Strategies for avoiding and mitigating conflicting obligations.

This CLE webinar will guide litigators in managing high stakes clashes between U.S. discovery obligations and foreign privacy protection laws, primarily the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the relatively recent EU-U.S. “Data Privacy Framework.” Paula Plaza will moderate a panel featuring Anna Mercado Clark and two other panelists who will discuss the growing importance of foreign privacy laws in U.S. litigation, current approaches to privacy law objections to U.S. discovery, and the EU-U.S. “Data Privacy Framework.”

Description

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) can have significant impact in U.S.-based litigation. Parties must determine whether they can legally provide records subject to the GDPR to U.S. lawyers, investigators, regulators, courts, and other parties.Federal courts and European Data Protection Authorities continue to evolve in their navigation of the relationship between the GDPR and other international privacy laws and the U.S. discovery obligations. The Court of Justice of the European Union’s “Schrems II” decision further complicated these issues, raising the stakes and potentially creating a catch-22 for entities involved in U.S. discovery.Navigating the relationship and potential conflict between the GDPR and U.S. discovery requires thoughtful strategies and a thorough understanding of the priorities and obligations that may apply. These issues typically are resolved case-by-case, and counsel must rely on sometimes conflicting precedents.Listen as our panel provides guidance about this increasingly important area and how to navigate the conflicts between GDPR and U.S. discovery obligations.

Outline

The growing importance of GDPR in U.S. litigation
Foreign privacy law objections in U.S. discovery
1. Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale v. U.S. Dist. Court for the S. Dist. of Iowa, 482 U.S. 522 (1987)
2. Hague Conventions
3. Schrems II decision
Strategies for navigating the conflict
EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework

Benefits

The panel will discuss these and other key issues:

Who is governed by GDPR?
What other GDPR-like laws create similar concerns abroad and in the United States?
Does the location of data or individuals matter?
Who is governed by U.S. discovery rules, and who can be compelled to produce data?
What are the consequences of transgressing the GDPR or transgressing U.S. discovery obligations?
What can litigants and their counsel do to minimize the risks?