Litigation

In this age of regulatory and prosecutorial focus on corporate compliance, companies increasingly are relying on special outside counsel to conduct internal investigations into potential wrongdoing. Sometimes, these investigations are prophylactic: A company may want to understand the consequences of its current hiring practices so it can develop standard operating procedures to better ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws. Because this sort of proactive, self-reflective investigation generally proceeds without outside scrutiny, counsel has the time and space to conduct a deliberate investigation.

Although difficult to imagine, your best worker may hold the key to your company's worst security nightmare. Technologically armed employees who routinely use BlackBerry devices, personal digital assistants, laptops, and tiny flash drives to transport critical information to and from the office can wreak havoc on a corporation '' with no intention to do so.

With the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), precedent-setting adverse sanctions against some of the largest corporations and growing regulatory requirements, the need to become 'litigation ready' has been like a large snowball, gaining mass and momentum. The indisputable need to become litigation ready has arrived, and the snowball continues to get bigger and faster as it heads down the mountain. With the FRCP amendments, Dec. 1 has come and gone and guess what? Nothing has exploded.

The first part of this article discussed dioxin litigation and the use of environmental and blood data, and the design and results of the University of Michigan study. The conclusion addresses how to use the study.

'You can't be shining lights at the Bar because you are too kind. You can never be corporation lawyers because you are not cold-blooded. You have not a high grade of intellect. I doubt you could ever make a living.' Clarence Darrow to women lawyers. Morello, Bar Admission Was Rough for 19th Century Women, 189 N.Y.L.J. 19 (1983).

From the moment a manufacturer decides to undertake a new venture, it creates a staggering number of documents. These documents run the gamut from new product designs to market studies to safety test results. Even small-scale manufacturers may generate enough documents to fill a small warehouse, thus begging the question: Are we required by law to keep all these documents?

It would be unheard of if a student were to be told that he or she was required to master a course of study without having the ability to voice any questions along the way. In fact, from Socrates' time to the present, teachers at all levels typically encourage interactive learning. Until recently, however, the process through which a jury arrives at the facts of a given case is a fairly passive process — with the exception of the deliberative process at the close of the case.

The latest verdicts you need to know.