The e-Workplace: Privacy Issues and Cyber Security for Employers

Tara Emory advises organizations and law firms on e-Discovery and information governance programs. Tara counsels clients on data management and compliance, policies, records management technology, and defensible deletion. In litigation, she is an expert on search methodologies, data preservation and collection approaches, discovery protocols, and strategies for resolving discovery issues with litigation adversaries, government regulators, and the courts. Above all, Tara seeks to solve her clients’ unique data problems in ways that reflect a best fit for each client and matter.

Tara is a lawyer, certified Project Management Professional, experienced participant in e-Discovery advisory groups, and a frequent speaker at law firms, corporate legal departments, and eDiscovery and information governance conferences. She actively participates in The Sedona Conference where she has led drafting projects for Working Group 1. Tara also serves as an advisory panel member for the Legal Technology Professionals Institute, a member of Duke TAR Guidelines Drafting Committee, and as a member of the Board of Directors for Advocates for Justice and Education.

She is an expert on technology-assisted review (TAR), including different algorithms, workflows, and software. She has developed effective TAR processes for dozens of clients that incorporate traditional TAR workflows, TAR 2.0 functionality, and other versions adapted to meet project needs. She has also consulted on and helped design the industry-leading TAR offering provided by a leading document review platform provider.

Before Driven, Tara served as counsel for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she advised clients in antitrust disputes and Second Requests, which included managing large discovery projects. Tara holds J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law degrees from the Duke University School of Law. She is admitted to the bars of New York and the District of Columbia.

Stacey Blecher is Counsel in the Labor & Employment Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. She specializes in employment counseling with a focus on the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other background check laws.

Prior to joining Seyfarth Shaw, Ms. Blecher served as in-house Counsel and Assistant General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase where she handled a wide variety of employment and benefits-related litigation and counselled human resources, employee relations and line of business management teams on employment-related issues.

Ms. Blecher’s pro bono work has included volunteering as a Small Claims Arbitrator with the Civil Court of the City of New York. She also volunteers with the NY Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Ms. Blecher has been co-chair of the Cornell Alumni Admission Ambassadors Network for Committee #25 (Stuyvesant High School) for nearly 20 years. She also sits on the Board of Directors for the Give Back Foundation, a volunteer group whose mission is to help local individuals and families within surrounding Central Jersey counties who have had temporary setbacks.

Ms. Blecher received her JD from the New England Law School in Boston, magna cum laude.

Ms. Grossenbacher is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw’s Washington, D.C. office concentrating in labor and employment law. She is Chair of the Washington, D.C. Labor & Employment Practice Group and also heads the Firm’s National Workplace Privacy team. In addition, Ms. Grossenbacher serves on the Steering Committee of the Firm’s Global Privacy and Security team and the firm’s national Labor and Employment Steering Committee.

In the workplace privacy area, Ms. Grossenbacher specializes in advising employers on workplace privacy issues, such as monitoring of electronic communications, such as social media, texts, group messaging and personal email accounts, video surveillance, workplace searches and investigations, and preparation of policies that raise workplace privacy issues, such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, workplace communication policies, electronic communications policies and social media policies. Ms. Grossenbacher also specializes in advising employers on responding to cybersecurity incidents and data breaches, including preparation of data breach response plans. Ms. Grossenbacher is a frequent presenter, author and blogger on workplace privacy issues.

Ms. Grossenbacher is both an experienced litigator and counselor. She regularly advises employers on compliance with employment laws, both state and federal, and advises in-house counsel and human resources executives on high-risk terminations, employee privacy issues, and layoffs and also conducts policy reviews and audits of employment documents. Ms. Grossenbacher also has significant experience conducting high stakes workplace investigations for clients.

In the litigation arena, Ms. Grossenbacher has extensive experience representing employers across the country in employment-related litigation on federal, state and local levels before courts, arbitration tribunals and administrative agencies. Ms. Grossenbacher’s record in obtaining summary judgment on behalf of her clients is stellar, and she regularly litigates claims concerning discrimination, wage and hour violations (including collective actions), violations of ERISA, enforceability of arbitration agreements in the employment context and covenants not to compete.

Ms. Grossenbacher is well-versed in issues facing non-profit employers, as she represents a number of the largest non-profit organizations in the country. She also represents a number of startups and emerging companies and advises them on the labor and employment issues facing growing companies.

Ms. Grossenbacher joined Seyfarth Shaw in 1993 after clerking for the Honorable Mildred M. Edwards of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia.