Cautionary Advice

Imagine this: You have a good management-level job with a stable company. Suddenly, the massive project you have worked on for years grinds to a halt. Your company is the target of a lawsuit filed by a business partner. Your company responds with their own lawsuit. Fortunately, you still have a job. But the discovery phase of the lawsuit has begun, and you are involved. · You are succinctly warned not to dispose of any work product relating to the project. · The legal department has sent someone to collect the notebooks you have with all the handwritten notes you have taken at meetings during the course of the project. Don’t review them or sort them – just hand them over. · A minion from Legal has come to copy project files off the local drive of your workstation, and out of your file drawers. · Email files and shared electronic files have been subpoenaed, and are being retrieved from storage devices. They are being printed and copied for detailed review. · A lot of questions are being asked of you, about exactly what happened over the last few years. How can you remember who said what in meetings that took place months and years ago? · You are identified as a material witness who will be subject to a formal deposition. Lawyers spend days and hours preparing you for the experience. · For several days straight you are in a meeting room with lawyers from each side, a court reporter, and a taping device. Every word you say matters. How you say it matters. It’s stressful and exhausting. · Now you have been subpoenaed to testify in court. Does this sound far-fetched? It’s not. It happened to me 17 years ago when a multi-million dollar project crashed and burned. Fortunately, the case was settled out of court (to the advantage of my employer). For me (not accused of any wrongdoing in the suit), it was a learning experience. What did I learn? BE UNFAILINGLY TRUE TO YOUR PERSONAL ETHICS: It can be hard, when others around you are bending theirs. Always take the high ground, and be noisy about pointing out when others are not. TAKE GOOD FACTUAL NOTES, WITH DATES/TIMES AND EXACT QUOTES: Notes can become evidence. They should be devoid of your opinions and doodling. CONTENT OF WORK EMAIL SHOULD ALWAYS REMAIN PROFESSIONAL: I can’t tell you how much embarrassment some people I know were subjected to, when scores of people were reading their “private” emails. Compose all email as if it might be read by anyone. COMPLY WITH COMPANY POLICIES ON RECORD RETENTION: Throw away what you are not required to keep. If you still have something, it is subject to subpoena – you have no choice. I dodged a bullet years ago. I hope this cautionary advice helps keep you out of the crosshairs.