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Companies, including those unrelated to electric industries, are involved in programs that involve the marketing, purchase and sale of renewable energy attributes or credits produced when “green” energy is generated. This program focused on the nature of these attributes, how these attributes intersect with carbon offsets, the legal issues encountered with such programs, and key terms of agreements used in transactions involving renewable energy attributes. Attendees learned the nature of green energy attributes and the types of issues that they will encounter when asked to become involved in their company’s efforts to “go green.”

The Pacific Rim includes many of the leading or emerging centers of trade including China, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and the United States. Our experienced international panel provided insight into trade in the Pacific Rim, with a focus on Australasian aspects, including an overview of recent developments in the region such as Free Trade Agreements and developments in competition laws. The panel also provided invaluable advice to corporate counsel on how business and legal relations are conducted in the region, including advising on aspects of local “custom” that can help you conclude your agreements and transactions more efficiently and with more successful outcomes.

Environmental laws for businesses in Ontario have changed and corporate officers and directors need to understand their personal and affirmative obligation to exercise due diligence to prevent environmental breaches. Offenses are punishable by fines, jail terms, or both, and officers and directors can be convicted for breaching this duty even if the company has not committed or been convicted of an offense under the Act. At the heart of this due diligence obligation is the requirement for an environmental management system. This session outlined the new standard of care expected of officers and directors of Ontario-based businesses, and strategies to ensure ongoing compliance.

Non-profits may secure significant long-term, low-cost funding through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds, but the process is technical and complex. This session covered the basics on the benefits and risks of such financing, as well as the process and possible pitfalls in successfully bringing a bond deal to closure, and being a key player in the bond process. Specific topics included IRS requirements, state law issues, applicability of certificate of need requirements, the bond application process, choosing a financial advisor, underwriter and other professionals, accounting and audit issues, and corporate and regulatory approvals.

Today, open source software is widely accepted as a key aspect of any company IT strategy, as well as a key factor in the business strategy of any technology company. It also challenges in-house counsel in new and unique ways. Traditional corporate practices are not effective in managing the use and procurement of open source. Companies need new policies and practices to allow them to take advantage of the benefits, while protecting against the risks. This panel addressed open source in very practical day-to-day terms—from managing the use and distribution of open source in IT and development organizations, to evaluating its impact on company patent strategies.

How can general counsel support the company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, setting and communicating the tone-at-the-top, as well as facilitating practical implementation of CSR initiatives that benefit both your company’s image and bottom line? 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.

Law Departments Adding Value: Structuring and Managing Outside Counsel Relationships and Beyond - Management Report

This ACC Law Department Executive Leaders session included discussion of organizational structure, staffing and work allocation, outsourcing services, global considerations, and professional development.

An overview of finance and accounting issues that in-house counsel may encounter. Includes guide to accountant's role and GAAP, basic financial statements and their importance, liquidity, leverage, corporate finance model, capital markets, corporate reporting and performance pressures, non-financial considerations, and a common sense approach to these issues.

This program outline addresses the following questions: What is a green lease? Why a green lease? How do you measure carbon/energy reduction and sustainability? How do you make a sustainable design/operation part of your leasing program? Other key green considerations are also covered.

Millions of people participate in social media networks, millions of dollars are spent on them, and these worlds will probably be the future of interactivity online for nearly all businesses. Companies are increasingly participating in these online social communities, but the risks and rewards are not always clear. This presentation will define and explain the significant social networks and who is participating in them, the various ways that corporations are playing and profiting, the new economies created, and the legal risks and business risks your company may face if it participates.

What are the best practices for GCs to avoid potential prosecutions and personal liability related to securities fraud? What are the implications of SOX and other self-reporting guidelines to insulate GCs and other directors and officers from prosecution? How will the policies of the Obama administration affect deferred prosecution rules? And, what impact will the Justice Department's monitoring programs have on directors and officers and other liability issues such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? This discussion will be led by a renowned trial attorney including Justice Department officials and will use various role-play scenarios and other techniques to demonstrate best practices.

