A recent LawFlash by Morgan Lewis partners Ksenia Andreeva and Vasilisa Strizh and associate Anna Pirogova discusses a draft law proposed in Russia that would introduce heavy fines for violations of Russia’s data protection law and a variety of internet activity laws.

The primary federal data privacy law in Russia, On Personal Data, dated July 28, 2006 (the Personal Data Law), applies to “personal data operators,” which are entities that organize and carry out the processing of personal data and determine the purpose of individuals’ personal data processing. The proposed draft law, On Amending the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, relates to the “localization requirement” of the Personal Data Law, which creates on obligation for personal data operators to collect, store, and otherwise process personal data of Russian citizens using databases and servers located in Russia.

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Cybersecurity continues to be an issue at the forefront of many of our contract negotiations. Though not typically included in the “data security” section of an agreement, the level and scope of cyberinsurance coverage often plays an important factor in the discussions between customer and vendor.

On this topic, Morgan Lewis partners Mark Krotoski and Jeffrey Raskin will present an upcoming webinar as part of our firm’s Cyber Insurance Webinar Series to discuss ongoing developments in the cyberinsurance space, with a focus on the critical factors your company can consider as part of its overall cybersecurity protection strategy. The one-hour webinar, Cyber Insurance: Is Your Company Covered?, will take place on Tuesday, September 17, at 2:00 pm ET.

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The January 1, 2020, deadline to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is fast approaching. Signed into law in the summer of 2018, the CCPA creates a variety of new consumer privacy rights and will require many companies to implement policies and procedures to manage and comply with new consumer-facing responsibilities. Catch up on the details of the CCPA in our previous post, this LawFlash, and the Morgan Lewis CCPA resource center.

An IAPP article by Annie Bai and Peter McLaughlin recently caught our attention, as it discusses the business risks of complying with the “verifiable consumer request” requirement under the CCPA. Under the CCPA, a California consumer may (1) request that a covered business provide access to the consumer’s personal information or (2) request that his or her personal information be deleted. Upon receiving such a request, the covered business must verify the identity of the requesting individual and respond. However, there is not much clarity in the CCPA regarding how a covered business must verify an individual’s identity.

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When we represent customers in outsourcing and managed services transactions, we spend a significant amount of time drafting the exhibits for transition, which is typically a major project in and of itself. In order to help clients think about the major components of transition, we often provide the following checklist of common workstreams to facilitate our discussion.

1. Governance – Governance is an overarching workstream that spans all phases of transition. A key component is the formation of a transition management office that is responsible for managing the overall transition (including performance and risk management) and coordinating with the company’s governance organization.
2. Planning – Detailed design and implementation planning is critical to ensuring timelines are integrated and met, with all dependencies considered. Plans typically include the responsibilities of each party, anticipated completion dates, and acceptance criteria.

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In a recent Law360 article, Morgan Lewis lawyers Gregory Parks, Kristin Hadgis, and Terese Schireson discussed the recently passed bill in Nevada – Nevada Senate Bill 220 (SB 220) – that will require defined “operators” of websites or online services that are used for commercial purposes and collect personal data of Nevada consumers to comply with a consumer’s request not to sell personal information. SB 220 will be the first law of this scope in the United States that provides consumers with opt-out rights with respect to the sale of their data.

With SB 220 going into effect on October 1 of this year, it is time now for operators to implement measures to enable compliance with SB 220. The article offers helpful tips for compliance, including suggesting that affected operators establish designated addresses where consumers can submit requests.

Ed Hansen, Val Gross, and Morgan Richman will run a highly interactive two-part program, “How to Make Complex Contracts and Negotiations Work: Tips and Practices You Can Use Today,” at the Eastern Regional SIGnature Event. The program will guide attendees through complex contracting and collaborative negotiating, providing actionable strategies that can be used in real-world scenarios right away.

In the first session, the team will define and deconstruct "complex" contracts. Attendees will learn techniques to simplify contracts and will learn how to transform a "bad" contract into a user-friendly document that constituents will want to use. The second session will focus on hardcore collaborative negotiating techniques. Using a scenario-based approach, participants will learn the hard skills necessary for building a collaborative negotiating environment, including how to avoid barriers to collaboration, how to achieve alignment, and how to address FUD—fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

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As a follow-up to our recent post on third-party contract due diligence in outsourcing deals, this post focuses on how customers in outsourcing deals handle the disposition of legacy third-party contracts—one of the thorniest and most work-intensive work streams—once diligence has concluded.

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The Q2 2019 issue of Morgan Lewis’s Life Sciences International Review was recently released. The review includes updates relevant to the life sciences industry from across the world, including the United States, Europe, and Asia. The topics range from intellectual property and data privacy to international trade and labor and employment. We found it to be an excellent read for anyone interested in keeping up with current trends in the life sciences sector.

Two of the topics that we found to be of particular interest were about data privacy in the European Union and foreign investments in the United States biotechnology industry. The review looks at the opinion adopted by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) regarding the interplay between the General Data Protection Regulation and the forthcoming Clinical Trials Regulation. The review also discusses the increased activity by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in scrutinizing life sciences transactions, which has led to several transactions being blocked or mitigated.

The Life Sciences International Review is a quarterly newsletter published by Morgan Lewis lawyers with important updates and insights for the life sciences sector. Be sure to look for the next publication coming in the fall!

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently circulated a draft white paper discussing recommended security practices to be adopted throughout the various phases of software development. The white paper provides three overarching reasons for integrating secure development practices throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC) regardless of the development model (e.g., waterfall, agile), namely, “to reduce the number of vulnerabilities in released software, to mitigate the potential impact of the exploitation of undetected or unaddressed vulnerabilities, and to address the root causes of vulnerabilities to prevent future recurrences.”

The white paper discusses the following four secure software development practices, and breaks down each topic by (1) practices, (2) tasks, (3) implementation examples, and (4) references.

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We found interesting a recent Forbes article by Cody McLain that discussed the top trends to watch in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. The article highlighted the following four trends for 2019.

1. Increase in Process Automation

As artificial intelligence (AI) expands to nearly every aspect of our lives, the BPO industry is also impacted and must adapt to the AI revolution. The article estimates that nearly 40% of American jobs could be lost to automation by the 2030s. While BPO companies often thrive in completing manual tasks outsourced by their clients, if AI software were able to do those same services at a fraction of the cost, then BPO companies would lose as their clients choose the more cost-effective solution. The article suggests that BPO companies should adapt to the use of AI and switch their services to work alongside AI (such as managing and maintaining AI) to stay competitive.

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