Records management does not need to be overwhelming. This panel of ACC members discussed practical steps companies take to address the underlying causes of records management issues around privacy, compliancy, and ediscovery, the common causes of these and other records management related problems, and provided overview and discussion of the practical steps their companies took to reduce related costs and risks. Learn how to uncover where an organization may have these issues in management of their information, potential exposure and practical steps to address them.
Think your commercial contracting experience will easily transfer to understanding and negotiating government contracts? Think again. This session delivered a primer on how contracting with federal agencies differs from private sector contracting. We also showed you how to determine which statutes and regulations apply and discussed how to develop the requisite compliance program. More importantly, you will walk away understanding how signing a public contract might affect your business and its property rights and when you need to hire an expert.
Climate change is about more than smokestacks. Lawyers need to understand what legislators, regulators, and plaintiffs plan to do about climate change, carbon, green house gasses, and energy efficiency statutes and regulations. Learn from a panel of authorities about the demands that may be placed upon your buildings, operations, public disclosures, and energy purchases, and the role that you as inside counsel will be required to play in the implementation of, and compliance with, emerging environmental regimes.
Decision-tree analysis is a powerful and underused tool in litigation. Its greatest benefit to lawyers is as a bridge between legal advice and business strategy. For clients it transforms terms like “good chance” or “reasonably likely” into probabilities and dollar values. Litigators care about legal issues, litigation strategy and winning, while in-house counsel and management care about costs, probability of success, the potential value of the litigation either in terms of potential benefit or potential loss, and whether settlement is feasible. Decision-tree analysis deconstructs a complex lawsuit into discrete steps and possible outcomes that can pave the way for appropriate decision-making. Don’t you need this tool in your repertoire?
For over 50 years, members of the European Union have worked to create a single, harmonized pan-European internal market. However a seeming paradox has arisen: The more "harmonizing” legislation is passed at EU level, the more important divergent nationals laws become. This rise of national law, combined with the devolution of activity from EU to national regulators, has serious “real world” compliance ramifications for companies doing business in Europe. This presentation provided practical help and tips for non-EU in-house counsel who must deal with a European regulatory environment significantly less harmonized than anticipated.
Litigation of any kind is incredibly daunting for almost every defendant. The stigma, process, and potential costs associated with sexual harassment litigation can be especially harrowing. In this presentation audience members sat in the jury box and watched a DVD of a mock sexual harassment trial. The audience then was broken up into small groups with each “jury” asked to deliver a unanimous verdict and discuss the reasons behind their decision. This process showed corporate counsel which actions are the focus of jury deliberations and allowed them to participate in a jury trial.
Both your board and your company need to understand basic issues relating to Board liability. This program reviewed recent cases where directors were held directly liable. It also addressed how to educate Boards about this subject without scaring them off, provided practical tips on how to counsel the Board to help them avoid liability, and the extent to which D&O insurance covers the Board members. If you’re responsible for the care and feeding of the Board—this program was for you.
Add to that long list of considerations in mergers and acquisitions the topic of how you handle the IP. This session provided an overview of this important issue, including engagement/pre-due diligence advice, matters that must be tracked down in due diligence, handling due diligence findings, working with outside counsel and legal department subject matter experts, the technical due diligence process including addressing open source matters, and the definitive agreement and disclosure schedules.
Electronic content management is a hot issue, especially with discovery’s scope extending to all electronically stored information (ESI). How can in-house counsel be proactive in managing ESI? Numerous vendors providing valuable services related to ESI attend the ACC Annual Meeting. These services help in-house counsel manage electronic records retention, document management, litigation hold policies/procedures, compliance, reporting, etc. Before talking to vendors, attend this session for guidance on defining and addressing information management problem areas within your company. The presentation includes checklists and other tools to assist you in setting up an effective ESI management program.
This program explored non-traditional ways a company can leverage its insurance policies, or the policies of a party with which it has a dispute, to access outside funds to resolve its disputes. Frequently, companies think of their insurance policies as applying only to personal injury claims, or fiduciary duty claims with respect to officers and directors. However, with appropriate documentation and planning, existing insurance policies often can be efficiently “mined” to address a broad array of commercial disputes beyond those traditionally considered. Leave this program with an understanding of the necessary documentation and steps to maximize insurance payments made to or on behalf of your company.
Wage and hour issues can be significant sources of liability for any company. It is essential to keep up to date on these matters. This session provided an overview and update on federal and state wage and hour developments. It also reflected on best practices for dealing with those changes and provided practical advice for implementing them at your company.
