eDisclosure Information Project

Paul Bernal is Lecturer in information technology, intellectual property and media law at the University of East Anglia Law School. His blog and tweets bring us interesting and often trenchant material on privacy, human rights and the Internet.

His article today is called A few words on ‘Internet connection records’, and looks at some of the implications of the UK government’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill known to many, to the fury of its promoter, Home Secretary Theresa May, as the Snoopers’ Charter (“Do you want their names?” asks the policeman in Morten Morland’s cartoon in the Times, which you will find, among others, here.

The Bill raises serious concerns about the proposed requirement that communications providers must store, as Bernal puts it, “a rolling record of a year of everyone’s browsing history” at least at the top level of websites.

There are eDiscovery and cybersecurity implications here which are relevant to my audience. Continue reading →

You may have noticed that my written output has declined over the last few weeks – at least somebody has noticed, because I have had a slightly hurt enquiry as to whether I intend to cover a particular topic.

There are are various reasons for this, none of which is idleness or lack of interest. The first was the two-week holiday which we usually take in mid-September. Why then? North Cornwall, our usual destination, is inevitably overrun in the summer with families with school-age children. The prices go up, and every lane and beach is jam-packed with the vehicles and accents of London and the Home Counties. A poem on the wall of the house which we rent, a parody of a well-known Betjeman poem, ends with this line:

Sounds of Sloane Square on the air
And black retrievers everywhere.

Our own black dog, Saxon the 15-year-old Labrador, nearly didn’t make it down there. Just before we went away, the decreptitude of old age took an apparent lurch downwards, and we booked an appointment at the vet which seemed likely to be a one-way trip. I said my goodbyes and went off to give a talk in Manchester, almost certain that I would never see him again. He likes going to the vet and perked up almost immediately, bounding into the surgery and seeking out the liver treats whose location he knows well. “I don’t think he’s quite ready to go” said the vet, and we agreed thankfully. Continue reading →

In 2014, Cardozo School of Law established the Cardozo Data Law Initiative (CDLI) which aimed to give law school students a grounding in the legal and practical aspects of data law, including privacy, information governance, eDiscovery and cybersecurity. Amongst other activities, it has invited well-known speakers to talk at sessions and events and arranged for students to spend time out in the real world of commerce and legal practice.

The founding directors are Patrick Burke, Senior Counsel at Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Denise Backhouse, shareholder at Littler Mendelson PC, and CDLI also had the benefit of input from a board made up of people from business and law firms.

CDLI has now made changes both to its programme and to its leadership. There is a new emphasis on data law, new courses, and further business opportunities for students. Continue reading →

I have been away at a conference, and the two posts which I have published today were both written before I left. There will be much more in due course, including an account of the event itself.

Meanwhile, my attention back in my office has been diverted not only by the aftermath of my 10,000 mile round trip with everything which that brings, but also by an appeal launched by Sean Jones QC to raise money for Save the Children to help refugees. Just watching the numbers go up has been a full-time task.

Sean Jones launched the appeal last night, as I write this less than 24 hours later, the contributions stand at nearly £45,000 from 333 donations, 591% of Sean’s original target (see the end of this article for updated figures).

There are a wide range of views as to the responsibility for the plight of the refugees, and many more about the policy decisions which must be taken for their longer term future. The debate is not helped by those who focus more on the terminology than on the problem – we are discouraged from even talking about the subject by people who jump on and criticise every allegedly inapt expression used to describe these people and their plight – I doubt that they care whether they are called “migrants” or “refugees” when they are drowning. The politicians will be abused whatever they do by people who give no thought to the conflicting pressures and the realpolitik. There is little recognition for the fact that changing circumstances warrant changed positions.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of past conduct and whatever the wider policy implications for the future, there are children in dire straits. Sean Jones has marshalled his formidable eloquence and his networking skills (go ahead and criticise me for the use of that term) to round up contributions from a profession which is often criticised for alleged indifference to others.

The Just Giving page for the Lawyers’ Billable Hour Appeal is here. The sum raised has increased by over £3,500 since I started writing this.

Home

Former in-house Counsel Casey Flaherty has set up a business called Cost Control to help companies manage legal spend. He makes no secret of his conviction that many outside lawyers offer poor value to their corporate clients because they do not know how to use basic software tools which will make them more efficient.

To help with this, he has devised an audit, testing lawyer capability with common applications like Word and Excel.

Corporate counsel, he says, should pay more attention to their lawyers’ competence, particularly in relation to rules and the use of technology, in the face of empirical evidence that they are spending more than they should. Continue reading →