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.

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.

An overview of software copyrighting.

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 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.

Corporate crises, by their very nature, can severely disrupt a company and jeopardize its future.

This multi-jurisdictional guide covers legal trends and developments in the greater fund finance markets. The guide includes 27 product-oriented chapters and 21 jurisdiction-specific chapters.

This table lists all the overseas jurisdictions (other than People’s Republic of China, Bermuda and Cayman Islands) that the Listing Committee has formally ruled to be acceptable as an issuer’s place of incorporation.

This primer covers issues relating to the insolvency and restructuring market, and the key tools and emerging innovative processes for effecting restructures in 23 jurisdictions.

This multi-jurisdictional guide covers common issues in competition litigation law and regulations – including interim remedies, final remedies, evidence, justification/defenses, settlement, and anticipated reforms.

This multi-jurisdictional guide provides global business leaders and in-house counsel with essential information regarding the current legislative framework and evolving practice for private equity transactions.

This guide provides an overview of key legal issues, rules and developments regarding family law across a range of jurisdictions.

Topics covered include jurisdiction, divorce, cohabitation, relocations, cross-border issues, parental responsibility, and marital agreements.