In the current economic climate, in-house counsel may respond to the word "restructuring" like Dracula did to sunlight. Don't! Opportunities abound for companies large and small who are savvy to the potential benefits and pitfalls arising in so-called "Section 363 sales" in bankruptcy proceedings, coined for the section of the Bankruptcy Code that enables debtors to sell their operating assets. Through a Section 363 sale, an acquisition-minded company can purchase assets and entire business units at significant discounts free and clear of liens, with leases and contracts remaining intact. Moreover, a 363 sale may provide an entity doing business with a debtor an opportunity to preserve a business relationship with the resulting successor entity. A distinguished panel will describe the ins and outs of the 363 sale process and how it compares with ordinary M&A practices while including audience members in a mock Section 363 auction. In-house practitioners will leave this presentation with a working knowledge and new level of confidence when the phrase "363 sale" is spoken.

What do you do when you are handed control of the HR department? It is essential to keep up to date on various laws and policies. To meet this challenge, this session will cover RIF's, ERISA, WARN, cultural issues with foreign subsidiaries (which actually apply in the states), works councils, language, expatriates, data privacy, redundancies, benefits (national schemes versus local plans) and unions in the United States and in other countries.

North American businesses face unprecedented uncertainty and economic challenges. At the same time, we anticipate the Obama administration will appoint aggressive new officials to oversee the antitrust enforcement machinery of the United States in the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Canada too, has proposed sweeping changes to its framework competition laws. This panel will highlight these changes, and provide a survival guide for legal counsel in companies seeking to navigate these changes in both countries during these challenging economic times.

E-rulemaking illustrates how administrative practice is changing in the Information Age and how corporate counsel can take advantage of new agency electronic resources to significantly reduce outside legal costs. Over the past few years, the federal government has made great progress placing the federal regulatory process online. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission's promulgation of rules mandated by Congress to implement the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 will be used as an example of how agencies use the Internet as the basic means for disseminating information on rulemaking and how corporate counsel can keep themselves apprised of even rapidly emerging agency action with a few moments online. Join this discussion and learn how you can cut your company's legal costs.

Get a view from the inside. A former Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division administrator will discuss ways to successfully resolve wage-hour investigations, including how employers are selected for investigation, the procedures investigators follow and how to appeal an investigator's findings. This session will also cover addressing wage-hour issues and how to secure DOL's assistance to correct and resolve these issues –– including an assessment of the Obama Administration’s approach to wage-hour enforcement and good faith employers.

Major disputes can be complex and varied. Managing these disputes is resource intensive and process driven and often occurs in an environment where participants can be highly emotive. It is easy for the uninitiated to get lost in the fray. The parties may find themselves in court without having managed the process and properly explored alternatives. During this session, we will explore ways of efficiently managing disputes to meet your organization's goals and objectives and avoid costly and unnecessary litigation by examining the factors that affect strategies for approaching individual disputes. Dispute management alternatives will be discussed and how they must be managed to impact outcome. You will leave the session with tips on how to manage the process and outside counsel.

A lease generally contemplates a long-term relationship between a landlord and a tenant. But once the lease is executed, you have only completed the first step. This panel will discuss issues that can arise after the lease has been executed and how to deal with them in a practical manner. These issues can include questions relating to construction of the demised premises, handling requests for subordination, nondisturbance and attornment agreements and estoppel certificates, lease renewals, casualties, expanding space to accommodate future growth, payment and performance defaults, landlord defaults and a variety of other issues that arise long after the initial agreement is reached.

If your company is doing business outside the United States, you need to attend this session to be brought up-to-date on all applicable privacy laws. Many global organizations have had to change the way they handle personal information and privacy issues. Personal data that used to be considered public and obvious has since become a sensitive issue, both from a legal and PR perspective, and applicable laws are now being enforced with more rigor. How do businesses comply with their international obligations without losing their competitive edge, or endangering their business goals and positive image within the marketplace? How do they make privacy work for and not against the organization? These are among the challenging issues that this session will address.

