Legal Updates

The United States Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in the landmark case of United States v. Microsoft Corp. This matter presents the Court with an opportunity to establish new precedent in the field of international e-discovery. An amicus brief recently filed by some of the country’s leading e-discovery practitioners and professors, including Kilpatrick Townsend’s Global Discovery Counsel, Craig D. Cannon, urges the Court to use this occasion to provide further guidance as to the appropriate considerations of international comity that must be weighed when faced with a cross-border discovery dispute.

There was a time when the only data you needed to collect in response to a discovery request was corporate email. Fast forward to present day. Employees are conducting business with smartphones, via social media and with the assistance of wearable technology. As a result, responding to e-discovery requests has become increasingly challenging.

In the modern workplace, companies are beset with a multitude of challenges regarding ownership and use of devices such as laptops, mobile phones, tablets, and others, and the information on or accessed by them. It has become increasingly common for companies to follow a model called BYOD, or “Bring Your Own Device,” where an employee purchases their own device and the company pays for either all or partial service. While there are clear advantages to this type of business model, there are drawbacks that should be considered when drafting company policies. 

Have you watched the news lately? Somewhere in between the coverage of politics, global turmoil, more politics, sports, and the absurd number of commercial breaks, there seem to be weekly, albeit very brief, reminders that your personal data is not safe.

Now that almost two years have passed since the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure became law, we have the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of our current strategies and whether we are taking full advantage of the new rules related to discovery.