Over 160 Attend Ethics Marathon at the Morgan Library
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Over 160 ACC members attended the Ethics Marathon on February 17, 2011 at the Morgan Library. ACC-GNY welcomed over 25 new members who joined ACC in the weeks prior to the event. Outgoing ACC-GNY Board Members Maryrose Maness, Rosemary Nelson, Jeffrey Green and Daniel Kroll were recognized and thanked for their commitment and service to the chapter.
Alternative Free Arrangement Program Draws Crowd
More than 75 members and guests of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Greater New York Chapter (GNY) attended the December 14 “Alternative Fee Arrangements: Ethical Issues, Success Metrics & More” panel organized and moderated by McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP (MLA) Partner Richard B. Friedman.
The panelists were T. Mark Flanagan, Jr., Managing Partner, McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP; Catherine Youssef Kassenoff, Chief Litigation Counsel, International Specialty Products Corporation; Gregory M. McLaughlin, Senior Attorney, Corporate Litigation, IBM; Gretta Rusanow, Director and Senior Client Advisor, Citi Private Bank North America; Lisa R. Smith, Head of Law Firm Strategy & Structure Practice Group, Hildebrandt Baker Robbins; and Brendan Snodgrass, Vice President, Litigation Group, Morgan Stanley.
“The Alternative Fee Arrangements program sponsored by McKenna Long & Aldridge was of great interest to our members, which was proven by the large midday turnout on a bitter cold afternoon in New York City," said ACC GNY President Nancy Cohen, Vice President and Senior Division Counsel for The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. “There is widespread agreement that clients are seeking and law firms must provide value in the services rendered.”
Cohen said the panel provided insights on the pros and cons of different alternative fee arrangements with real life examples of what actually works. “This CLE program did not disappoint. It was in and of itself a valuable program!”
The program provided attendees with an overview of the many variations of alternative fee arrangements and, using non-litigation and litigation scenarios, addressed issues arising from them with a particular emphasis on ethics concerns. The panelists discussed how some large organizations and law firms have established metrics to measure the ‘success’ of such arrangements and the importance of defining ‘success’ in the context of a particular matter when that event triggers an obligation to pay a premium fee.
Among the ethics issues explored was how Model Rule 1.5 (Reasonableness of fees and expenses) can impact certain types of ‘success’ fee arrangements. The panelists also discussed how widely accepted business practices, such as project management and process management initiatives, are being used to evaluate the desirability of varying alternative fee arrangements.
Each attendee was provided with a booklet containing recent articles and reports on alternative fee arrangements as well as a copy of a recent presentation about pricing produced by panelist Lisa Smith.
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Compliance Seminar - September 30
ACC-GNY conducted our Annual Compliance Seminar at the Museum of Art and Design on September 30, 2010. Three expert panels presented on:
- Trend Toward Internationalization of Compliance Programs & Enforcement Efforts
- Compliance Training for Board Members
- Compliance Topics/ Regulatory Movements Under the Obama Administration
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