This is a continuation of a series of mini-posts following my recent visit to Hong Kong.

Browning Marean of DLA Piper US is one of the few US lawyers who understands the difference between eDiscovery messages which travel and those which do not, and who is able to discriminate between messages of universal application, messages which apply only within the US, and messages which represent the necessary compromises which must be made where US discovery meets more restrictive rules elsewhere.

His secret lies partly in the comparative observations derived from his own travels, but more significantly from the fact that he bothers to read and understand local rules and culture before opining on the merits of the American way.  It is always a pleasure to speak alongside Browning for this reason, and I was delighted to be asked to talk to litigation lawyers at DLA Piper’s Hong Kong office and, via video link, to people in DLA’s Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore offices.

I called my talk eDiscovery Round the World, and covered recent pending rule changes in the UK (the eDisclosure Practice Direction and Electronic Documents Questionnaire, the new Rule 31.5 and costs management) and in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand, all of whom have made changes this year.

Some messages are universal – competence, cooperation, proportionality, and the growing trend towards proactive information governance as a substitute for mere reaction to events.

DLA Piper knows more about international eDiscovery than most – it has, for example, recently published a useful booklet called Data Protection Laws of the World. It was a privilege to be asked to speak to so many of its lawyers, and to hear something of the issues faced by all who practice in the region.

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