When Good Faith is Not Good Enough

Andrew Kanter, Vice President, International Operations and Legal Affairs, Autonomy, United Kingdom

As the global economic crisis makes its mark, regulators and courts are sounding off with one message coming through loud and clear, ‘flout the rules, pay the penalties’. In-house counsel, compliance officers and their outside lawyers are responding, forging a new culture of accountability and transparency and changing information governance and eDisclosure policies and practices for good. In July 2009 the Financial Services Authority (FSA) published plans to create a consistent and more transparent framework for calculating financial penalties which could mean some fines treble in size. Margaret Cole, director of enforcement at the FSA, stated the following, "By hitting companies and individuals in the pocket where it hurts, the fines will be a stark warning to others on what they can expect to pay for flouting our rules.” Over 40 new regulations have come into effect in the last year, for example COBS 11.8 in the UK (requires financial services firms to retain client-related telephone conversations). Parties to disputes are experiencing costly consequences and unsolicited media attention for failing to comply with the law, the rules of civil procedure governing disclosure, as well as data privacy and protection statues.

Andrew M. Kanter joined Autonomy in August 2000 as Vice President, International Operations and Legal Affairs, and has served as Chief Operating Officer since 2001. Prior to joining Autonomy, from July 1999 through July 2000, Mr Kanter was an associate attorney with Brobeck Hale and Dorr in London, England, primarily engaged in international mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. From May 1997 through June 1999, Mr Kanter was an associate attorney in the Business & Technology group of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison in San Francisco, CA, and prior to that was an associate attorney with Shearman & Sterling, San Francisco, CA. From August 1995 to July 1996 Mr Kanter was Clerk to Hon. Christine Miller of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Washington, DC. Mr Kanter holds a J.D. from the University of Southern California Law Center and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and also studied at Kansai University of Foreign Studies, Osaka, Japan.

Autonomy has experienced a meteoric rise since it’s foundation in 1996 utilizing a unique combination of technologies borne out of research at Cambridge University. The company currently has a market cap of $4 billion, is the second largest pure software company in Europe and has offices worldwide. Autonomy's position as the market leader is widely recognized by leading industry analysts including Gartner, Forrester Research, IDC and Delphi, with the latter referring to Autonomy as the fastest growing public company in the space.