Catagory:Market Announcements

Preston Gates partner Helen Bergman Moure was recently featured as the expert on ComplianceResources.org’s “Ask the Compliance Expert” column. The interview focuses on document retention and e-discovery.

In the Q&A, Helen notes that some of the major challenges facing corporations include the “volume of electronic data being created and stored by individual users, education of employees about the importance of effective document retention practices, and implementation of effective policies that balance business needs with legal requirements.”

In the interview, she also addresses litigation hold procedure and provides some high-level recommendations for helping a company prepare for document productions and requests related to litigation or a governmental investigation.

Click here to read the full interview.

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued an announcement today detailing reforms to the merger review process designed to reduce burdens associated with second requests for documents and data. Such burdens have increased substantially since the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (“HSR Act”) became operational in 1978 due to an increased reliance by agencies upon direct market analyses and advances in technology resulting in higher production volume. Parties and agencies often spend millions of dollars, and associated investigations can take six to nine months. Last fiscal year alone, the FTC received nine productions exceeding one million pages. New guidelines and procedures will take effect for all HSR Act filings submitted on or after February 17, 2006. Read More

We are pleased to announce our latest milestone: our Case Database now features descriptions and, in some cases, complete copies of the opinions from Westlaw, of more than 400 cases involving electronic discovery issues! Curious to know what e-discovery topics were most prevalant in our courts last year? Visit the database and enter “2005” in the search box for a complete overview of the 108 cases involving electronic discovery we tracked last year.

“Uncertain and Unseen,” a bylined article by Preston Gates partner Todd Nunn on the handling of metadata in litigation, appears in the January EDD Showcase issue of Law Technology News.

In his article, Todd outlines pending amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and discusses their implications for handling metadata and other types of electronically stored information in litigation cases. While the proposed amendments do not specifically reference metadata, he notes “there are a number of amendments that should clarify issues related to its preservation and production.”

If the rules are approved this year, they will become law on December 1, 2006. Either way, “even in the absence of amended rules,” Todd advises, “parties can avoid risk by raising metadata issues with opposing counsel and the court early in the litigation.”

The Government Contracts, Construction and Procurement Policy group at Preston Gates recently launched Government Contracts Litigation, a blog on legal issues, news and best practices related to government contracts litigation. Dick Hanson and Mark Jackson, the attorneys directly responsible for managing the blog, have decades of litigation experience representing both contractors and federal agencies. Special thanks to Jason Miller in the firms’ business development group for his help bringing govcontractslitigation.com online.

Welcome to the blogosphere!

Eversheds litigators Jonathon Crook and Jonathan Tardiff, together with consultant Andrew Szczech, share their thoughts on the potential business implications of electronic discovery following the recent changes to the UK Civil Procedure Rules in the November 23 issue of Legal Week. The article is also linked to from Discovery Resources.

Advanced Micro Devices said it has served subpoenas to 36 major U.S. tech companies seeking documentation to support its antitrust lawsuit against Intel. AMD expects to receive 6 to 8 terabytes of data in documentation from the subpoenaed companies, which is shaping up to be one of the largest U.S. cases involving electronically stored information.

“We are expecting a tidal wave of material,” said Chuck Diamond, AMD’s lead outside counsel for the case. Read the entire article from Computer Business Reveiew Online.

How does Dilbert deal with e-mail in the face of litigation? Click here for your Friday Funny!

Fulbright & Jaworski’s annual survey of corporate counsel reflects a growing concern about the costs and consequences of electronic discovery. The 2005 litigation-trends survey found that e-discovery was the No. 1 new litigation-related burden for companies with revenues of more than $100 million. With e-mail and other digital data becoming more prevalent as evidence in lawsuits, effective record keeping is becoming a priority, and record retention policies and litigation hold policies are gaining in prevalence. Read the full 10.11.05 article by Petra Pasternak on CalLaw [subscription required.]