Search

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".

The European Union has been preparing new rules on the provision of financial services across EU borders, called MiFid, that will apply broadly across Europe and allow easier and broader access to European financial markets through a common set of rules. At the same time, outside financial services firms are advancing at a fast pace in China, taking advantage of continuing liberalization efforts there. Take this opportunity to learn about the legal issues that corporate counsel and compliance staff should be most concerned about when it comes to expansion efforts in the E.U. and Asia including expansion opportunities and the related legal risks for financial firms looking to expand into these arenas.

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: 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

The purpose of this paper is to describe how enforcers cooperate with one another and to advise those concerned about antitrust enforcement how they can facilitate or hinder cooperation.

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.

This panel reviewed the basics of trade secrets and the practical steps in-house attorneys should take to protect trade secrets and educate company personnel on how to safeguard them. The panel highlighted recent cases to illustrate the types of disputes that arise from the misuse of trade secrets and how they might be avoided. Finally, the program addressed the nexus between trade secrets and employment agreements including, non-compete agreements and confidentiality agreements, as well as reviewed other important employee issues.

The recent US Supreme Court decision in Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., relaxes the rules on price maintenance—but in Canada such activity remains a “per se” criminal offense. These and other differences can create traps or unnecessary burdens for companies which seek to operate on an integrated North American basis. This session, which was co-lead by a Canadian and a US practitioner, discussed the key areas of inconsistency and provided attendees with practical solutions for addressing them.

All departments in an organization are typically tasked with the establishment of a business plan that compliments the goals the organization intends to achieve for the coming cycle. Yet, this is an area where in-house counsels’ skill set has not been developed. This practical look at the mechanics of a usable business plan for law departments takes into account the need for simplicity, achievability, and accountability in the plan. The plan should also align well with the overall strategies of the organization. The panel provided guidance not only on plan development, but also communication, implementation, and periodic review to make sure your law department plan lives up to its potential.

Nonprofits now exist under increased scrutiny from state and federal regulators. Regulators from the IRS to state attorneys general are closely monitoring the activities of nonprofits to ensure they are acting as worthy stewards of the public trust. Learn what you can do to help your organization create and execute an effective ethics and compliance program and what to do when the regulators knock at the door. Participants left with a roadmap to address these issues.

The global expansion of criminal risk for international companies and their executives progresses with lightning speed: some countries are setting even more stringent standards than in the US. Cooperation between international agencies is growing. The EU arrest warrant now allows arrest by foreign prosecutors without the need for a court process and extradition from the US is a real possibility. Given the high financial and reputational damage that criminal liability causes, in–house counsel need to understand the risks that their global companies and executives face. In this presentation, practical illustrations were used to demonstrate the risks and possible counter-measures in a wide variety of legal areas.

An overview of employment law that will be relevant to in-house counsel. Provides a brief guide to wage & hour, performance management, discrimination, EEOC processes, FMLA, reductions in force & WARN Act, traditional labor law, independent contractors, affirmative action plans, EEO-1 reports, and employee privacy.