If the Hillary Clinton email scandal wasn’t a clear enough lesson that one should not conduct “official” work using personal electronic communication tools (be it personal email, texts or other methods), a number of recent court decisions have required executives to produce communications from their personal accounts and devices. Executives and advisors should not assume that communications using methods other than corporate email will somehow be protected or otherwise not find the light of day in the event of a dispute or investigation.
John Schnatter v. Papa John’s International, Inc.
During an earnings call in November 2017, John Schnatter (“Schnatter”), the founder of Papa John’s International, Inc. (the “Company”), criticized the National Football League’s handling of the dispute between players and owners regarding national anthem protests. Some months later, Forbes reported that Schnatter had used a racial slur during a Company diversity training exercise. Schnatter subsequently resigned as chairman of the Company’s board of directors (the “Board”) at the Board’s request, but declined to resign as a director. The Board then established a special committee which decided to terminate agreements that the Company had with Schnatter.
In the wake of these events, Schnatter requested books and records from the Company, including emails and text messages from personal accounts and devices of the Company’s executives.
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