Defense Counsel Journal
Privacy Project V Foreword
Volume 84, No. 3
February 07, 2020
S. Gordon McKee
S. Gordon McKee
Gord McKee is a Senior Partner with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP with a national class actions and product liability practice and is a longstanding, active member of the IADC.
We were honored and humbled to be asked by President, John T. Lay, Jr., to work on and spearhead Privacy Project V in memory of Joan Fullam Irick, former IADC President. Privacy Project V will be published in two editions because of the overwhelming and excellent response of IADC volunteers. The first edition appears in this July 2017 Defense Counsel Journal, and the second edition will be published in the October 2017 Defense Counsel Journal. We formed a Special Board of Editors who worked with their assigned Authors and shepherded along their articles. These authors and editors are to be thanked and recognized for the unending time and effort in writing, editing, rewriting, fact and cite checking and finalizing their articles for review by the Defense Counsel Journal Editorial Board.
While the authors’ names will appear with each article, their silent editors may not. Hence, we pay tribute to the following Special Editorial Board: Kurt Gerstner, Robert (Rob) Hunter, Bradford (Brad) Ingram, Cecilia Lahaye, Rex Linder, Eve Masinter, Gordon (Gord) McKee, Kenneth (Ken) Meyer, Richard (Dick) Neumeier, Joseph (Joe) Ryan, Jr., and Michael Smith. We also thank the IADC staff, Amy O’Maley McGuire, Ashley Fitzgerald, Robert Greenlee, and Mary Beth Kurzak; the Defense Counsel Journal Editorial Board, and the IADC Foundation.
Joan was the first female IADC President. She was to serve for the 2002-2003 term. Joan made the issue of corporate and personal privacy a key theme for her administration. Yet, it was before she began her presidential term that she passionately sought and obtained approval for the First Privacy Project that she saw published in January 2003. Although Joan died before completing her presidential term, her privacy theme lived on and thrives today in her memory. Her planned second volume became The Joan Fullam Irick Privacy Project, Phase II, published in January 2004 by the IADC Foundation. It was renamed in honor of Joan, described by many as the IADC’s beloved President.
Phase III came along three years later in 2007 and was dedicated to Joan’s husband, Tom Irick, in recognition of not only all Joan and Tom Irick brought to and did for the IADC, but to recognize Tom’s continuing active role in the IADC.
In 2011, Phase IV was published and dedicated to the memory of Joan Fullam Irick. Then President, Joe Ryan, considered Phase IV one of his primary initiatives to further Joan’s legacy with the IADC.
Now, in 2017, President Lay will see one of his administration’s initiatives come to fruition in not one, but two editions of the Defense Counsel Journal.
You will discover in Phase V some familiar authors from earlier Privacy Projects, beginning with the initial publication, over 14 years ago, in January 2003. We believe that Joan would be pleased with the excellent global perspective of Privacy Project V.
We not only hope, but know, that this brainchild of Joan’s will continue to grow and flourish in years to come. Joan had the foresight to know that historical memory is the one thing we as human beings can and do learn from. We are reminded in our daily lives of the importance of privacy. This is true even more so today with social media, e-discovery, text messaging, instant messaging, etc. Even George Orwell would have been confounded by our society.
Privacy is a cornerstone of a free society. The principle of privacy, along with other equally vital principles is protected worldwide by constitutions and laws. It is part of the social order.
In the words of Ayn Rand: “Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”
We often hear at memorial services that a person lives on when spoken about. It is when no one continues to speak of those that preceded us that they are forgotten. Joan and the Privacy Project that she so passionately pursued, lives on with the IADC through The Joan Fullam Irick Privacy Project established and founded by the IADC Foundation.
Joan, we give to you this 2017 Privacy Project V and think of you with a poem from Thomas Moore:
THE SCENT OF THE ROSES
Let Fate do her worst; there are relics of joy,
Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy;
Which come in the night-time of sorrow and care,
And bring back the features that joy used to wear.
Long, long be my heart with such memories filled,
Like the vase in which roses have once been distilled ~
You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.
Eve Barrie Masinter and Gordon McKee
Co-Chairs of the Privacy Project V Special Editorial Board
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