. They believe he may also have destroyed all or most of the paperwork files relating to every player on the current Mountaineer roster and virtually all of the activities conducted by the [...

Data Loss Prevention Trends To Watch In 2008

Posted on January 09, 2008
By Stefanie Hoffman, CMP Channel No doubt about it, 2007 was the year that high profile data breaches splashed across the front pages with as much sensation as paint on a Jackson Pollock canvas. TJX kicked off 2007 with the largest data breach in history — a whopping 45...

Judge Sanctions 6 Qualcomm Lawyers

Posted on January 08, 2008
By DON CLARK A federal magistrate issued sanctions against six Qualcomm Inc. attorneys for mishandling evidence in a high-stakes patent case against Broadcom Corp. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major referred the conduct of the six lawyers to the California State Bar Association for an investigation of possible ethical violations...

Pressure Mounts as More Corporate Clients Favor Flat Rates over Billing by the Hour

Posted on January 04, 2008
We have heard the battle cry before, and the wires are abuzz again about having law firms abandon the billable hour, according to Slate. Though few companies openly discuss alternative billing arrangements, there is ample evidence to show that alternative billing is overwhelmingly favored over the hourly rate model...

Managing Ethics in E-Discovery

Posted on January 04, 2008
David G. Keyko New York Law Journal January 3, 2008 Cases like Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp., S.D. Cal. 05-cv-1958-B (SLM), have highlighted the dangers to lawyers and their clients of not properly managing electronic discovery. In Qualcomm, during the last day of trial, on cross-examination, a Qualcomm witness revealed the existence of certain unproduced records...

Which GCs Are Most at Risk in Backdating Cases?

Posted on January 04, 2008
Firm partner’s research shows that general counsel who understood backdating’s accounting implications are getting hit hardest Corporate Counsel January 3, 2008 Why is the government taking action against some general counsel who backdated stock options, while letting others off the hook? According to John Villa, the key is whether GCs knew that backdating creates an accounting problem...

6 tips for reducing e-mail overload

Posted on January 02, 2008
By Kim Komando Lately, more people are declaring bankruptcy. No, they’re not financially insolvent. They just can’t keep up with e-mail. They empty their inbox, announce e-mail bankruptcy, and start over from scratch. Don’t let it happen to you...