Crane on Law by James Crane

In Connor v. Sun Trust Bank, the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia held that an adverse inference instruction is appropriate when an employer did not take the steps to properly preserve and produce an email relating to an FMLA claim by a former employee. The key players were the former employee, Connor, the defendant employer, Sun Trust, and the supervisor of the former employee. At issue in the case was a relevant February 12th email written by the supervisor, which detailed the decision to terminate Connor. It was not properly preserved and never produced. When Connor discovered the February 12th email by another means, they filed a Motion for Sanctions for Destruction of Evidence. Senior District Judge Robert J. Vining, Jr. granted the plaintiff’s Motion after considering the following five-factor analysis as applied in the 11th Circuit:

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In my role as Senior e-Discovery Counsel with Altep, I work with many of the finest legal professionals in the world. That group includes attorneys, paralegals, litigation support specialists, and various IT personnel. One of the most interesting aspects of this collaboration is how much one can learn by gaining knowledge of the different perspectives of each of the players in the execution of a legal matter. Since my readers include people from every angle of the legal profession, I wanted to pass along some of my favorite sites for you to consider:

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As a Denver-based attorney, I was proud to see that Qwest and their General Counsel Rich Baer were given the honor of Top Corporate Legal Department in Corporate Counsel. In the Denver legal community, Mr. Baer is known as hard working attorney, and an all-around great guy. I’ve always been impressed that Qwest was able not only to withstand all of the lawsuits and inquiries that swirled around telecom earlier in the decade, but that they came out if it that much stronger. Kudos to Baer and the entire Qwest legal team!!

In the world of corporate defense, production gaps can turn a winnable case upside down the moment the opposing party switches into discovery attack mode. Any seemingly small error in gathering or producing data invites the spectre of spoliation. If the corporate client is unable to present a detailed explanation and justification for any alleged oversight, sanctions will probably follow.

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Every organization needs a litigation hold process that is consistent, defensible, and repeatable. At a minimum, the hold program must:

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Well, IQPC's E-Discovery Conference was a big success. Our discussion was well received, and I gained some important insights from the other speakers and attendees. One of the programs featured Chief US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck of the Southern District of New York and Chief District Judge James Rosenbaum of the District of Minnesota. Both gentlemen were extremely interesting and tech-savvy, and posed some thought-provoking items.

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Partnering with Corporate Law Departments on large-scale actions has been Altep's specialty for more than a decade. As a result, we have planned and executed many of the world’s largest e-discovery cases to a successful conclusion. So, when corporate counsel comes to us with a matter and asks “Ok, what do we do?” we have the answer - complete with point-by-point itemized checklists of what to do, timelines, cost and performance considerations, etc.

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The Altep team is heading to Las Vegas next week to attend the IQPC 5 th E-Discovery Conference and present our program entitled "Defending Class Actions Across Multiple Jurisdictions." I will be moderating a talented panel with decades of experience in e-discovery, serial litigation, using technology in large-scale actions. We’ll talk about considerations prior to class action certification, all the way through productions in multiple jurisdictions. We’ll examine best practices for privilege log creation and re-purposing consistent productions to avoid discovery gaps and reduce plaintiff opportunities to allege spoliation.

Many of your have confirmed that you will be there and we’re looking forward to meeting all of you in person!

This post is 4 other reasons because I’m not going to list legal and regulatory issues. I’m avoiding those because there are so many other stakeholders within the organization that there’s plenty of incentive for all departments, not just Legal and Compliance.

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I know that all of my regular readers know how to reach me (email or call anytime!) but I wanted to also invite everyone to check out www.linkedin.com. It is a useful professional networking site and a good place to re-connect with old friends and colleagues and keep up with your current roster of professional friends.

You should be able to find my profile by entering james crane and altep.

I’ll look for you there.