News
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Carr Allison attorney, Matthew Liebenhaut, was recently selected as a member of the Leadership Tallahassee Class 28. The Leadership Tallahassee program provides a foundation for commitment to leadership by educating community leaders on issues affecting political, business, human service and cultural activities in Tallahassee. Through volunteer involvement, Leadership Tallahassee facilitates change in the community. For more information on Leadership Tallahassee, please visit www.leadershiptallahassee.com.
Matthew Liebenhaut is an associate in Carr Allison's Tallahassee, Florida office. -
May 21
2010Judson W. Wells, a retired Mobile County District Judge and shareholder in Carr Allison's Mobile, Alabama office, is a past president (2005-2006) of the University of Alabama National Alumni Association (NAA). He recently attended a number of NAA meetings at the University of Alabama. These included a Past Presidents' Breakfast which honors the living past presidents of the NAA. In addition, Wells attended the Alumni Council meeting. The Alumni Council is comprised of the NAA Board of Directors, NAA living past presidents and local chapter presidents.
Finally, the Annual Alumni Luncheon was attended by several hundred alumni and featured the election of officers for 2010-2011. Circuit Judge Eddie Hardaway, who was on the 2005-2006 NAA board and whom Judge Wells nominated for president-elect last year, took office as president. Judge Hardaway is the second African-American to be elected president of the NAA. The NAA has approximately 31,000 members worldwide and has over 100 active local chapters located in Alabama and throughout the United States. The NAA is a self governed, non-profit association that serves the University, alumni and friends.
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Seven Carr Allison attorneys were recently named Alabama Super Lawyers for 2010: Russell Q. Allison, Glenn E. Ireland, Donald B. Kirkpatrick, II, Thomas L. Oliver, II, Bennett L. Pugh, Charles F. Carr and William H. Sisson.
In addition, four Carr Allison shareholders were named Alabama Rising Stars of 2010: Christopher E. Dorough, Sean C. Pierce, Lea R. Richmond, IV and Melisa C. Zwilling.
Attorneys are selected as Super Lawyers and Rising Stars using a process of peer nominations, peer evaluations and third party research. Each candidate is evaluated using a statewide survey of lawyers, independent evaluation of candidates by Law & Politics’ attorney-led research staff, a peer review of candidates by practice area, and a good-standing and disciplinary check. Only five percent of the lawyers in the state are named by Super Lawyers. Eligibility for Rising Stars is subject to those 40 years or younger or in practice ten years or less. No more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state are named Rising Stars.
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Apr 30
2010Written Litigation Holds will likely affect all practice areas in the firm. At least one federal court has begun expressly requiring written litigation holds ("WLH") in cases; a WLH is simply a well-labeled (i.e. titled "Written Litigation Hold") notice to custodians of record to retain electronically stored information and documents that may contain potentially relevant evidence. These are particularly important with electronic documents, since they are so easy to destroy. Two recent federal cases have dealt with WLH. After the destruction e-mails, a 2nd Circuit court imposed severe sanctions on the attorneys who failed to provide clearly articulated preservation instructions to all the "key players" in the litigation, calling this failure to provide a WLH gross negligence.
Unlike the 2nd Circuit, which imposes severe sanctions for gross negligence, the 11th Circuit will not impose severe sanctions in the absence of bad faith on the part of the attorney, and the 5th Circuit requires evidence of bad faith. However, there are lesser sanctions available for attorney negligence, such as requiring remedial action (such as re-deposing witnesses, paying the cost of recovering electronically stored data, etc.) or cost shifting.
So, if an attorney fails to provide a clearly articulated and understandable written litigation hold, and there is subsequent destruction of relevant evidence, then the attorney may be subject to sanctions. Therefore, it may be prudent for the firm to implement a program of document retention, particularly with so much information being stored electronically. When designing a document retention plan, one should bear in mind that the triggering event for retention happens before the filing of suit, so the WLH would best be disseminated at the claims investigation point of the litigation--or whenever the attorney would begin to label documents as privileged work product.
We continue to monitor this emerging issue and will keep our clients posted about any new developments.