“Look Right” – How E-Discovery Helps Solve the UK Bribery Act

I’ve just returned from a trip across the pond where I spoke at IQPC’s Information Retention and eDisclosure Management conference, which was well attended by both local practitioners and experts from the States. In addition to numerous discussions comparing and contrasting the US e-discovery and UK e-disclosure practices, there was also a ton of time spent focusing on regulatory compliance. In particular, the Bribery Act 2010 was a hot topic, not surprisingly given its looming implementation date of July 1.

It occurred to me that both with the Bribery Act and its kissing cousin, the FCPA, the UK and US are strikingly similar in many ways. We both speak the same language (sort of), but there are any number of things that are just different enough that Americans must take pause. As an easy example, crossing the street in London can be a perilous journey given our tendency to “look left.” Fortunately our friends abroad don’t want their lorries dented up by hapless yanks so they kindly paint numerous “look right” signs on street corners throughout their fair city.

As e-discovery and e-disclosure continue to mature in their respective lands, the sense is that the difference will rapidly become obscured, especially in light of how well the countries seem to be collaborating around best practices and civil procedure standards. During the judges’ panel at the IQPC event, noted e-discovery legends (Judges Grimm, Peck and Facciola) roundly complimented the UK’s disclosure process, often describing how much the US can learn from our allies.

Similarly, it’s interesting to see how the Bribery Act has “gone to school” on the FCPA. For the past decade or so the UK has been criticized for its Laissez-faire attitude towards commercial bribery, particularly with a glaring gap in applicable legislation (like the FCPA). And, while a wee bit late to the party, the UK finally enacted its anti-bribery statute (on April 8, 2010), curiously dubbed the “Bribery Act 2010,” which in many way leapfrogs the 34 year old FCPA. While ostensibly similar, the Act differs from the FCPA in a number of ways, many of which broaden applicability. For example, unlike the FCPA, the Act covers bribes to both the public and private sector and does not make an exception (like the FCPA) for facilitation payments (small payments given to public officials to speed up a routine service). Similarly, the Act applies to all organizations that do business in the UK, even if they’re not based there, and even if the bribery occurs in another country.

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Source: eDiscovery 2.0
By: Dean Gonsowski