Best practices dictate that you should get and keep your directors interested in and learning about your company and issues pertaining to the board. This effort should start with the “on-boarding” process, followed by a continuing education program on topics such as legal and regulatory changes, trends in corporate governance, compliance, compensation, financial reporting, whistleblower developments, insurance, and more. It’s never to late for anyone—even the Board—to learn.
Data security laws are rapidly changing the way organizations manage information worldwide. Breach investigations are becoming increasingly complex and pose greater risk including potential international effect. Recent breaches in the UK have literally changed the political landscape there. In Europe, huge fines have been imposed in recent cases. This program examined current data security breach events and provided: an overview of the applicable laws and the current environment, information on potential global enforcement, advice to manage various and competing risks, and reflections on lessons learned.
Professional, ethical conduct requires sensitivity, recognition, and constant vigilance. Corporate counsel should be every bit as good, if not better, than our outside counterparts at educating our people, and recognizing and appropriately addressing ethical issues. While doing so, we must also provide our clients with “Hall of Fame” service that goes well beyond the basics of good file handling, excellent legal advice, and reporting. To achieve the excellence for which we all strive, we must keep clients, customers, and the claims department plugged in on new developments in the law, legislation, jury trends, and local judicial rules, as well as new practices, which impact our quest.
Your company may be or has been sued; now you must take steps to preserve documents. No task is potentially more important in terms of reducing both headline and economic risk. You face critical questions as to if, when, and how you should implement a document preservation notice and this panel of experts tackled them, such as: When and what type of investigation must a company undertake before determining that a threat is not credible and, therefore, that litigation is not “reasonably anticipated?” When is a corporate entity “on notice?” How do the courts view the parties’ efforts? Is good faith enough? Is prejudice required before sanctions will issue?
This material discusses the basic techniques to reducing risk when dealing with creditors.
Basics on joint ventures in Europe
Learn about the hidden value of these models and apply them to your career.
What to do and not do when outsourcing legal services to foreign countries.
This material discusses China and the TRIPS, landmark cases, China’s IP Agenda, and beyond IP enforcement
This material covers the developing controls over mergers in the EU.
Professional coaching and career development is explored.
This document discusses how a company can be prepared to conduct a comprehensive, objective, and professional investigation. The points discussed will minimize the risk that an employee will be disciplined or terminated for something he or she did not do, as well as teach the investigator how to make a credible determination as to what happened in a given situation.
On July 1, 2010, Ontario’s Retail Sales Tax (“RST”) will be replaced by a single, value-added sales tax and combined with the federal Goods and Services Tax (“GST”), resulting in the Harmonized Sales Tax (“HST”). The HST will be applied at a combined tax rate of 13 percent, made up of an 8 percent “provincial component” and a 5 percent “federal component.” This article discusses these points in detail.
The session will provide an overview of recent developments in benefits law, including the complicated ERISA, health and welfare, wellness and the employment related aspects of health care reform.
Litigation in a foreign jurisdiction presents in-house counsel with unique challenges. Differences in procedure, remedies and costs make decision-making difficult and cost control problematic. How are those difficulties best addressed? This panel of experienced in-house counsel and foreign counsel will speak to specific techniques of managing commercial and IP litigation in foreign jurisdictions.
Have you ever wondered what the roles and responsibilities are of a corporate secretary? This session will focus on topics common to private and public companies, offering tips, views and a devoted Q&A. This session will be a great opportunity to get your questions answered and benchmark with your peers.
In recent years, many leading companies have learned the hard way about being the victim of a breach of data privacy — even though they complied with regulations and standards. In this program, you will learn from their painful experiences how to use the tools and techniques of corporate compliance to be prepared when your company gets hit — and maybe, how to postpone that pain. Data privacy compliance is a task that is becoming more difficult, and more critical, with each passing month, as more jurisdictions (state, federal and international) add to the regulatory matrix, and as private requirements (like the credit card industry’s PCI DSS) become more complex.
What are the lessons learned from the most recent round of securities litigation? What do in house counsel need to do now that was not required previously? How have the relationships with auditors been impacted by the increased scrutiny and litigation? What tools do I need to meet the challenge? Attend this session to hear and understand the answers to all of these questions and more.
While ethical obligations specifically regarding electronic discovery have yet to be formally recognized, courts are increasingly articulating counsel’s affirmative duty to act competently and fairly when integrating electronic information into their case. This presentation will explore important ethical considerations for attorneys as they relate to ediscovery. Understanding the details of each ediscovery phase is vital in avoiding judicial sanctions, ethical violations and malpractice claims. The presentation will highlight recent case law to demonstrate the potential pitfalls attorneys must avoid.
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