Search

702 - 90 Tips in 90 Minutes: Law Department Best (and Worst) Practices

Brief overview of employment law developments as of 2003

This substantive overview will provide you with the information you need to provide an informed legal opinion about listing or delisting your company. You'll learn the legal requirements a public company must abide by in jurisdictions such as the U.K., France, Germany, and Japan, the trends toward consolidation in Europe, the economics of multiple listings as well as the arguments for delisting and the requirements to do so in several global jurisdictions. This program will also address delisting requirements and related registration issues faced by foreign private issuers in the U.S.

701 ABC's of Intellectual Property Due Diligence for M&A Transactions

Instead of shrinking in horror, let our panel of experts help you answer burning questions in the world of ediscovery including: Is that electronic evidence going to be authenticated and admissible in court? Isn’t there a better way to find the data I’m looking for? The court wants us to produce what? By when? How can you obtain an ediscovery order you can live with? How can you avoid discovery related sanctions? And, what was the judge thinking? A discussion of key cases since the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which went into effect in January 2007 is included.

Given the cyclical nature of the insurance markets, which have compensated for recent disasters and increases in litigation by raising premiums substantially, numerous nonprofit organizations have struggled to better manage this process. Many have tried alternative arrangements such as insurance captives, which place the organization in an ownership position and more directly involved in the process. Other nonprofit organizations have reviewed their risk management practices and have come up with new ideas and concepts, including enterprise risk management. Join experienced counsel who have used these approaches for a survey of current risk management and captive trends, and determine whether such approaches may benefit your organization.

We all know there are new ediscovery provisions in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. But how can a small law department determine the best records retention policy and then manage the records to efficiently respond to the inevitable ediscovery request? What are the basics you must be prepared to address? How do you protect yourself and your IT department from being overwhelmed by burdensome requests? We addressed these issues and more in this program and provided checklists to help you manage the process.

Whether your law department is large or small, general counsel can be pro bono and diversity leaders: enhancing the company’s commitment to socially responsible behavior, serving our profession’s highest goals, and increasing performance and job satisfaction for corporate counsel. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s CLO, and Laura Stein, ACC’s Board Chair and CLO of The Clorox Company (2008 Co-Chairs of the CPBO project), hosted this executive discussion exploring the effective implementation of pro bono and diversity initiatives in law departments. Open only to chief legal officers, the CLO Club was an interactive discussion that employed large and small group dialogue for sharing ideas on successful practices and advice on how to meet challenges.

An overview of intellectual property. Provides guides to trademarks, branding selection, trademark clearance searches, immediate elimination search, preliminary searches, filing considerations, the application process, and other issues related to copyright and patents.

Since the 2004 revisions to the US Sentencing Guidelines, many companies have invested significant time, energy and funds to enhance their internal ethics and compliance programs and infrastructures to ensure that they are effective at detecting and deterring criminal and unethical conduct. However, many US-based multinationals have found that when they attempt to "export" these programs to their foreign offices and subsidiaries, complications arise due to differences in US and local laws, standards of business conduct and accepted ways of dealing with government officials –– not to mention differences in language and culture. This session will explore ways to combat these problems and hurdles while maintaining a respectful, harmonious environment.

In-house counsel who have worked with great paralegals know that they save money, save time, and help an office run right. Come to this session and learn about the many benefits that the savvy use of paralegals can bestow. We'll cover how using paralegals lowers costs, increases productivity and enhances job satisfaction for the attorneys and the paralegals. We'll also present a number of successful models and engage in hands-on exercises. Don't miss this session –– the time that you save by using well-educated paralegals could be your own!

Many companies acquire real estate from time to time. This can range from acquisitions to meet the needs of a company's operational growth to acquisition of real estate in connection with mergers and acquisitions of other companies or business units. The real estate due diligence process can be time-consuming and costly. To a non-real estate lawyer, it can also involve arcane issues of real estate law (such as easements, rights of first refusal, liens and encroachments). This panel is designed to provide the audience with knowledge that they can use to perform real estate due diligence or manage outside law firms providing that service.

This panel will address developments since 2008, with emphasis on the repercussions of the US financial crisis for the European Union, Asian markets, and other global economies. Topics covered will include the Obama Administration's approach to the crisis, and related developments in the European Union, China, and Hong Kong economies. Panelists will also address proposed changes in legal and regulatory structures to respond to the crisis in the US, the European Union, China and Japan.

Under the Obama administration, companies should expect to see a shift in OSHA's emphasis toward greater standards enforcement and away from voluntary partnerships. Employers should prepare for the agency to focus on OSHA recordkeeping, new safety and health standards, a Federal ergonomics standard, and ongoing Congressional debate to the OSH Act. This session will also address actions that in-house counsel can take today to remain on top of the changes and assure compliance.

