As companies expand throughout Africa, legal departments must be prepared for new needs and risks. This article highlights how to address legal challenges specific to the continent.
Managing outsourcing relationships and negotiating technology solutions can prove to be difficult for in-house counsel, especially if they are brought into the process too late to be effective. This article discusses the benefits of adding counsel to the acquisition team early on in order to immediately influence the direction of the negotiations and ensure a more effective outcome for the client.
This InfoPAK examines the concept of organizational effectiveness and how corporate counsel can use its principles to effectively develop an international, “world-class” legal department. The InfoPAK focuses primarily on “soft” organizational development issues, including those relating to development of a shared vision and organizational culture for the legal department, and development of the people who make up the department. The InfoPAK begins with a discussion of the important foundational step of aligning the legal department’s priorities with the organization’s business strategy and developing a corresponding shared vision for the department. Discussions of successful management of client relationships and internal departmental issues including leadership issues and team management follow. Because change is the one constant in today’s legal department, the InfoPAK also discusses change management and creating a “one team” culture. Finally, it discusses metrics and measurement tools for managing organizational development.
Learn about key data protection and cybersecurity laws in this multi-jurisdictional guide.
Open source software is being incorporated into commercial software products at increasing rates. Despite the association of open source software with a sense of public-domain freedom, open source software is in fact licensed with a variety of restrictions. Although open source software also carries risks of patent liability, this article focuses on the unique interplay between open source software and copyright law, and suggests best practices to limit your company’s potential copyright liability.
Derivatives, or contracts based on the value of something else, have been receiving a lot of publicity, particularly with regard to their alleged abuse. This article sheds light on the many uses of derivatives, including their role in risk management. Learn more about derivatives, including how new regulation has affected their function.
In-house counsel can take advantage of delays in the effective date of several key Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements to refine their health care strategies for 2014 and 2015. This program will focus on the ACA requirement that most employers provide all full-time employees (who average 30 or more hours per week) with health coverage that meets federal standards of affordability and minimum value. There is no “one-size-fits-all” compliance model for businesses. This presents both a compliance challenge and a strategic opportunity for in-house counsel. Our panelists will provide sophisticated information on how to take into account factors about your company — including its turnover rate, reliance on part-time employees, vulnerability to union organizing, use of staffing agencies, seasonal fluctuation and systems for tracking hours worked — in choosing a health plan design and coverage options. We will also cover how your company will deal with the new state-based insurance exchanges, as well as new rules on waiting periods and wellness programs. Panelists will answer specific questions on these new requirements and enforcement issues.
Public reporting company status is traditionally prestigious, increases access to capital, improves liquidity and enables more favorable financing terms and opportunities. Yet public reporting company status exposes companies to the glare of public scrutiny and burdensome compliance obligations, often before they are ready to shoulder those responsibilities and sometimes without raising much capital or increasing liquidity and financing opportunities appreciably. In the meantime, the private equity markets increasingly dwarf the public markets and provide the overwhelming amount of capital markets investment. This article addresses the question of when should companies go public, and when should they stay private.
In this ACC Guide, an overview of recent developments in post-grant proceedings before the United States Patent Trial and Appeal Board are explained. With relatively new administrative proceedings developed for challenging competitor grants, in-house counsel will need to familiarize themselves with this knowledge to prepare for hearings.
No new laws or regulations have been adopted expanding legal liability to cover caregiver or victims of COVID-19. However, the EEOC’s guidance is a good reminder of what the law requires – and does not require – when addressing employees or applicants who may be caretakers.
Here are the top ten takeaways of what the guidance does and does not do.
Learn about key procedures for the recognition and enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
This article discusses the EU Council and Parliament September 2023 announcement that they have provisionally agreed to new rules to specifically prohibit certain types of misleading green claims.
Procurement of green energy and associated certificates is at the top of the agenda for many industrials, who are particularly impacted by soaring energy costs and required to meet ambitious ESG and decarbonization goals. As a result, industrial organizations are seeking to obtain all or most of their power from renewable sources.
This article focuses on the third of the three principal types of transaction structures used in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Mergers, which means not a generic kind of business combination, but “statutory Mergers” executed pursuant to one or more states’ merger statutes, in which one company merges into another. Following the discussion are “Deal Points” on important considerations in the purchase or sale of a business: what to do, and what at all costs not to do.
On 20 October 2011, the European Commission proposed a new directive on criminal sanctions for insider dealing and market manipulation. This proposal was approved by the European Parliament on 4 February 2014. In this legal alert, we outline the main changes.
This article provides a brief summary into changes that the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) have each made to their existing rules. Specifically, both organizations have embraced technologies that were necessary to adapt to the changes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic (such as the use of electronic communications and remote hearings).
As business professionals, in-house counsel are required to collaborate with many stakeholders with different incentives. Join our experienced panelists as they discuss obstacles to collaboration and how to overcome them. Panelists will provide insight and practical tips on working within your legal department, working with different groups within the company (such as sales) and working with those outside the company (e.g., customers, outside counsel and opposing counsel) to achieve corporate goals and succeed within the department and company. Move from, “That's not my job” to “I’ll take the lead.”
This ACC guide provides a Q&A that gives a high level overview of board composition, the comply or explain approach, management rules and authority, directors' duties and liabilities, transactions with directors and conflicts, company meetings, internal controls, accounts and audit, institutional investors and reform proposals in Canada.
Learn about Nigeria's 2022 data protection landscape and privacy trends for 2023.
Learn about changes to Iowa privacy law, effective January 1, 2025, to protect consumer data.
Learn about challenges to E-commerce in the United States.
In-house counsel have amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to contend with, and the high costs of complying with them tend to come from the legal department's pocketbook. Learn about how to recover from the cost of ediscovery.
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have been gaining traction during the past 18 months, although more recently they have come under the spotlight for more negative reasons. Following high-profile litigation associated with certain de-SPAC deals and statements from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), many investors are now starting to question SPACs as an investment vehicle of choice.
Class and collective action litigation continue to evolve. Recently, appellate courts have issued precedential decisions affecting class size, composition and standards for certification.
This is a template for a business plan for the creation and management of a new legal department.
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