CGOC 2006 Summit to Convene Experts on Electronic Discovery Challenges, Best Practices

"From Retention to Preservation: Soup to Nuts": Magistrate Judge Ronald Hedges, Citigroup, Halliburton and Other Experts Offer Insights, Strategies for Success

Mountain View, California, January 17, 2006 — Magistrate Judge Ronald Hedges (New Jersey) along with executives from Citigroup and Halliburton Company and Zubulake attorney Jim Batson headline at the CGOC 2006 Summit, “From Retention to Preservation: Soup to Nuts,” January 26-27, 2006 in New York City. They join other subject matter experts from Skadden Arps, Mayer Brown, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and PricewaterhouseCoopers as well as corporate attendees and CGOC members during two days of active discussion, roundtables, and panels. The annual CGOC Summit, held each January, highlights the retention, discovery, and litigation issues and strategies that will be pivotal in the coming year.

This year’s Summit has a very timely assembly of subject matter experts, including:

• Magistrate Judge Ronald Hedges opens the Summit by offering his perspective on when companies and their attorneys should begin to “think digital,” what their obligations are, and how to avoid problems.
• Zubulake plaintiff’s attorney Jim Batson and Kevin Brady of Connolly Bove discuss the triggers for anticipating litigation and the appropriate corporate preservation and discovery responses from both the plaintiff’s and defense’s point of view.
• Citigroup exec Harry Pugh discusses global and sustainable best practices for records retention and the linkage to legal holds protocols.
• Halliburton’s Jim Wright discusses the risks and benefits of managing discovery in house and offers a workflow checklist to help guide companies.
• Michael Clark of EDDix shares his recent survey results on what actions and strategies corporations are taking to reduce the skyrocketing costs of litigation.

As the only ongoing organization dedicated specifically to retention and preservation issues, the CGOC is sponsored by PSS Systems®, the leading provider of information retention and preservation solutions. Founded in January 2004, CGOC is first to convene a true “community of interest” on these important topics with events and publications throughout the year. “This kind of ongoing community of interest and expertise is important,” said Ralph DeSena, Vice President and Senior Counsel, RBC Capital Markets. Long-time CGOC participant Hadrian Tucker, Senior Vice President, Fidelity added: "CGOC programs always provide rich content from subject matter experts and excellent peer networking opportunities.”

“Record retention and evidence preservation are tightly coupled processes. They can form a virtuous circle or a vicious cycle depending on how companies manage them,” said Deidre Paknad, President and CEO of PSS Systems. “With the CGOC, we have assembled a community of subject matter experts and corporate practitioners to discuss the new challenges confronting F100 companies and to find and advance better retention and preservation approaches and best practices.”

A number of landmark rulings during 2003-2005, including Zubulake and Coleman, reset judicial expectations and clarified companies’ obligations to preserve and produce all types and kinds of electronic information in litigation. Without records retention policies and protocols that address the vast array of electronic information and with little knowledge of the corporate IT infrastructure, corporate litigation executives face a daunting challenge and corporations face tremendous costs and risks. PSS Systems, leveraging input from the CGOC community, codified the new standards for preservation in its Zubulake Checklist and its Atlas Litigation Communications and Collections (LCC) solution to help companies meet these specific standards with legal holds and discovery workflows. Its Atlas Enterprise Retention Management (ERM) solution helps companies establish and effectively manage records retention policies and procedures globally for all types and forms of information, providing controls and visibility for corporate compliance and litigation executives.

CGOC 2006 Summit seating is exclusive to corporate compliance and litigation execs and is limited. For more information on Summit details, sessions and speakers, please visit:
http://www.cgocouncil.com/summit/index.html

To view the Zubulake Checklist, please visit:
http://www.pss-systems.com/resources/zubulake_checklist.html

About CGOC
The CGOC is a community of experts in retention and preservation. Its charter is to create a forum in which legal and compliance executives can get the insight, interaction, and information they need to make good business decisions. It fulfills its charter through an annual CGOC Summit, educational lunch series, executive workshops, and fall working sessions. CGOC Sidebar is a forum for outside counsel assisting corporate clients with preservation and retention programs. The organization was founded by Deidre Paknad, CEO of PSS Systems and a visionary in retention and preservation solutions, to create a continuing, high quality executive level exchange of expertise and information on these fast-changing business issues. For more information visit www.cgocouncil.com.

About PSS Systems
PSS Systems started the legal holds and retention management software revolution in the early 2000s by envisioning a change in the legal requirements corporations would have to comply with. Its Atlas software suite consists of two components that when used together reduce cost and risk. Atlas LCC streamlines the legal holds and collection processes end to end, while Atlas ERM enables corporate retention programs across disparate business units, information sources, and systems. Today, PSS Systems continues to lead the industry through their unparalleled innovation and has become the thought leader on retention and preservation topics. It founded and sponsors the CGOC, a professional community on retention and preservation. PSS Systems is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices throughout the United States including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. For more information visit www.pss-systems.com.

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