Data breaches, privacy laws and the challenges companies face when their employees cross international borders all came into play at a June 29 legal educational session sponsored by the Practising Law Institute (PLI), “Employee Personal Data: Cross-Border Data Privacy Challenges.”

The data privacy panel was part of PLI's International Employment Law 2015 seminar, chaired by Philip Berkowitz, U.S. co-chair of Littler Mendelson's international employment law practice, and featuring legal experts from around the world offering tips on how organizations can avoid legal landmines—including e-discovery and privacy complications—as they move employees around the globe.

The extent of the challenges companies face in navigating employment data issues may have been best summed up when privacy panel moderator Johan Lubbe, co-chair of Littler Mendelson's international employment law practice, asked panelist Orrie Dinstein, global privacy leader for Marsh & McLennan, what he would say to companies trying to handle mobile and social media data and the move toward employee BYOD policies.