Inventus Blog

Expert Perspectives: The Inventus Expert Perspectives series features insightful interviews with thought leaders, technologists, and leading legal innovators at the forefront of the global business and practice of law. In today's edition, we interview Stephen Embry, of TechLaw Crossroads, on his 30-plus career as a practicing lawyer and the changes he's observed in the past few decades. This is Part II of II of our in-depth interview with Embry.

Expert Perspectives: The Inventus Expert Perspectives series features insightful interviews with thought leaders, technologists, and leading legal innovators at the forefront of the global business and practice of law. In today's edition, we interview Stephen Embry, of TechLaw Crossroads, on his 30-plus career as a practicing lawyer and the changes he's observed in the past few decades. This is Part I of II of our in-depth interview with Embry.

Many eDiscovery providers claim to be “international,” “global,” or “worldwide.” But many are US-founded, US-based, and at their core, US-centric. Given the unique litigation landscape within the United States, this is not unexpected – however an entirely US-centric approach to discovery work can have detrimental effects on litigation projects conducted for clients in (or doing business in) the UK, Europe, or Asia.

If providers aren’t mindful, they can easily bring a skewed perspective to their work – favoring US-centric discovery workflows, US-centric language, and a US-centric cultural approach to client relationships. 

Last month, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body that sets global standards relating to anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT), published its much anticipated guidance on how its 200+ member and observer states will have to start regulating virtual asset markets in their jurisdictions.

FATF detailed which types of virtual asset (VA) activities (a virtual asset is a representation of currency, rather than currency itself) must be regulated and the minimum requirements it expects from regulators, which far surpasses current efforts in most countries. The guidance can be used as an aid to implement existing FATF recommendations for other financial instruments.

Consider for a moment the problems of criminals: The money they earn, spend, transfer or move – as a result of crimes committed or as part of the planning process for crimes as-yet-to-be-committed – has the high potential to raise the suspicion of law enforcement. If criminals wish to live to fight another day, they must conceal the origins of their ill-gotten gains – typically by “laundering” their money.

Inventus’s resident linguist, Jérôme Torres Lozano, continues to explore in this second and final part of the series - “It’s all Belgian Fries to me… or The Art of Multilingual eDisclosure” - the evolution of multilingual document processing and review by cleverly balancing the use of emerging technologies and human resources.

-> Missed Part I? Click here to read it!

"Un type spécial de beauté existe qui est né dans la langue, de la langue et pour la langue.” – Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) French philosopher and poet

As a Belgian national born to Spanish parents, my love affair with languages started at a young age. I was brought up bilingual in a country with three national languages: Dutch, French, and German. This meant that I was constantly exposed to different languages and cultures. When growing up in Brussels, reading traffic signs, street names, and publicity boards displayed both in Dutch and French became second nature.

Do you know your  from your ? How would you react if someone sent  to you? What does  even mean?

We recently attended the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) in Las Vegas, which is always a great time to connect with colleagues and clients to discuss the evolving world of legal operations. As litigation and regulatory investigations grow increasingly international in scope, it’s becoming more important than ever for corporate legal departments, outside counsel, and legal service providers to work closely together like a finely-tuned machine to ensure successful outcomes and disciplined, efficient operations.

In November of 2017, the Department of Justice modified its FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy – the policy which guides compliance officers, corporate counsel, and internal auditors on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The DOJ’s modification required companies subject to FCPA regulations to completely prohibit their employees from using ephemeral messaging – popular examples of which include WhatsApp, WeChat, Signal, Viber, and Snapchat.

This policy banned any company doing business across borders from using many popular platforms for communication without risking FCPA noncompliance; essentially limiting companies to conduct all communication through email and other standard forms of communication.