An animal rights group made a public records request for research studies conducted by one of our firm's clients at a major university.
These requested studies included confidential and proprietary information. In addition to a complaint filed under the state public records law, the animal rights group also sought extensive discovery concerning the research studies at issue. Jeff Ireland, along with Brian Wright and Jacqueline Brown, filed a motion for order prohibiting the disclosure of documents and asking the court to review the documents in camera. The court granted that motion and barred the disclosure of any of the research work pending an in camera review of the documents accompanied by a log.

In July Charlie Faruki was a panelist in the Health Care Forum sponsored by the Dayton Business Journal and by Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
The four panelists participated in a program that was based upon the idea that investment in your employees' physical and emotional well-being is a smart business decision. Charlie and the other panelists discussed efforts that can be made for prevention of illnesses, and the facilities, programs, and events that are effective components of employers' wellness programs.

Don Burton's article, "The Metes and Bounds of the Defendant Class Action in Patent Cases," has been published in the Spring 2006 issue of the Review of Intellectual Property Law of The John Marshall Law School.
The article (at 5 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 292 (2006)) analyzes the potential of the class action mechanism to resolve complex, multi-district patent infringement litigation.

FI&C Associates John Fischer and Eli Kiefaber have published An Overview of the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994 in the July 2006 edition of the LexisNexis Mealey's Privacy Reports.
The article discusses the structure of the statutory scheme and provides a review of caselaw interpreting the metes and bounds of the Act's reach as the tenth anniversary of its enactment approaches. This article also marks the first in a series of articles that FI&C associates will write for Mealey's Privacy Reports. Each FI&C article will discuss a current issues relating to privacy law. Mealey's Privacy Reports is a service of LexisNexis that provides information on the latest developments in the emerging area of privacy litigation. Link: http://www.ficlaw.com/publications/fischer-kiefaber/overview_of_drivers_privacy.pdf

Tim Pepper has been elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dayton Society of Natural History, Inc.
The Dayton Society of Natural History owns and operates the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery and the SunWatch Indian Village/Archeological Park. Tim has served on the Board's Executive and Finance Committees for several years.

Erin Rhinehart, a second-year associate with the firm, was recently appointed as vice-chair of the Bar Briefs Editorial Board.
Bar Briefs is a legal publication put out by the Dayton Bar Association. As vice-chair, Erin's responsibilities include working with the chair of the editorial board and board members to review and edit columns submitted for publication consideration, select local attorneys to spotlight in the publication's "Barrister of the Month" column, and to implement new columns and recurring pieces to highlight the activities and accomplishments of other Dayton Bar Association committees, including the Young Lawyers Committee.