For the 2012 Competition, submissions must address the following topic: Under what standard should a court subject an employee's non-business personal computing activities (e.g., social media, documents stored on a personal computer, and/or personal email accounts) to civil discovery involving her or his employer?
By way of explanation, the recent case of Wood v. Town of Warsaw (2011 WL 6748797 (E.D.N.C. Dec. 22, 2011) involved a Rule 45 subpoena for files from the personal (apparently home) computer of an individual. The individual was a former supervisor, and had allegedly fired the plaintiff employee bringing suit against the former employer. The former supervisor asserted that he did not have work files on his personal computer, but the Magistrate Judge allowed the discovery, stating:
While Burrell is a non-party, he is alleged to have been Plaintiff's supervisor at the time the events at issue occurred and is alleged to have terminated Plaintiff. In this age of smart phones and telecommuting, it is increasingly common for work to be conducted outside of the office and through the use of personal electronic devices. Therefore, it is not unreasonable, despite Burrell's assertion to the contrary, that some relevant information may be found on his personal computer's hard drive.
Is this the right standard to allow such discovery? If so, why? If not, why not? What should the standard be?
Content
- Papers must contain only un-collaborated, original work.
- Papers may relate to research done by the author outside the context of the 2012 Competition.
Format
- The paper’s length must not exceed 5,000 total words. The word count is applicable to the total paper; the words on the title page, footnotes, figures and tables are to be included.
- All papers should be submitted in Microsoft Word document format, using 12 point font for all text. Papers must be typed double-spaced, with one-inch margins and numbered pages. All citations should be footnotes, in 10 point font, single-spaced, with one-inch margins.
- The first page must be a cover page that includes the following information: the author’s name and contact information—including the author's telephone number, email address, the name of the author’s school, and the title of the paper. The cover page must also contain the final word count for the document.
- At the top of page two, the author must place the title of the paper all in capitals. After the title, two lines must be skipped and the text of the paper should begin.
- If tables or figures are included, they are to be placed after the text according to the following rules:
- On the first page after the end of the text, a list of all tables and figures will be provided.
- Each table and figure will then be placed on a separate page.
Evaluation Criteria
- Originality.
- Quality of legal and technical analysis.
- Quality of writing.
- Citation of authority and support for arguments.
Judging
- R. Stanton Dodge, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, DISH Network L.L.C., along with the leading Information Law firm of Redgrave LLP, will judge the entries to this competition.
- The judges will evaluate all eligible submissions and, in their sole discretion, select a winning entry and two second-place runners-up based upon the Evaluation Criteria described above.
- All decisions of the judges will be final.
- The first-place selection will receive a $2,500 cash award along with an invitation to present his/her paper on a webinar hosted by Redgrave LLP. Two runners-up will also be selected and will each receive a $1,000 cash award.
