CHIEF LEGAL OFFICERS PUTTING HIGH PRIORITY ON RECORDS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT COMPLIANCE PROGRAMS FOR 2008

91% of corporate counsel view records management compliance as important, but 75% still lack auditable standards for e-discovery processes
WEST ORANGE, N.J. – Nov. 1, 2007 – Since the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect last year, organizations have been looking to outside resources for more assistance in managing information capture and production demands. [...]

Morgan Stanley May Face Wave of Suits After Admitting It Withheld E-Mail Evidence

As predicted in an earlier post on The Datakos Blawg titled “What is Happening to Morgan Stanley Could Happen to You,” Morgan Stanley is beginning to feel the ripple effect of its problems with email backup tape maintenance and controls.  The Daily Business Review reports “[a]ttorneys say they are gearing up to file hundreds of lawsuits [...]

Hundreds of Key Oracle Records Allegedly Withheld From Plaintiffs

In recently unsealed documents, a federal insider trading and shareholder fraud suit alleges that hundreds of e-mails and financial records, and even audio interviews with Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison, vanished or were improperly withheld from plaintiffs.
Lawyers for Oracle have strenuously denied the accusations, contained in thousands of pages of documents unsealed at the request [...]

Two Are Sentenced to 5 Years in Pornographic Spam Case

PHOENIX, Oct. 13 (AP) – Two men who sent millions of unsolicited pornographic e-mail messages have been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison as part of a prosecution under a federal antispam law, officials from the Department of Justice said Friday.
The men, Jeffrey A. Kilbride of Venice, Calif., and James R. Schaffer [...]

Banks claim credit card breach affected 94 million accounts

By Ross Kerber The Boston Globe
More than 94 million accounts were affected in the theft of personal data from TJX, a banking group has alleged in court filings, more than twice as many accounts as the retailer had said were affected in what was already the largest data breach in history.
The data breach affected about [...]

Spam Levels Reach All-Time High Percentages

Spam levels reached an all-time high at 95% of all e-mails this past quarter, according to a new report by Commtouch.  These staggering figures will cause organizations to struggle more than ever in finding email important for legal or business purposes.  The challenge of isolating, securing and processing privileged, relevant and critical business information from among everything [...]

E-discovery law a boon for lawyers

By Ellen Messmer, Network World, 10/19/07  
New regulations governing the storage and management of electronic data that might be needed in federal court actions has an increasing number of organization turning to outside counsel for help, according to a new study.  An annual survey about litigation matters asked 303 corporate lawyers about the impact of the e-discovery law that [...]

Record Backdating Settlement Reached in Mercury Case

By Debra Cassens Weiss
A group of pension funds will receive $117.5 million to settle their class action suit against Mercury Interactive Corp. for losses caused by stock options backdating.
The deal is the largest to date in a stock options backdating suit, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Previously the record was an $18 million settlement, [...]

Navigating the New E-Discovery Rules

By Paul D. Weiner and Mary Kay Brown
Imagine having to tell your client that it must pay more than $1 billion in damages. Imagine now that such a verdict was the direct result of multiple sanctions imposed by the court for discovery violations resulting from the failure to preserve and produce electronic information. If there [...]

Bigger Isn’t Always Better When It Comes to Outside Counsel

By Ruth E. Piller, Litigation News Associate Editor
Corporate legal clients once again seem to be developing an affinity for small law firms—notwithstanding the merger mania of recent years and the perception that large corporations want only to hire megafirms. With increasing frequency, the chief legal officers of leading corporations are now retaining small law firms [...]