Law360 (September 1, 2010, 1:16 PM EDT) -- It is not uncommon in product liability and other types of cases for plaintiffs to attempt to take the deposition of the defendant company's chief executive officer and to argue that the deposition is justified because the CEO acted as the "public face" of the company in making public statements and testifying before legislative bodies or administrative agencies. As discussed below, there have been several recent state and federal decisions addressing the "apex deposition rule" regarding depositions of high-ranking corporate officials and, in particular, the relevance of public statements and testimony by these officials in the determination of whether they can be deposed....