The revolution in information technology has facilitated global communications and that in turn has increased the volume of cross-border data flows. In addition to making businesses more efficient and providing convenience for users, these developments have also substantially elevated privacy risks.
At the same time, there has been a significant increase in cross-border regulatory investigations, which are not only conducted by external bodies such as government agencies, but also and increasingly so by internal solicitors.
How these should be conducted in compliance with existing laws and what this will mean from a privacy/data protection as well as an employment/labor law standpoint was the subject of this Expert Briefing with Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek in Düsseldorf on April 16, 2013.
In his introduction, Dr. André-M. Szesny, Partner at Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, gave participants some of the historic background of internal investigations and also provided participants with an overview of German anti-corruption legislation.
Afterwards, Regina Glaser, Partner at Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, briefed participants on the legal framework and practice of compliance investigations in Germany. In her presentation, she discussed a case study and focused on two of the most important issues in the context of compliance investigations: data discovery and privacy.
In the final presentation, Johan Lubbe, Shareholder of Littler Mendelsohn P.C., and one of the world's most distinguished legal experts in the fields of global employment law and data privacy matters, provided participants with the U.S. perspective and elaborated on one main differences between the German and U.S. legal systems: the fact that U.S. courts allow relatively borad based discovery.
Following the presentations, Dr. Dirk W. Kolvenbach, Partner at Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, moderated the ensuing discussion between speakers and participants.
