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Find out what executives say about etiquette in the workplace, and learn how to tend to your network in just five minutes a day. You will gain better insight into your social networking style through interaction with panelists, including an engaging quiz.

The genesis of the vast majority of corporate scandals erupting over the last decade has been financial bad behavior. Thus, it behooves in-house counsel to understand the basic how, what, when, where, and why of financial statements, balance sheets, and accounting principles. Otherwise even in the best-case scenario in-house counsel might find himself/herself fiddling while Rome burns, or worse, active or passive participants in financial mismanagement. The good news is that you don't have to become an accountant to understand these concepts, but you do have to educate yourself. Financial Immersion does just that. This knowledge will make you a better partner to your clients and a more informed guardian of the corporation's reputation.

The ability to effectively manage outside counsel is essential to the success of in-house lawyers. Learn how to select, evaluate, compare, and retain the outside counsel that best suits the organizational
needs of your company; develop lists and criteria for preferred legal service providers and specialized firms; understand key terms and provisions of engagement letters and firm guidelines; conduct conflict checks and handle outside counsel waiver requests; implement alternative billing models; and how to optimize the use of technology and knowledge management with your outside counsel.

This panel discussion provides insight in how to plan, prepare, coordinate, and implement a document collection no matter the size or scope. The program covers how to collect and process hard copy information, electronically stored information, and other types of data. It also covers what paralegals need to consider in order to process and get the information their team needs from the data set after the document collection is complete. The paralegal is the front line of defense when finding, collecting, and processing documents. This panel provides insight for the new paralegal to the senior paralegal when confronted with having to collect documents in litigation and non-litigation settings.

This Participants' Briefing Book includes a discussion outline and suggested resources on the topic of FCPA enforcement - success strategies.

This session will give you an introduction into the complexities of electronic discovery. It will provide you with some suggested practical tips and watch-outs. It will put E-discovery in the total context of document and data management in general within a global corporation. Following this session you should be able to identify most pitfalls if faced with E-discovery and know what to do and how to (proactively) minimize risk and efforts in dealing with it.

Designed for small law practitioners, this program asks CLO Club participants to work within groups of ten to respond to a hypothetical problem: the CEO and CFO have asked the CLO to develop a plan for taking a more proactive role in ensuring financial compliance and they want advice on spotting and preventing financial fraud, how to better manage the audit process and auditor contract negotiation, and what to do to ensure that the board is properly engaged in reviewing the company’s financial processes. After developing a plan to respond to this request, each table will report its proposed game plan for the consideration of the group. A general discussion of the groups' reported best practices will ensue.

The highly regulated nature of financial services firms poses unique legal issues for the in-house lawyer charged with ensuring the adequacy of directors and officers insurance. Here is your opportunity to issue spot challenges and identify new insurance product offerings and trends with your peers. Benchmark the most important elements to look for and negotiate in D&O insurance for a financial services firm.

Do you know everything you need to analyze for hiring purposes when considering candidates under a non-compete and what you should have in your own non-competition agreements? What process do you have in place to ensure a prospective candidate is even eligible to be hired: she or he might not be if he is under an active non-competition agreement? Are you properly protecting your own company's business, confidentiality, competition, and trademark interests? Is your company's non-compete agreement enforceable? If you want help with any of these answers, this is a must-attend program for you. Our panel will cover the laws governing non-compete agreements and the duty of loyalty. Plus you will learn about enforcement trends and drafting tips in light of recent court cases and legislation, how to avoid litigation when potential employees are subject to covenants to not compete with or solicit from their previous employer, and the ethical issues surrounding lawyers signing NCAs.

Feel like you are in the old Abbott & Costello, "Who’s on First" routine when conducting international negotiations? Well you aren’t alone. This updated version of the popular 2004 program will teach you new tips to minimize communication misunderstandings during the negotation process. Our panel of international experts will engage in an interactive role-play of negotiations in varying countries and provide tips for translation issues when working in dual language contracts, tactics to expedite/delay negotiations, options or selective disclosure/protection of intellectual property, methods to disagree without killing the deal, interpretation of body language, and variations of "yes", "no", "it’s not my decision to make", and "you’re wasting my/your time".

Is arbitration too expensive? Does mediation prior to litigation simply delay the inevitable? Are executive escalation clauses just a waste of time? Not necessarily. A skillfully worded ADR clause in your contract - drafted before any dispute arises - can address these and virtually any other objection any party might have to alternative dispute resolution. This panel will draw on years of experience with ADR clauses, effective and otherwise, to provide you with broad negotiation strategies and specific contract clauses to help you save you time, money and effort in your next dispute.

A year after the new electronic discovery rules were enacted, many companies and their counsel are seeking better answers to the ever-evolving problem of electronic discovery. This panel will explore best practices in all three segments of the electronic discovery minefield, from securing documents and other information before it's too late to gathering what's needed when it must be gathered to analyzing information efficiently and effectively.

