PUBLISHER’S NOTE: February 2016

With our February issue, Metropolitan Corporate Counsel continues to evolve in important ways. This month we launch two new offerings. The first is a column, “Information Governance Insights,” from David White, a director with AlixPartners. David’s column will discuss issues related to the impact of unchecked data growth on corporate risk management and compliance. The second is the first edition of what will be an annual feature, “MCC Guide to In-House Tech,” a useful and insightful report from some of the leading companies and consultants developing and deploying cutting-edge tech-based tools designed to enhance in-house efficiency. In this section, we welcome our new contributors – AccessData, Recommind and Thomson Reuters.

In addition, this month’s In-House Ops section features Thomas Spahn of McGuireWoods on a pair of important decisions from the D.C. Circuit offering glimmers of hope to corporate counsel that a less constricting view of privilege may be aborning. You will hear from Chief Justice John Roberts, whose anything-but-routine annual report on the state of the federal judiciary, with its extraordinary exhortation on the recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, is a clarion call for cultural change to our not-always-so-civil litigation system.

Our sector focus this month – Tech, Media & Telecom – features two interviews with partners at Akin Gump: the export control implications of cloud computing and the ins and outs of U.S.-China movie deals. Other contributions demonstrate the incredible pace of change facing corporate law departments everywhere: the advent of a new patent – and brand-new patent courts – in the EU; new IRS regulations for family-owned entities; uncertainty hovering over plaintiffs standing in data-breach disputes; auxiliary aids under the ADA; the trademark as centerpiece of brand strategy; and more.

We hope you enjoy the issue. As always, please let us know what we can do to help you and your department.

-Kristin Calve

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