Planning for Compliance - The Significance of Proactive Information Management

Corporate Counsel

In the past few years, there have been dramatic increases in judicial attention given to electronic discov­ery. Zubulake v. UBS Warburg clarified the obligations of businesses and their in-house and outside counsel to preserve, search for, and produce electronic records during the course of civil discovery. In light of Zubulake, once a business has notice that there is a reasonable likelihood of litigation, the litigation team has to address all the different places where relevant information could be stored. Employers can no longer afford to forestall resolving the complex issue of electronic data storage. This article outlines a template employers can use to pinpoint areas of greatest risk and develop a sound data retention and destruction policy.