Last week NY's most prominent state appellate level court formally fully adopted the Zubulake standard for e-discovery. The entire opinion is worth a careful read, as although the First Department noted that it previously "adopted the Zubulake standard when reviewing a motion for spoliation sanctions involving the destruction of electronic evidence" it had not previously addressed the issue of when a party reasonably anticipates litigation and the resulting duties and obligations that flow from this determination. Now it has.
I will be speaking on various aspects of cloud computing at two upcoming webinars in May:* Cloud Computing: Emerging E-Discovery Trends, Strafford webinar, May 4, 2010 (1:00 pm Eastern) * Negotiating and Preparing Cloud Contracts, IAPP web conference, May 13, 2010 (1:00 pm Eastern)
I had the pleasure of hearing an excellent presentation by Tanya Forsheit on the legal issues arising out of cloud computing during the ABA Information Security Committee's recent meeting (at the end of July) in Chicago. The presentation resulted in a spirited debate between several attorneys in the crowd. The conversation spilled over into happy hour and became even more interesting. The end result: my previous misunderstanding of cloud computing as "just outsourcing" was corrected, and now I have a better appreciation of what "the cloud" is and the legal issues cloud computing raises.