I am very much looking forward to speaking at and moderating an EDiscovery conference run by AccessData at the impressive Schlosshotel Kronberg near Frankfurt on 7 June. The programme is here.

The speakers come from Siemens AG, from a US and UK law firm, from providers of professional services connected with EDiscovery and from AccessData itself – CEO Tim Leehealey is coming. My opening will include a round-up of developments in other jurisdictions and the changing roles of company lawyers, outside lawyers and technology providers. One of the law firm speakers is Vince Neicho from Allen & Overy who will describe developments in UK e-Disclosure.

US lawyers become involved with electronic discovery in Germany largely because of the privacy and data protection implications which arise when they are managing US litigation and regulatory investigations. I was part of a panel in the US recently which dealt with these questions through role-play, and my part was as in-house counsel for a German subsidiary of a US company. It was no accident that we choose Germany – it is a major trading partner with the US and has increasingly strict privacy laws. The increasing interventions by various arms of the EU Commission bring their own demands for discovery; the UK Bribery Act affects any company with a UK presence; purely domestic disputes may not bring formal discovery requirements on the scale demanded in the US or UK, but German companies and their lawyers cannot avoid the fact that the evidence lies in electronic form.

This is a packed program, starting with a welcome and introduction from me at 13.00 and ending with dinner at 20.00. To book a place, send an e-mail to Charity Wagner cwagner@accessdata.com as soon as possible.

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