The company's subsidiary is being sold to a competitor. The CEO's daughter wants to buy a house. An employee confesses an inappropriate activity to you. Conflict can be tough to avoid for in-house counsel. This program will help you assess the critical issues of who your client is, what constitutes a conflict, how far you can go in providing advice to those who aren't your corporate client, and how you can avoid or extricate yourself from this logjam of issues.

We may not all have to address complex environmental permitting issues, but we likely all have to deal with real estate issues. Imagine your company just bought 20 acres for a strip mall or moved into vacant commercial space. Suddenly, buried drums are discovered on the neighboring property and it is now being called a Superfund site. This session will cover issues on how to identify and avoid costly environmental liabilities. The panelists will offer practical insights into environmental terminology, due diligence and negotiating strategies that will help avoid costly expenditures.

Open source software is everywhere and whether you like it or not, your company is using it. It's one of the hottest areas of technology, both in terms of innovation and the ability to implement deep cost savings. This presentation will review the essentials in-house counsel need to know regarding their company's usage of open source software. The panel will also review the latest legal developments in this fast-moving area and what they mean in terms of how to represent your company.

Last year we presented you with a number of professionally acted hypotheticals that ask the audience to interactively navigate a series of ethical close calls. We got such good reviews and the discussion was so active that we are back again with more this year. Visit again with our in-house colleagues as they address a slew of ethical issues that arise in their practices and try to navigate the right course.

This session will focus on the experiences of the major business players in Latin America and their domestic and cross border product and services transactions, as well as financial operations, including raising capital (debt and equity) through the stock exchanges. Other issues to be addressed include; whether debt commitments are being met; whether the regulatory response is designed to provide incentives for better corporate performance, compliance, and governance; whether restructuring or liquidation is the best option to deal with insolvent debtors; and the effectiveness of procedures for restructuring insolvent debtors. Finally, we'll discuss what the future looks like.

This extensive powerpoint outlines competitor agreements, mergers, pricing and distribution agreements, as well as misleading advertising. In both English and French, this will help you decide if your company is ready for Canada's Competition Act.

This material will help the small legal department choose, manage, and work with outside counsel.

This material covers competition law in Switzerland with particular focus on issues of interest to in-house counsel, including useful charts and diagrams for review.

If your organization uses subsidiaries or related companies to carry on parts of its business (in or outside the US), this program will provide practical guidance about some of the legal issues that may arise in relationships between affiliated business entities. These include: issues relating to the creation and capitalization of subsidiary companies; discovery against a parent through its subsidiary; how affiliates can use intellectual property owned by a related company; jurisdictional issues and piercing the corporate veil. Let our panel of your small law peers teach you how to avoid legal liability in these and other related situations.

Climate change is a hot issue around the globe. If you aren’t up to date this session is for you. Our panel of experts will provide an overview of the numerous legal and business issues emerging from state, federal, international and voluntary initiatives aimed at mitigating the potential impacts of global climate change. Attendees will come away from the program with a benchmark of what U.S. companies are doing and a resource guide to better equip them to help guide their company's response to this enormous problem.

All employers need to know when their employees are eligible for an excused protected leave. Now there are so many different types of protected and unprotected leaves for employees. This presentation will help you understand an overview of state and federal laws covering leaves such as: FMLA, disability accommodations, and USERRA. Learn how best to deal with FMLA intermittent leave, employees who have been called up for active military duty, employees requesting extended periods of leave, and leave as an accommodation. Plus our employment specialists will provide a list of possible tools you can make use of to manage disability, wellness and attendance. This program is designed for both the generalist and the employment law specialist.

Developed with the transactional attorney or corporate generalist in mind, this session will provide you with the fundamentals to draft and negotiate legally enforceable environmental terms and conditions for the purchase of real property and the sale of an on-going concern with environmental liabilities. Our panel will focus, in particular, on environmental law including indemnification provisions, baselines, and related insurance. From this program, you will be able to draft and negotiate environmental terms in a contract without being forced to go to outside counsel for assistance.

ACC compiled the concerns and unresolved challenges identified scores of CLOs of the largest public and private companies in the US and Canada, culminating in a report to the in-house profession of the concerns that keep CLOs awake at night, as well as their vision for the solutions that should be pursued to address them. Look into our unique crystal ball to view the emerging challenges that will occupy your law department’s time and attention in the coming years. Find out what top in-house thought leaders believe is around the corner, and how to best prepare to meet those challenges.

A must for any in-house practitioner needing to stay up to speed on current employment law, this permanent fixture on the ACC Annual Meeting agenda will do just that. Join our panel to learn about new case law and legislation that affects employment and labor law issues. You will take away resources to draw from to help you understand these changes and how they might affect your company's employment practices.

By 2010, nearly one in three workers in the United States will be over the age of 50. As the relative proportion of younger workers declines, attracting and retaining experienced and reliable workers will become a core business strategy for all employers. Our panel discussed the impact that older workers are having on the workplace, legal issues related to phased retirement and nontraditional work arrangements as well as proposed and pending regulations relating to phased retirement.