Search |
Interesting information |
The EU Data Protection Mine Field
Writing for Corporate Counsel at Law. Com, Sue Reisinger notes that: "Handling electronic discovery in a foreign country means navigating a mine field of competing legal interests, in-house lawyer Alexander Shapiro told a group of in-house and outside counsel last week.
Shapiro, managing director and senior managing counsel at The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, spoke at the 2010 spring meeting of the American Bar Association Section of International Law in New York. 'Private communications in the workplace are a fundamental freedom in Europe,' Shapiro warned. 'You have a duty of privacy to your customers in the foreign jurisdiction, and to your employees. They can sue you if you violate it. And some of these foreign laws have criminal provisions.'
One unidentified lawyer in the audience pointed out that in Europe both a company's in-house lawyer and outside counsel can be charged for violating those laws, as well as the corporation itself."
(Please see: 'They Can Sue You': Navigating the Foreign e-Discovery Mine Field, by Sue Reisinger, 20 April, 2010.)