Dorsey Firm Sanctioned as Part of Judge’s Manifesto on Civility in Legal Profession

A Manhattan federal judge has delivered a lengthy manifesto against declining civility in the legal profession in the course of sanctioning law firm Dorsey & Whitney and two of its partners.Southern District of New York Judge Harold Baer opened his 129-page decision with a discussion of how “naked competition and singular economic focus of the [...]

Chevron to Pay $30 Million to Settle Charges For Improper Payments to Iraq Under U.N. Oil For Food Program

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Chevron Corporation for its role in illegal kickback payments that were made to Iraq in 2001 and 2002 in connection with the company’s purchases of crude oil under the U.N. Oil for Food Program.
Chevron, based in San Ramon, Calif., agreed to pay $30 million to settle the charges [...]

Database admin to plead guilty in theft of 8.5M consumer records

November 27, 2007 (Computerworld) — A senior database administrator at a subsidiary of Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) who was accused of stealing about 8.5 million customer records and selling them to data brokers is expected to plead guilty tomorrow to felony fraud charges in U.S. District Court in Tampa, according to court documents.William [...]

Protecting Against Risk of Loss — The Wisdom of Records and Information Management Protocols for Offsite Storage Vendors

There has been much news about offsite storage vendors losing critical backup tapes, data or documents while transferring information from one place to another.  The records management industry has started discussing the possibility of developing protocols governing the steps a vendor should take in the handling of information.
The development of protocols make sense to a [...]

What Comes First — The RFP or the Consultant? Some Helpful Tips for Corporate Lawyers not Accustomed to Formulating or Responding to a Request for Proposal

There is no one-size-fits-all template for a professional services RFP, and certainly not with regards to implementing a global records and information management program.  If you decide to use a template from your friends in procurement or one you find online, certain attributes should be included in an RFP when undertaking a project of importance.   [...]

New UK data protection law ‘urgently needed’

Rhys Blakely
Security experts called for an urgent review of the law following the loss of the personal information of 25 million Britons by HM Revenue & Customs.
Most damning, they said, was the apparent revelation that the data lost was not encrypted but merely password protected.
“A criminal could break into these files in a matter [...]

The Email Abyss — Most IT Managers View Email Archiving as an Important Initiative for 2008

In a recent study by Network World, technology managers, systems administrators and others ranked investment in anti-spyware, business continuity and disaster recovery systems as most critical for 2008.  Most of the respondents also ranked as critical or important the need to deploy or improve e-mail archiving capabilities for e-discovery purposes.  Remarkably, the study did not ask about [...]

New U.S. Law Creating a Voluntary Certification Program for Corporate Preparedness & the Opportunity to Advance Key Incentives for Business

Executive Summary:   Legislation was signed into law on August 3, 2007 that requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide for the development of a private sector led voluntary certification program for all-hazards business emergency preparedness.  This program is to be developed in consultation with key stakeholders reflecting existing best practices and standards.  [...]

A Crisis of Global Proportion: Slipshod Control Over Work-related Files of Employees

A recent survey conducted says that one out of two employees store work-related files in multiple locations.  Do you know any employee who stores all their work-related files in one place?  While common sense suggests this percentage is much higher, the point is that most organizations are losing the information management battle–if fighting it at [...]

HOUSE APPROVAL OF ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE PROTECTION ACT OF 2007 IMMENSELY IMPORTANT: STATEMENT BY AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. NEUKOM

Washington, DC, Nov. 14, 2007 – The U.S. House of Representatives took an immensely important step yesterday by approving H.R. 3013, the Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007.  
The bipartisan bill, introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and cosponsored by 11 other members from both parties, would roll back the harmful federal government policies that erode fundamental attorney-client privilege, work [...]