EDiscoveryMap is pleased to announce that Monique Altheim will moderate E-Discovery Sessions at the Computers, Privacy & Data Protection Conference (CPDP) in Brussels on January 26, 2012.

The panels will feature an international roster of thought leaders and practitioners in the field of Cross-Border E-Discovery and EU Data Protection:

Willem DEBEUCKELAERE, Privacy Commission (BE), Master Steven WHITAKER, Royal Court of Justice (UK), Chris DALE, e-Disclosure Information Project (UK), Amor ESTEBAN, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP (USA), James DALEY, Daley & Fey LLP (USA), Nigel MURRAY, Huron Legal (UK), George RUDOY, Integrated Legal Technology LLC (USA), Monika KUSCHEWSKY, Van Bael & Bellis (BE), Natascha GERLACH, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton (BE), Dr. David EVANS, Evans LLC (USA), Dominic JAAR, KPMG (CA), and Erik LUYSTERBORG, Deloitte (BE)

With the increased globalization of the economy, companies in the EU are often subject to litigation holds and requests for production of relevant data by US litigants. If those data contain personal information, there is a serious conflict with the EU Data Protection Laws, which deem preservation and production of such data in principle illegal.

Since the concept of pre-trial discovery is practically non-existent in the European Union member states with a Civil Code tradition, the session will start with a discussion of the general principles of the U.S procedure of discovery of electronically stored information (ESI) in civil litigation, for the benefit of EU attendees.

What triggers the duty to preserve data relevant to litigation? What are litigation holds? What is spoliation? What are the sanctions for non-compliant parties? These are some of the topics that will be addressed.

What happens when the data, relevant to U.S. litigation, contain personal information and are located in an EEA member state?

The second panel will explore these complicated conflicts between U.S. Ediscovery obligations and EEA Data Protection obligations and propose some practical solutions.

The just published Sedona Conference International Principles on Disclosure and Data Protection, as well as the draft EC Proposal for a Data Protection Regulation, and their impact on the future of Cross-Border Ediscovery will be discussed.

What technological innovations can be applied to minimize the personal data preserved and collected in EAA member states?

What happens when relevant data are located in the cloud, on social media sites or on mobile devices? Which national law applies to determine the applicable data protection regime?

These and other emerging topics in cross-border Ediscovery will be tackled by the last panel.

The CPDP Conference, titled “European Data Protection: Coming of Age” will run from Wednesday, January 25 until Friday, January 27. It will coincide with the official publication of the EC’s Proposal for EU Data Protection Regulation and with the European Privacy Day on January 28.

To take advantage of the early bird registration fee , register here before December 30.