Authored By: Fernando M. Pinguelo and Frank Gonnello, Jr.

Tweet This: Nominate http://ellblog.com for the ABA Blawg-100 by September 9! -->http://www.abajournal.com/blawgs/blawg100_submit/

Dear readers: The ABA Journal is once again working on its list of the 100 best legal blogs, and would like your advice on which blawgs you think they should include, and/or what practice areas you'd like to see represented in the Blawg 100. If you enjoy reading eLessons Learned, and would like to promote the hard work of the Law Students that contribute to our blog, please take a minute to use the Blawg 100 Amici form to nominate eLLblog for the Blawg-100. The Blawg-100, for those of you who haven't seen it before, is a list of the 100 best legal blogs on the web based on Amici from readers and the opinions of editors from the ABA Journal. In 2009, eLessons Learned was an honoree of the award, however last year the list failed to include a single blog written by law students. Amici for the Blawg-100 are due no later than September 9, 2011. Thank you for reading eLessons Learned! Friend-of-the-blawg briefs are due no later than Friday, Sept. 9.

Authored By: Christopher D. Dize

Citation: Oxxford Info. Tech., Ltd. v. Novantas, LLC, 910 N.Y.S.2d 77 (N.Y. App. Div. 2010)

Employee/Employer Implicated: Clients and Attorneys

e-Lesson Learned: If an attorney agrees to return or destroy the other party’s confidential information at the close of litigation, the New York Appellate Division will hold him to it, even if it becomes “too costly” to follow through.

Tweet This: NY Appellate Division Rejects Modification of Confidentiality Order

When counsel for plaintiff Oxxford Information Technology entered into a confidentiality stipulation that all information exchanged during discovery would either be returned to the original party or destroyed, they never imagined that it would be so costly to get rid of the information. After the matter settled, however, Oxxford's counsel learned that they had "inadvertently backed up defendants' information onto numerous back-up tapes to their law firm's computer system." Ironically, it was Oxxford's counsel who had originally demanded the core business secrets that ended up on the tapes.

Authored By: Danielle Y. Alvarez

Citation: Nat’l Day Laborer Org. Network v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, 10 Civ. 3488, 2011 WL 381625 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 7, 2011)

Employee/Employer Implicated: Employees and Government Officials

e-Lesson Learned: Metadata is an integral part of an electronic record, so it should not be stripped from PDFs and other productions of electronic public records under FOIA.

Tweet This: Agencies: SDNY rules that metadata is part of an electronic public record – are you properly handling FOIA requests?

Metadata includes those properties related to electronic files in their original format, such as the original identifier/file name, custodian, source/file directory, modified date and time, creation date and time, time offset value, etc. In a precedent-setting opinion in the Southern District of New York, Judge Scheindlin (thinking Judge Judy? Not that Judge Scheindlin!) held that certain metadata is part of an electronic public record and subject to disclosure under discovery rules as well as the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”).

Authored By: Fernando M. Pinguelo

Tweet This: MISSION POSSIBLE: #OpMonsanto

In a recent Anonymous hacking mission dubbed #OpMonsanto, the hacker group attacked Monsanto, an international agricultural corporation by hacking into Monsanto’s system and releasing data concerning over 2,500 employees and connections. Anonymous also took down Monsanto’s mail server and web assets and says it plans to create a Wikipedia page to store and organize the stolen information. Anonymous has also released a statement proclaiming the soon-to-be targets for an operation called “Project Tarmeggedon.” Anonymous is using this mission to victimize the companies involved in the Alberta, Canada oil sands development because of concerns that extracting oil from sand particles can be extremely damaging to the environment. Some of these targets include: Royal Bank of Scotland, Imperial Oil, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and Canadian Oil Sands Ltd.