Resource Library

This roundtable discussions of women in-house attorneys, representing a diverse range of seniority levels, industries and subject matter expertise, will discuss issues unique to women working in large corporations. Their insights will be of interest to a variety of ACC members, including women in-house attorneys seeking to climb the corporate ladder, in-house attorneys of both genders seeking to mentor women in their legal departments, women practitioners seeking to develop business with corporate clients, and male practitioners seeking to strengthen their relationships with the increasing number of female corporate executives.

With extreme economic pressures and tightening budgets, everyone is being
asked to cut costs. Whether you have a small, medium or large legal
department, using the right strategies and resources can help you meet these
goals. This session will examine managing a law department budget, managing
IP, managing contracts and other topics relevant to your practice, all with
an eye towards controlling costs. With these suggestions, you can save
money and improve your efficiencies.

We’ve all been there — swamped, in a new job and not knowing where to start. Hear veterans tell their war stories and the top five things they did (or wish they did) in their first year in-house.

This is a tip sheet for use during advanced negotiations.

This program will consist of a live, interactive mock negotiation of a sports sponsorship deal. The panel will provide the audience with a term sheet and will facilitate a mock negotiation over key deal points. The audience will be invited to identify key issues, offer their solutions on how best to address those issues, and debate the merits of various approaches and solutions. The panelists will guide the audience through the "negotiation," offer their recommendations and insights based on their experience in negotiating these types of deals, and address the issues that arise post signing.

Is negotiation a science or an art? In-house counsel are increasingly involved in deals requiring them to apply a structured approach to this skill. This interactive session will help participants evaluate strategic options when negotiating and will explain the techniques which can be used to increase the probability of success.

Panelists will review common pitfalls when transacting with foreign governments, including governing law/dispute resolution, tax issues and intellectual property, and will discuss strategies for avoiding those pitfalls.

Most companies have key business suppliers upon which they rely. In these relationships, comprehensive agreements are created to memorialize contractual understandings and provide indemnity rights/obligations if things do not go as planned. What do you do if your key business supplier or franchisee does not meet expectations and causes your company a large loss in breach of the protective agreement? Should you write it off as the cost of doing business? Should you retain counsel and sue for indemnity at the risk of souring the relationship and losing future business? Panelists will address approaches that create a satisfying middle ground to enforce indemnity rights and potentially strengthen business relationships.

This course material covers business management of legal departments, strategic planning, risk analysis/calibration, quarterly business reviews, and predictive analytics and metrics.

This Wisdom of the Crowd, compiled from questions and responses posted on the Compliance and Ethics Forum, addresses the standard reporting structure for the General Counsel (GC) role within an organization.