Search

This is a sample employee handbook with state specific appendices.

Law departments are often considered cost centers for the business, not revenue generators. However, there is a variety of ways to change this perception and allow law departments to collaborate with business clients to add to the company’s bottom line. This panel will examine some of the programs and strategies that in-house counsel can use to reduce legal spend and generate revenue. Topics discussed will include affirmative recovery programs (for example, monitoring contractual performance and intellectual property infringement), third-party litigation financing, licensing IP or other valuable assets, investments in new technology, and creative legal matter staffing. This panel will also examine how to build relationships with business clients to create and implement successful programs involving them and how to track and communicate law department profitability and performance.

The assignment of arbitral claims and arbitral awards is a fast-growing market practice. When entering into agreements for such assignments, it is crucial to ensure that they comply with all the applicable legal requirements. In this context, the assignee should carefully assess the risks that may arise out of the award debtor's rights pursuant to the provisions of the law applicable at the seat of arbitration and/or at the place(s) of enforcement of the award. Under French law there is a specific mechanism called the right of "retrait litigieux" ("disputed withdrawal"). In accordance with this singular legal mechanism, which is designed as a tool to fight against speculation, when a disputed claim is assigned to a third party in the course of any judicial or arbitral proceedings, the debtor is entitled to discharge its debt by paying the assignee the actual price of the assignment, plus interest and costs, instead of the full amount of the original debt (article 1699 of the French Civil Code ). As has been seen in the FG Hemisphere v Democratic Republic of the Congo saga, the conditions and requirements for exercising the right of retrait litigieux in the context of assignment of arbitral claims or arbitral awards are uncertain under French law.

This guide is the 2013 edition from Austria-based law firm Wolf Theiss. This guide is meant as a practical guide to renewable energy legislation throughout Europe.

A review of some different approaches to legal and compliance training, taking into account generational differences in the workforce.

As governments around the world enact and enforce ever stricter anticorruption laws, the need to effectively manage sales intermediary corruption risks has become more important than ever.

Your outside counsel has just called you in a panic. He has the company's outside auditor on hold on his other line. The auditor is demanding the law firm's evaluation of a very large and difficult lawsuit now pending against the company. The auditor won't accept the formulation from the ABA-AICPA treaty that allows counsel to decline to provide an evaluation unless the lawyer concludes that liability is either "probable" or "remote." The auditor claims that the lawyers can no longer "hide behind" the "treaty" and must provide a complete analysis because of Sarbanes-Oxley. You know that the law firm has a very negative evaluation of the case, which will result in a big reserve and a large hit to earnings if disclosed to the auditor. But you believe that it is too early to get a good estimate. So you tell the law firm auditor to "stick to the treaty." Your outside lawyer asks, "Have you read the Commission's new Rule 13b2-2 regulation"? No? Well, you had better do so.

This InfoPAK (now known as ACC Guides) provides a high level overview of property law. The Intellectual Property (IP) in business transactions Q&A gives an overview of maintaining an IP portfolio, exploiting an IP portfolio through assignment and licensing, taking security over IPRs, IP and M&A transactions, and the impact of IP on key areas such as competition law, employees and tax in the United States.

James Nortz explores potential arguments for and against assisting other businesses when they are down, applying ethical considerations and balancing such corporate altruism with your own company's professional goals.

One expert estimates total downloads of mobile apps will exceed 268 billion by 2017. As apps proliferate, how do you find the high-tech gems in all the clutter and noise? Join our panel for a discussion of the best apps for in-house lawyers, and hear their nominations for the best in-house app of the year: the Best App Standing.

January/February's cover story discusses the efforts of the US Justice Department to establish individual criminal accountability for corporate wrongdoing, and how to build a commensurate compliance program.

Commercial transactions move at a breakneck pace in today’s business environment. Technological advancements in contract drafting programs, word processing, and video/telephone conferencing have enabled more agreements to be completed in less time. Even so, a bottleneck persists for many organizations during the execution phase of an agreement, governed by archaic principles that don’t take advantage of current laws and technologies. This session will explore the various types of electronic signatures, current laws surrounding electronic signatures, products and services available to support electronic signatures and best practices for adopting an electronic signature program.

Letter from ACC to Supreme Court of Iowa concerning Iowa's proposed changes to Iowa's rule for registration of in-house counsel.

This material provides specific examples of the wide range of current benchmarking data sources available to assess how well you are doing, as well as potential areas of opportunity to improve performance.

This research report discusses ways companies can optimize contract lifecycle management technology.

Employers monitor off-site employees for numerous reasons—not simply to ensure productivity, but to protect trade secrets, avoid data breaches, track an employee’s physical location, and generally discourage or identify misconduct. Most recently, monitoring has been used for COVID-19-related contact tracing purposes. However, privacy-related legal pitfalls abound.

This is a Forbes article addressing how crowdfunding has changed real estate investing.

This Top Ten reviews ten ways SLD attorneys can use technology to manage their work better. Includes a review of automated expense, legal hold, and document management systems.

Too much email? The sheer volume is a distraction. Below is a system to reduce the volume of email received, triage the remainder, and eliminate much of the unnecessary waste associated with a full inbox. It is a system, not magic. It will require some effort. But it will be worth it. The system has two components. Though they are complements, either alone should prove useful in improving your Outlook.

This course is intended to provide an overview of U.S. export controls and to help you recognize "red flags" — situations presenting a risk of legal violations — and deal with them properly.

Sure, we all know that compliance departments provide oversight, coordination, and strategic direction to regulatory compliance activities throughout the company. But what if you've never had one before, and need to get something organized, right away? The author gives tips and insights into setting up a brand-new department.

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.

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.

You are familiar with the US Federal Sentencing Guidelines and have heard about compliance best practices, but wonder: "How in the world am I going to do that?" As a small legal department, the demands are great, resources are scarce, and, often, the businesspeople don't completely understand your role. The Guidelines acknowledge differences between large and small organizations in meeting the requirements for an effective ethics and compliance program. The question is often the “how” of implementation. What are regulators’ expectations for companies with limited resources? What are cost- and time-efficient methods to address constant regulatory scrutiny and change? This program will explore the critical issues for prioritizing with limited resources while regulations continue to increase. This session will also focus on creative strategies to do more with less, such as using risk-based prioritization, tailoring compliance to meet business needs and objectives, and finding third-party vendors to provide support at a reasonable cost.

This InfoPAK (now known as ACC Guides) provides a Q&A that gives a high level overview of the main trends and significant deals in French construction plans.