Shareholders are important stakeholders for every company; however, recent events have shown the risks and legal liabilities a company faces when dealing with them. Recent regulatory and legislative developments, such as new SEC rules permitting electronic proxy distribution, and the New York Stock Exchange’s action to eliminate broker non-votes, add complexity to these matters. Our expert panel will discuss a range of legal issues relating to conducting the annual meeting, proxy disclosure and solicitation issues, the legal response to possible shareholder activism, and the role of proxy service provider Institutional Shareholder Services in your company's relationship with shareholders.
More and more employees are qualifying for certain benefits deemed for domestic partners. This is a relatively new area for benefits coverage: here is a your chance to get a clear picture up close from your in-house peers as they share their expertise on current legal status of domestic partners and best practices. You will come away from this session with a better understanding of the legal rights, or lack thereof, of domestic partners and their family members to employee benefits and other HR matters. Plus you will take home forms for use in employee handbooks and other company documents.
If you are a managing attorney, are you aware of your obligations under the Rules of Professional Responsibility? Sure you manage your own ethics, but do you know that you are also responsible for ensuring the professional responsibility of the attorneys you supervise and the compliance with professional standards for paralegals, secretaries and other non-lawyer staff? Come to this session and learn your additional ethics responsibilities as a managing attorney.
In today's global economy, strategic alliances have taken center stage. Organizations of all shapes and sizes, across all geographic and industry sectors, are actively building partner-centric business models and designing partner-leveraged strategies. These corporate networks of alliance relationships pose some interesting legal challenges for in-house counsel. How are strategic alliances structured, negotiated and implemented? How should issues such as limitation of liability, protection of intellectual property and confidentiality be addressed? How are performance metrics translated into contractual language? What particular concerns arise when alliances go cross-border? How has Sarbanes-Oxley complicated the alliance landscape? What does the future hold for strategic alliances? Our panel of experts with deep experience in the legal aspects of strategic alliances will teach you the law and share their particular experiences addressing the unique legal issues that alliances may present.
The mandate of the in-house lawyer is to limit risk while at the same time helping to grow the company's business. How do you protect the company and ensure legal compliance without being labeled the "sales prevention department?" How do you encourage Sales and Marketing departments to include Legal in their business processes at the appropriate time? This program will explore specific, practical strategies designed to align compliance/risk management objectives with the business goal of driving revenue. Speakers will describe how to develop common ground with sales and marketing personnel to produce profitable business that also satisfies the company's compliance and risk management requirements.
"Patent litigation" - unfamiliar venues, strange procedures, and crippling potential downsides often come to mind with these words, and companies’ patent dockets continue to expand. This panel of patent litigation veterans will draw from their experiences to help you better address your next patent case, from practical tips to new case law that will drive the cutting edge of this important topic.
UBIT, Lobbying, political activity, and involvement in commercial ventures. Sound familiar? In-house counsel will appreciate this review of the major tax issues confronting nonprofits.
New regulations and ever-evolving standards are changing the relationship between companies and their auditors, and the way audits are conducted. What are the company's legal obligations when working with auditors? How can in-house counsel assist in the audit process? Who is in charge and what are the standards? What can be done when auditors change their minds? How can you best protect the attorney/client privilege in the audit process (e.g., minutes, litigation reserves)? Learn the answers to these and other pressing questions from our panel.
ACC’s focus on privilege protection led us to look into the evolving (devolving?) relationship between lawyers and auditors for the company, but what we found takes us far beyond problems that arise in the context of auditor access to confidential or privileged files: additional dissatisfactions permeate the relationship. This program will present the results of this year’s examination of how to improve lawyer-auditor rapport and propose ideas to help facilitate the important work that lawyers and auditors should be working together to accomplish. We’ll look at privilege protection, contract terms, indemnification/liability assumptions, investigation techniques, and more.
With growing emphasis on controlling the costs of litigation, corporate counsel must demonstrate value using objective measurements. The emerging best practices for measuring the value of litigation management require metrics using methodology CFOs understand and in which they will have confidence. Our panel of law department leaders will demonstrate litigation management metrics and how they can be used in combination with risk analysis and early case assessment to improve litigation results. Plus they will share their experience with putting together a metrics program for the legal department, describe the various measurements that should be considered for inclusion and provide an overview on how best to collect and aggregate the appropriate data into reports for specific audiences, including finance groups.
If you conduct business around the world, you know data privacy policies are far stricter outside the US than in. When you add Sarbanes-Oxley regulations to the mix, all bets are off. If you have US headquarters with international operations, you likely ponder the issue of privacy vs SOX often. Have all the answers? Didn’t think so! This session will take a quick look at the SOX expectations and trends of centralizing policies in the US and then move onto a discussion of the EU data protection directive, the incompatibilities of the EU and SEC policies, and what other jurisdictions may be in conflict with existing compliance obligations.
Learn the recent changes to this important financial disclosure document filed by most nonprofits. This panel will examine recent changes to the 990 disclosure form and the changing financial disclosure requirements facing nonprofits today.
