Retention Resources

Matt Cohen and Deidre Paknad discuss the pernicious problem of legacy data in most corporations. They combine process management and robust legal workflow with subject matter and data analysis expertise to provide a framework to efficiently inventory and categorize legacy data, to establish the facts needed to determine what data can be destroyed, and to document the process to help companies resolve the legacy data crisis.

Written by Kevin Brady, this article looks at retention and legal holds together by examining Rambus, Inc. v. Infineon Techs. AG (2004) and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. v. Rambus, Inc. (2006). Valuable lessons can be learned about retention and preservation by taking a closer look at the Rambus cases.

Harry Pugh, Executive Vice President, Operations & Technology Policy Coordinator, Citigroup

Citigroup began its global retention program several years ago for risk management and compliance purposes and today it has one of the very few effective enterprise retention management programs in operation. The program has driven strategic benefits by enabling the company to disposition legacy data, normalize data management, and drive out waste.

As the revisions to the Federal Rules take effect December 1, many companies are looking at their processes to determine risks and gaps and to address them. This can be a daunting challenge and certainly the hurdles the Rules present are significant. It's made more daunting by confusion on the terms "retention" and "preservation". Both retention and preservation arise from law, but they have different meanings, disciplines, and implications.

Written prior to the December 1, 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Kevin warns records managers to take heed. He points out a number of important areas to the amendments including early focus on issues regarding the existence, form of production and the preservation of ESI; restricting the scope of initial discovery of ESI by categorizing information as either "reasonably accessible" or "not reasonably accessible"; and limiting the penalties for the loss of ESI as a result of routine good faith operation of computer systems.

Harry Pugh, Executive Vice President, Operations & Technology Policy Coordinator, Citigroup

Approaches to quantifying and characterizing legacy data to enable proper disposal and drive down costs. A case study on how retention best practices can drive real benefits.