When my headline says that Epiq Systems “focuses on Europe”, I do not, of course, imply a sole focus on Europe – with its the recent opening of its fifth New York document review centre, the launch of a Canadian document review service and its expansion in the Far East, no-one can suggest that Epiq marches on a narrow geographical front.

The reference is to just some of the news from February. The first item of these is the appointment of Richard Seabrook as Vice President and General Manager, eDiscovery Europe. The press release draws attention to the fact that Epiq expanded its document review centre space in London by 50% during 2013 and its client services and operations teams by 40%. Such growth clearly warrants a senior appointment.

The other is an article by Epiq’s Deborah Blaxell, published in the Global Legal Post with the title Responding to cross-border litigation and regulatory investigations. Although this is not a problem which is unique to Europe (Epiq knows all about it in the Asia-Pacific region as well), the thrust of the article is on the complexity which can arise when regulatory or (mainly US-led) seek broad US style discovery in Europe where privacy and data protection considerations immediately raise conflicts.

Deborah Blaxell’s article gives a good overview of the implications which can arise.