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Depending on the nature of your industry, and especially if litigation is anticipated, it makes sense to have a standardized (yet customizable) plan of action at the ready. This article contains pointers to help this process along.

Career Path columnist Bill Mordan discusses the role of computer judges in the future of law.

The article discusses three risk areas associated with investing in China, including a pervasive undermining of the legal system because of direct personal relationships, or “guanxi.”

Sample Outside Counsel Billing Guidelines Contributed by ACC Legal Operations Members

As the environmental debate enters uncertain territory, companies are beginning to look to the legal department to provide clarity regarding impending legislation, such as the US Clean Water Act. Although it may take years to reach a resolution, it is imperative that in-house counsel understand the potential ramifications on company practices.

Work smarter, not harder. A recent study from the Project for Attorney Retention supports this maxim. Focusing on value and efficiency, as opposed to hours, attorneys are finally achieving the elusive work-life balance they have sought for years. In turn, companies that promote this balance are rewarded with loyal employees and added value.

This is a discussion of key securities law considerations for start-up or early-stage companies preparing to grant compensatory equity awards to employees, directors or other service providers.

What happens when an employee calls the CEO an incompetent jerk in front of others at your non-union company? Is he subject to disciplinary action? Explore the 12 NLRB rules that your employer - and you as their legal leader - should know.

It’s difficult enough when an integral employee decides to leave — clients must be maintained, coverage ensured and investor relations handled. this departure can become even more of a problem when confidential company information is misappropriated. Non-compete agreements are no longer enough to deal with such a situation; learn what to do in order to protect your business’s electronic secrets.

Although many companies today have adopted sexual orientation nondiscrimination policies, in court they have proven surprisingly hard to enforce. This is a lose-lose situation for both the employee and the company. As in-house counsel, you can help everyone do better. Learn how to rewrite your company's policy and, better yet, adopt an anti-discrimination certification mark. These changes will enhance the corporate image and even limit liability in the process.

In a digital age with a free flow of information, it is easy to diminish the value of personal data. The European Commission, however, is set to solidify and unify data protection laws within the European Union under the General Data Protection regulation, and American companies with operations or customers in the European Union will soon find themselves having to comply with a new set of laws that could increase the cost of doing business, as well as significantly impact business operations.

Without the guarantee of privileged communication, it is difficult for in-house counsel to effectively render legal advice to management. It is absolutely essential that counsel consider how a court will analyze privilege in order to ensure that sensitive communications remain confidential. If not, prepare to wave that privilege goodbye.

Companies can use legal analytics to select and manage outside counsel, craft successful case strategy and drive results. Learn how to use data in the context of patent litigation and prosecution activity.

The key to networking is not who can get the most business cards, but rather who can develop meaningful relationships that will ultimately contribute to long-term success.

Sample employee intellectual property assignment agreement

There’s training, and then there’s effective training. This course will look at the three main characteristics of effective training: risk based, business based, and accommodating adult learning styles. Experienced faculty will address how to build an effective training plan based on these three components. The course will also look at the practical aspects of balancing e-learning with live training to make the best use of your budget and employee time; creating “mix and match” modules and facilitator guides to get the most use from your efforts; leveraging internal resources to deliver training that is meaningful to the audience; and measuring and acting on training effectiveness.

The scope of due diligence is expanding in response to the focus on data privacy and security. Find out what you need to know about privacy (through the information lifecycle) for due diligence in mergers and acquisitions and the barriers to collecting and reviewing private information in due diligence. Examine due diligence requests (privacy policies, guidelines, data classifications, security controls) and get suggestions on which members of your due diligence team need to be involved in this effort. Examine limits to gathering, processing and reviewing all of the information you would like to see as you make your decision on whether the deal presents (too much) risk.

The European Unified Patent Court (UPC) – which centralizes patent litigation throughout most of the EU – is on track to go live in late 2016 or early 2017. The new UPC is expected to rival and potentially surpass US courts as the preferred venue for major patent disputes, as US companies will be able to obtain an EU-wide injunction via a single litigation, instead of having to litigate in each jurisdiction. This will drastically reduce costs and improve enforcement, but it won’t be easy. The new system and the changes in procedure and process are complex. Companies must assess multiple factors to decide in advance whether to participate or opt-out. This panel comprised of lawyers dually qualified in the US and UK will focus on how the UPC will impact IP filing and enforcement strategies of US companies, and answer questions such as: What strategic planning should US companies be doing now to prepare for the UPC?; What are the best practices to protect US companies’ patent portfolios in Europe?; What are the commercial advantages of opting-in or out of the UPC?; How will early UPC participants shape the new court system?; How do US companies decide whether to opt-in or opt-out?; How do US companies approach product clearance and FTO in Europe, particularly as applied in licensing and acquisitions?; What are the options for mitigating significant competitor patent risk before it is exacerbated by the UPC?

Appendix A to the 2012 Corporate Counsel University, Session 700- Adding Value: Strategic Planning and Demonstrating Success. It contains strategic business planning questions.

This 16 March 2016, held in Brisbane, outlines how in-house counsel can effectively managing risk in commercial contracts.

This is a sample code of business conduct and ethics policy.

Explains how corporate counsel can implement effective legal training programs as required by the U.S. Sentencing Commission Guidelines.

With new developments in social media, obscurity is starting to disappear. And while this may not change the world, it should change the way you think about communication.

Thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, public companies face potential civil and criminal liability and new internal reporting obligations. Read this article to prepare your company to respond if a whistleblowing complaint comes in.

Social media can be a challenging environment for in-house counsel. In this article, in-house counsel can learn how information on social media platforms can be used ethically in their practice.

Compliance is difficult enough when a company operates in just one country. But difficulties become much greater when a company operates in many. Here are some resources for creating effective global compliance programs that support your company's business goals.