A patent is a complex document that is made up of many parts, including specifications that describe the item, how to make and use the invention, claims that specifically describe what is protected by the patent, and explanatory drawings, if needed. The cover sheet to the patent and the patent itself contain a wealth of information, but reading a patent can be an educated and productive undertaking or a frustrating attempt to glean important information while sifting through its many parts. If you don't write or read patents for a living, this session will help you avoid being confused or even intimidated. This presentation will discuss the parts of a patent, how to quickly read a patent, and how to understand claims.

What are the best practices for GCs to avoid potential prosecutions and personal liability related to securities fraud? What are the implications of SOX and other self-reporting guidelines to insulate GCs and other directors and officers from prosecution? How will the policies of the Obama administration affect deferred prosecution rules? And, what impact will the Justice Department's monitoring programs have on directors and officers and other liability issues such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? This discussion will be led by a renowned trial attorney including Justice Department officials and will use various role-play scenarios and other techniques to demonstrate best practices.

With enforcement policy initiatives and definitive statements on compliance from the FERC having been issued in 2008, electric and gas companies have every incentive to devote the resources to having a robust compliance program in 2009. This session will show you how to translate FERC's guidance and policy statements into meaningful programs at your company. If you do find yourself in an enforcement action, it will teach you the basic rules of the game.

With the increasing globalization of US business, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act continues to be the foundation for how companies must transact international business. While the United States has had the FCPA in place since 1977, the international community has joined together and has begun focusing their attention on anti-bribery issues. This session intends to provide an overview of the FCPA, a look into what the international community is doing to further improve international business and will provide attendees with a list of hot topics and a game plan on how to address them.

If your coverage area touches on personal information or privacy-related
issues, you cannot afford to miss this update on the latest privacy law
issues in America. Privacy and data protection laws and regulations at the
US federal level are still moving at a mile-a-minute. And don't forget
the state statutes as well! If you do business in states like Massachusetts
that have recently passed additional provisions to protect the privacy
information of employees then you need to be aware of what they require too.

The "b" word usually raises fear and anxiety in those who are not bankruptcy specialists. Worry not! This program will cover the primary issues raised in business bankruptcy matters including minimizing and analyzing preference exposure, rights of landlords and tenants, issues relating to vendors, filing a proof of claim, payment or rejection rights, impact on intellectual property and licensing agreements, benefits of becoming a secured creditor, purchasing assets from a company in bankruptcy, deciding whether to serve on a creditors' committee, and hiring and managing outside bankruptcy counsel.

The crises in world financial markets, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and Sarbanes-Oxley among other causes, all have contributed to a tremendous increase in the number of investigations overseen by corporate counsel. At the same time, the strategies deployed by some lawyers and investigators have landed them and their companies in trouble. What are the best strategies for fact finding? What are best practices for interviewing witnesses? What laws are relevant to investigations and how do they differ between states and countries? A diverse panel will examine how thorough, but ethical investigations are conducted. Topics discussed will include federal and state statutes, evidence, interview strategies, the Code of Professional Responsibility, ethics opinions, and the use of outside investigators.

Does your company have a wellness program? This session will address federal and common state restrictions, and go through the strategies that will assist your company in developing a successful program, incorporating the Small Law Department Committee's InfoPak on this topic. In-house counsel that implement a program in their own companies may achieve fame and fortune for initiating a program that saves the company money and gets their employee base healthy. Who knows, in the process some may even develop a smaller waistline!

Employment law is an ever-changing source of concern to legal departments. It is critical for all in-house counsel, not just employment law counsel, to stay abreast of the developing case law in this arena. This session will cover recent key decisions on Title VII, ADA, FMLA and other major employment laws that can have important implications for you and your clients. Come and find out what’s new.

When public companies get into trouble, very frequently it is for a violation of the securities laws. Its not a topic to be messed with. The liability is significant. The issues are complicated. The impact can be mind boggling. Don't be uninformed. Must know information for lawyers who are new to in-house or to the securities arena.