“Messy, confusing, expensive, and potentially sanctionable.” Those were just a few of the words that Farrah Pepper, General Electric’s executive counsel for discovery, used to describe the increasingly difficult challenges created by cross-border data protection laws. Pepper’s characterization was embraced by the other panelists at the Border Patrol: In-House Perspectives for Managing Global eDiscovery session, held Wednesday at the Electronic Discovery Institute’s third annual Leadership Summit in Santa Monica, Calif. In a session designed to provide best practices for addressing cross-border data protection laws, the panelists kept returning to the complexities surrounding compliance with those laws.

To satisfy international data protection norms, the panel — moderated by Colleen Kenney, Sidley Austin’s e-discovery task force co-chair — urged the audience to consider adopting processes different from those in place for addressing discovery and privacy in the U.S. As Pepper emphasized, dealing with foreign data protection laws is not as simple as saying “take the playbook, cross out U.S., and write in the name of the country” you are dealing with. This is difficult when seeking consent from foreign employees regarding disclosing documents reflecting their personal information in U.S. litigation. As Pepper observed, foreign employees have become savvier on this issue. They may want a copy of every document being produced or they may even retract their consent. As the panel and members of the audience noted, the data protection laws of some countries frown on obtaining blanket consent from employees.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]