Professional ethics and personal liability issues are at the top of everyone’s agenda these days, but it’s hard to plan ahead how you’ll respond without some practice…. But hey, who wants to say they’re experienced in dealing with this? Have a bit of fun and test/hone your own responses as ACC delivers this unique, often humorous, interactive, and fast-paced "ethics reality show." Using in-seat voting technologies that allow us to track and post your responses in real-time on a screen up front, the audience will direct the action as an ethically-challenging hypothetical unravels before them: the audience will decide which actions and decisions our corporate counsel "hero" will make, while a panel of ethics experts will discuss the practical impacts of each decision and then tell you how you did! Don’t wait for a real-life crisis to emerge to try your hand at thinking through the problems; do a dry run on ACC!
Businesses spent over $16 billion in the US online advertising market last year. Is your business one of them? This panel is a business lawyer's primer about the online advertising industry. It will answer the following questions: How do my clients monetize their companies web site(s)? How do we better promote our products or services over the Internet? What are the IP, regulatory, data privacy and other legal ramifications of all this activity? We will try to make you cool and conversant in the alphabet soup of online advertising, from CPC to SEO. Please join us.
Antitrust is a potential high-risk area for many companies. The consequences of an antitrust violation can be severe and substantial. A proactive way for companies to reduce and manage their potential antitrust liability is to conduct an antitrust audit. An effective audit will review and evaluate the company's potential antitrust risk areas, and provide recommendations of ways to eliminate or reduce those risks. But how do you design and conduct an efficient and productive antitrust audit that also is not too costly or burdensome for the company? Our panel has the answers! Join your in-house counsel peers as they focus on best practices for conducting a beneficial and cost-effective antitrust audit. They will describe the audit techniques and processes they have found to be successful, and share specific suggestions for developing antitrust audits that will provide value to your company.
More than just a catchphrase we remember from law school, this is an everyday problem for every business, made even trickier now by the prevalence of electronic ordering and web-posted agreements. Our panel will review the law and offer drafting tips for your company's standard forms, and practice/procedure benchmarks to help your sales/procurement team act (and react) appropriately in the contracting process without being perceived as the deal-killer.
The goods have your logo, but they aren't your company's products. Learn the best practices that corporate counsel should follow to most effectively protect against the growing problem of counterfeit and gray market goods. We begin with a discussion of the current state of the law including the most relevant cases, key statutory provisions and current governmental policies. Then, we look ahead to discuss current plans and proposals to improve the present protection available to companies. We conclude with the speakers discussing their relevant experiences both in the U.S. and abroad in addressing these problems and the real world solutions they used to achieve success. The course materials included will provide resource materials such as checklists, recommended policies and resource lists, including relevant URLs, bibliographies, essential governmental bodies and articles to help attendees combat these two growing problems.
Does your department have technology envy? Let our in-house experts help you find more time in your day by updating you on the latest software and other technology available to help you manage claims, corporate filings, and project development, all to assist you with running your legal department more efficiently.
Here is your chance to enhance your ability to be an effective executive in today's corporate environment. Our panel of your peers who have been there, done that, will share with you tips for executive leadership and being an effective manager, how to deal with (and stand up to) a board of directors/advisors, what does risk assessment and management mean in today's world, how does ethical leadership drive profit and employee satisfaction/retention and that compliance is more than just meeting the minimum standards.
Are you still having problems getting your outside counsel to understand what you really mean by cost management, responsiveness and understanding your business? Get an update on the latest practical techniques and suggestions to help improve your in-house relationship with outside counsel from this panel of both outside and in-house counsel as they share their innovative approaches to managing legal relationships.
Contains census information regarding law dept. budgets, ratings of in-house counsel by CEOs, and a list of essential law dept. tools.
General information for conducting & managing international legal work from the U.S., including negotiating deals, conducting due diligence, and maintaining foreign offices.
Discusses FTC enforcement of COPPA (Children?s Online Privacy Protection Act) and safe harbour programs.
Discusses circumstances that create business liability, dealing with liability, and the importance of observing legal formalities.
Compilation of articles with checklists addressing compliance, ethics, crisis communication planning, employment law, disaster planning and financial/ business transactions in the aftermath of 9/11.
Article explaining how to successfully structure and execute a management buy-out.
Legal considerations, tools, security, choosing suppliers, and other issues regarding the creation of a web-based ordering system. Also, bullet points addressing supply chain optimization opportunities, internal & external networks, and cautions.
Center for Legal Policy Civil Justice Report:"Class Action Magnet Courts: The Allure Intensifies?: p.4-19 (discusses problems with the judicial system leading to the creation of magnet courts like those in Madison County). Chicago Tribune editorial discussing proliferation of"venue shopping? by civil plaintiffs: p.20-21Center for Legal Policy Civil Justice Report:"Class Action Magnet Courts: The Allure Intensifies?: p.4-19 (discusses problems with the judicial system leading to the creation of magnet courts like those in Madison County). Chicago Tribune editorial discussing proliferation of"venue shopping? by civil plaintiffs: p.20-21
Bullet points on building a better relationship between HR & Legal Dept.
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