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Cannar, Nicholas
US Fact Witness
Mr. Cannar is a retired counsel and executive formerly employed by several BAT companies, including BATCo, WD & HO Wills (now BATAS), and Wills spin off Imperial Tobacco Australia. Cannar also acted as external counsel to Wills while with the firm of Eversheds. During his career in the tobacco industry he held the following positions:
- BATCo, Counsel, 1981-1985
- BATCo, Company Secretary & Head of Legal Department, 1985-1991
- Eversheds, External Counsel to BATCo, 1991-1995
- Wills, Director of Legal Services, 1995-1999
- Imperial Tobacco Australia, Managing Director, 1999-2003
Head of the Legal Department for BATCo, Mr. Cannar supervised Project Discovery, which catalogued the degree of harm that documents at the Group Research & Development Center would do to BATCo, Brown & Williamson ("B&W"), and other BAT Group companies if discovered in litigation. Mr. Cannar played a central role in various other document management projects at BATCo that the United States alleges were part of BATCo's fraudulent document management policy. Mr. Cannar directed that Andrew Foyle create the document that became known as the "Foyle Memorandum." After becoming Director of Legal Services for Wills, Mr. Cannar directed discovery efforts in response to a wave of product liability litigation. Mr. Cannar gave instructions to destroy smoking and health research documents while additional litigation was on foot.
Source: United States' Factual Memorandum Pursuant to Order #470, Section V (tab 1)