Y2K COULD TRIGGER A LAWSUIT BLIZZARD.

Corporations should develop plans now for coping with Y2K to avoid a groundswell of potential lawsuits later, warns Fred Talbott, a communications specialist at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. "Many corporations are allowing legal advisers to stifle Y2K communication efforts at the very time they should be developing internal and external communication campaigns. I call this the `Y2K silence of the lambs syndrome.' Such advice may just lead them to the legal slaughterhouse later."

Talbott maintains that a failure to advise customers, clients, employees, and shareholders about potential Year 2000 computer impacts and recovery procedures may provide ample evidence for lawsuits later. "This could be interpreted as the intentional failure to fulfill the corporation's fiduciary duty to...