Welcome back. I'm Law.com reporter Dan Clark and this is the latest edition of your favorite newsletter Inside Track. This week, eyes have been on D.C. with the ongoing Brett Kavanaugh drama and a new round of Trump tariffs.

Here at Law.com, we're watching some other important developments, including the EU digital copyright directive and its consequences for tech companies. We're also looking at how natural disasters like Hurricane Florence affect data security in unexpected ways.

I can be reached anytime through my email at [email protected] or you can find me on Twitter @DanclarkALM.

Let's wade through the news!

What's Happening-

|

More Regulation in the E.U.

The European Union's digital copyright directive is one very big step closer to becoming law, and it could have major consequences for how companies handle copyrighted material on the internet. It could tilt the playing field in favor of content creators by forcing tech companies to take more legal responsibility for copyrighted content posted on their sites in violation of IP rules.

I'm curious about what exactly the tech companies have to say about the directive …so I asked.

Not a Fan. A spokesperson from Reddit said in an email that “this vote dealt a significant blow to the open Internet, and to smaller companies like Reddit. It is disappointing to see the Parliament disregard the concerns of those constituents and experts who know the Internet best – including its very architects.”

Time to Go? In the past there has been other legislation similar to the EU copyright directive in Spain and Germany that prompted Google News to actually pull its services from those countries. Will that happen again if the directive becomes law? Google's answer isn't exactly clear.

“People want access to quality news and creative content online. We've always said that more innovation and collaboration are the best way to achieve a sustainable future for the European news and creative sectors, and we're committed to continued close partnership with these industries,” a Google spokesperson told me in an email.

|

The Problem With Equifax …

Equifax has been the subject of criticism and the poster child for what not to do in the case of a cyber breach. Following up on a Wall Street Journal story, Law.com reporter Rhys Dipshan recently unpacked lessons from the breach:

✤ Two years before the data breach, Equifax discovered the several employees had sent codes to their personal email accounts. Why wouldn't Equifax just forbid employees from sending information to anyone outside of the company?

✤ According to Joshua Robbins, a partner at Greenberg Gross, that isn't a business friendly approach when you have employees who are working from home and need remote access to work documents. Even though Equifax knew about employees sending information to their personal emails, the company failed to act.

✤ Marcus Christian, a partner at Mayer Brown, said sometimes companies move slowly even when “unusual information activity is detected early.”

✤ Limited resources may have played a role in Equifax's response. Robbins opined that “from the standpoint of security personnel at the company, in a world of limited resources, they are going to be interested in focusing on what they take to be the highest threats and be data-driven in terms of their security, so you can see why they did it.

Rain, Rain Go Away

It seems like it might never stop thunder storming, which isn't good for me because my dog has a habit of waking me up at 3 a.m. when she hears thunder. But on the bright side, at least I'm not in the Carolinas right now. Law.com reporter Phillip Bantzwrote this week about how attorneys are trying to get back to work despite the storm's devastating effects.

Data Storm. Besides worrying about the physical safety of an office during a major storm, the safety of enterprise data is also an issue that some businesses forget about. Ropes & Gray attorney Jim DeGraw told me that these major weather events are an opportunity for hackers to get their hands on data when people aren't looking.

“How this could occur is easy to imagine,” he said. “It could be as simple as personnel not being able to access work systems in a disaster, leaving critical system alerts to go unread, with no response. Or critical security systems may be rendered seriously handicapped or inaccessible from a disaster, and a decision is made to jury-rig 'interim' access to system data, exposing that data to external threats in the process.”

DeGraw told me that companies should have a “robust disaster prevention and recovery procedure” that plans for and tests these natural disaster scenarios.

Don't Miss-

Wednesday, September 26- Thursday, September 27. GCs from all over the country and beyond will gather in New York at the General Counsel Conference. Expect to hear about risk and regulation, executive leadership strategies, cybersecurity and technology and much, much more. Speakers include top-level in-house lawyers from AIG, AT&T and News Corp. Wednesday, September 26-Thursday, September 27. Or if you'd prefer to network and learn from GCs in the hedge fund space, you might want to attend the Hedge Fund General Counsel and Compliance Officer Summit in New York. Panels include a discussion of AI and machine learning for hedge funds as well as sessions about corporate governance and regulatory examinations.

Wednesday, October 3. Global Leaders in Law is hosting an event, Business Across Borders, in Bray, U.K. And on Wednesday, October. 24. GLL will hold a session titled, Managing Risk In an Age of Disruption in New York. GLL is an invitation-only membership group offering general counsel a global platform for in-person collaboration to exchange ideas and receive advice and guidance from peers. For more information, contact Meena Heath at [email protected]. Thursday, October 4-Friday, October 5. Where can you find a group of high-powered female in-house legal leaders getting honest about the challenges that women face in the profession? Check out Women, Influence & Power in Law, a summit in Washington, D.C. this fall. There are sure to be plenty of educational and networking opportunities, and speakers include big time in-house leaders from Pfizer, MetLife, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and more.

Sunday, October 21-Wednesday October 24. The ACC Annual Meeting is in Austin, Texas this year. Saddle on up to hear in-house lawyers speak on a variety of topics, from the first 100 days of the GDPR to pay equity and salary inquiry bans. High-powered in-housers from companies like Google, Clorox, Bayer, Honda and more will be taking the stage.

On the Move-

Going “Home.” Who says you can't go home again? Twenty-First Century Foxannounced last week that once its merger with Disney is completed, general counsel Gerson Zweifach will leave and make a return to William & Connolly, where he worked for 30 years before joining Fox. He will not be leaving the company until the merger is complete, which is projected to happen in the first half of 2019. Moving In. While Zweifach will be leaving Fox once the merger begins, Viet Dinh will be joining New Fox as the company's CLO effective immediately. He will help form the spinoff company once the merger is completed. Dinh, most recently of Kirkland & Ellis, is a conservative legal scholar known in part for helping to found Bancroft, a Washington, D.C. firm.

New Outfit. It's time for a change. Abercrombie & Fitch announced last week that Gregory Henchel will be taking over as senior vice president and general counsel. He takes the place of Bob Bostrom who left the company in July to “pursue new challenges.” Henchel spent just over seven years as the chief legal officer for the home shopping retailer, HSN Inc. In 2014, Henchel was named as one of the highest paid GCs in Florida. Tagging In. Earlier this week, the WWE announced that Brian Nurse will be the wrestling organization's next general counsel. He will report directly to CEO Vince McMahon. He will be responsible for the organization's legal function, intellectual property, government relations and talent contracts. Nurse replaces Blake Bilstadwho joined the company in 2015.

First GC. This week, Biohub, the non-profit medical research organization co-founded by Facebook CEO and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan, announced that Maureen Sheehy will be the organization's first general counsel. She started her new job on Sept. 5 after spending over a decade as managing partner with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, where she helped negotiate the firm's merger with Kilpatrick Stockton in 2010.