With so many ways to communicate and to store electronic information, preservation obligations can be tricky. This program will focus on best practices for issuing legal holds, preservation obligations, and counsel’s duty to monitor and oversee compliance with legal holds. We will also discuss recent case law analyzing whether spoliation sanctions were warranted for failures in the legal hold process.

Whether you regularly conduct internal investigations as part of your company’s compliance program, or whether you are contemplating hiring outside counsel to conduct one for the first time in response to a government or media inquiry into alleged wrongdoing, it is imperative that you understand the legal and ethical issues surrounding such investigations. We will discuss the Rules of Professional Responsibility and court decisions drawn from recent headlines that address sensitive issues, including ascertaining the identity of the client, the attorney’s duty of confidentiality, the attorney-client privilege and the attorney work product doctrine, and situations in which those evidentiary protections may be deemed to have been waived.