The corporate ""cybersmear,"" in which a false and disparaging rumor about a company, its products, services, management or stock is posted to the internet, is a serious problem that is likely to get worse. Competitors, disgruntled ex-employees, and sometimes even current ones may have the motive, and the opportunity is present due to the current ease of setting up blogs and websites. Do you have a plan for how to deal with these situations? When you get the email from your CEO that says ""take a look at this website about our company and tell me what we can do,"" you need to be ready. Our expert panel will provide some case studies for discussion and will also lay out a plan that will help you be prepared for the day when you get the call to take a look at www.yourcompanystinks.com.

As in-house counsel for your company, one of your many roles may be to provide corporate secretarial and governance support to your company and its subsidiaries. This panel discussion will help you stay on top of the trends in order to provide the best legal advice possible. Here is your chance to get up to speed on the current best practices in board and committee processes. In addition, you will learn practical tips on how to accurately prepare minutes that memorialize substantive discussions and decisions of these groups in a manner that protects your corporation client and independent board and committee members.

Join us for an overview of the latest legal and regulatory issues surrounding executive compensation, including SEC and legislative updates as well as best practices for companies and their compensation committees. Our panel will discuss how companies have complied with the new Compensation Disclosure and Analysis (CD&A) requirements, and present examples of disclosure, and lessons learned, from this year's proxy season. Discussion on current legal issues relating to management of employee benefit plans, including plans that have non-US participants and options backdating issues, and compensation committee basics such as its charter, its membership, and how the committee operates and interacts with company management will also be provided.

Appropriate corporate governance and ethics may start at the door of the stock exchange, but it expands from there. What is the role of the disclosure committee, how should it operate, and how should its activities be documented? How does in-house counsel relate to the auditor, what problems arise in that relationship, and how can they be resolved? What should your compliance structure look like and to who should it report? What is legal counsel’s role in all of this? There is much to be learned and this is a good place to start.

Annual Meeting 2006: Do you know what your employees are legally entitled to when it comes to leave and disability? If not, here is your chance to brush up on the state and federal laws covering leave and disability accommodations, learn how to deal with FMLA intermittent leave, and understand what leave as an accommodation is. Plus take home effective tools to manage disability, wellness, and attendance at your organization.

Annual Meeting 2006: Join us for an overview of the latest legal and regulatory issues surrounding executive compensation, including SEC and legislative updates as well as best practices for companies and their compensation committees. Our panel will discuss the SEC's proposed rule on executive compensation disclosure and the changes you will need to make to next year's proxy statement disclosures. Panelists will also discuss the impact on compensation committee practices as a result of these rules.

In the post-Enron and Worldcom world, the development and maintenance of effective corporate governance strategies and policies remain top priorities for in-house counsel. You are frequently called upon by management and boards of directors as first responders in M&A situations and are expected to guide the company through corporate governance issues affecting M&A transactions. In multinational situations, corporate governance issues are made more complex by the interplay of different legal schemes. Are you prepared when senior management comes knocking? If not, here is your chance to learn the law you need to intelligently advise your management and board. Our panel will review corporate governance issues and responses through all stages of an M&A transaction including planning, due diligence, negotiation, board liability issues, the board approval process, and the shareholder approval process and send you home with the resources you need to counsel your client.

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.

Annual Meeting 2006: Have you been asked to draft and implement an employment arbitration agreement and don’t know where to start? Here is an opportunity to learn from and ask questions of a panel of your in-house peers who just happen to be experts on the subject! Learn the laws that will help you determine the benefits an employee arbitration agreement can provide for your organization, and the effectiveness and enforceability of such agreements. Plus we’ll send you away with sample agreements you can use as a starting point of your own.

Links to sources useful for diversifying a company's work force.

Presented at ACCA’s Annual Meeting 2000; Program - Today’s Business Etiquette

Presented at ACCA’s Annual Meeting 2000; Program - Recent SEC Developments in Public Company Disclosure

Dealer Agreement; Presented at ACCA’s Annual Meeting 2000; Program - Latest Trends in Strategic Alliances

Presented at ACCA's Annual Meeting 2000; Program - IP: A Basic Training Session

Presented at ACC’s Annual Meeting 2000; Program - Copyright Protection in Cyberspace: IP on the ’Net

Presented at ACC’s Annual Meeting 2000; Program - Career Development: Recruiters, the Net, and Beyond Finding Your Next Job

Presented at ACCA’s Annual Meeting 2000; Program - 21st Century Approaches to the In-house/Outside Counsel Relationship

Many of us grew up under a common law system. Others lived in countries that have a civil law system. As in-house practice grows increasingly global, however, it is essential that we understand both traditions and that we also understand the relationships that these two traditions have to the developing legal systems in the world’s emerging economies. This program gave the participants a better understanding of the basic differences between the various branches of these two legal traditions and looked at some of the nuances of the two systems’ different negotiating styles in order to help us more successfully negotiate international transactions.