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.

While definitions may vary, the term is generally employed as a catch-all phrase for workers employed through non-traditional, intentionally impermanent work arrangements, such as independent contractors, leased employees, consultants, on-call workers, part-time workers, and temporary employees.

This study explores the changing role of the general counsel by documenting its evolution and predicting the skill sets that will be required for future general counsel to be successful. Central themes to this skill set include the ability to place legal issues in a larger business context, embrace risk and make decisions, communicate with business partners in language they can relate to, and work seamlessly with the executive team and the board of directors to make productive decisions about operations and strategy, which has become increasingly global in scope. The report includes an executive summary, key findings, interview excerpts and the methodology.

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.

No longer is the annual report a dry recitation of financial figures. Increasingly, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings have become a canvas for broad, aspirational statements on corporate environmental and social practices. Publicly traded companies now face overlapping and sometimes conflicting demands for transparency from the SEC, activist shareholders, customers, and non–governmental organizations on subjects as disparate as conflict minerals, climate change, material environmental liabilities, and social mandates. These disclosures, which inevitably carry some degree of subjectivity, are fraught with obvious risks, including SEC enforcement actions, shareholder lawsuits and civil litigation based on consumer deception or false advertising claims. This program will provide corporate counsel with tips and case studies for working with their corporate colleagues and outside auditors to obtain information critical to making accurate and defensible disclosures that will highlight company accomplishments without creating unnecessary litigation or enforcement risk.

Selected cases and materials related to arbitration.

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.

This article offers practical guidance on recognizing an ethical dilemma or conflict when you're facing it, and gracefully navigating your way through it.

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.

Labor and employment laws in the United Kingdom are notoriously employee-friendly. Learn how to navigate the minefield of disciplining, and ultimately dismissing, UK employees.

This is a sample software database license agreement.

This material discusses attorney-client privilege rules from around the world and how they apply in the compliance context. It also includes the pros and cons of non-lawyers assuming compliance roles.

This resource is a detailed statement of corporate policies for social media usage.

If the weather outside mimicked the economic outlook for corporate America, it would be overcast with periods of heavy rain. With a tough financial forecast, even tougher leadership decisions have to be made, and a layoff or reduction-in-force (RIF) may be the most feasible solution to save your bottom line. While there's no easy way to execute a RIF, this article gives insightful information to help make a layoff less painstaking and more profitable to your company.

Many employers have implemented education and employee disciplinary guidelines to address workplace violence in the United States. While both are important, they often fail to provide employees with tools that could prevent one of the root causes of workplace violence: impacts of early trauma.

The beginning of a shift toward a more regulatory and less litigation-oriented regime of antitrust enforcement was observable by the mid-1990s, if not earlier. The transition
toward this more bureaucratic approach by antitrust enforcement agencies is the subject of our analysis.

This informative presentation addresses the question of whether your company needs a compliance program, what makes an effective compliance program, and what compliance obligations apply to your company.

In the midst of all of the corporate scandals that have erupted since the Enron bankruptcy filing last year and in light of the new requirements established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, what do in-house counsel of public companies need to do both to protect their clients (the corporation, its officers, employees, and shareholders) and themselves? Read this article to get a better grasp of the scope of the problem and use the five-point compliance plan to help plan a solution.

Strategy is the word when it comes to approaching a quagmire of patent litigation. Regardless of the business or field of industry, it's the key to overcoming competition and protecting your market interests. Glean some food for legal thought on launching a successful global patent litigation.

While this paper highlights the shortfalls of Australia’s privacy law regime in light of the IoT, lawmakers should not impulsively and unnecessarily restrict these technologies.

Learn how to implement comprehensive incident management program that reinforces an organization’s commitment to ethical business practices.

By breaking down the details, in-house counsel can sensibly learn how “self-driving” cars are designed to work, and navigate future interactions with regulators and investors throughout the process.

“It’s alive!” says Dr. Frankenstein, as his monster creation opens its eyes. We all know the tale, but have you ever considered how it might impact in-house practice? Not just wearable, but implantable, computing devices may not be fantasy for long, and legal departments would be wise to consider the privacy and data protection policy that will keep employers safe as they venture into uncertainty.

The increased connectivity of people and things is creating previously unimaginable amounts of data. In this article, in-house counsel can learn how to avoid the ethical perils and pitfalls of big data.

The legal industry is changing and technology is a big part of that change. Learn more about technology in the legal profession and how learning a little can benefit your practice a lot.

The SEC is ready to tap its Investor Protection Fund — the IRS recently awarded $104 million to an ex-banker for providing information related to an international tax case. Companies and their counsel should take heed and encourage potential whistleblowers to report alleged wrongdoing internally. This requires establishing a culture of speaking up. Learn how to institute effective reporting mechanisms.

You may have never cared about (or truly understood) commercial mortgage-backed securities. But in the steadily lengthening to-do lists of in-house counsel, you may find yourself navigating the industry at the request of your company’s leadership. What does it mean for your employer’s present and future growth? Or, what does it mean period? Find answers to your burning CMBS inquiries in this article.