Resource Library

The Ninth Circuit recently concluded that job applicants are not entitled to compensation for time devoted to pre-employment drug tests because an employment relationship has not yet been formed. The Ninth Circuit held that the “control test” does not apply to job applicants, and that, under California contract law, the applicants had no contract for employment until they passed the pre-hire drug tests. Johnson v. WinCo Foods.

Learn top tips on evaluating options when exporing how Artificial Intelligence can support your law department.

How to make a strong positive impact when starting a new job as general counsel? Find practical tips and strategies shared by experienced in-house counsel and condensed by ACC in this toolkit. Nine checklists that distill insight from general counsel, from acing your first 90 days to developing your leadership and business skills and retaining talent on your team.

For legal professionals, caution and conservatism are often vital in fulfilling their job responsibilities. Discretion and thoroughness are required to protect clients’ best interests. So it’s no wonder that many in the legal field are hesitant to adopt new, untested technologies. Even with potential benefits on the horizon, the risk of using tools that haven't been fully vetted can be enough to slow down innovation. Read more here.

What compensation do your in-house peers get? Check out the 2023 Law Department Compensation benchmarking survey results. 

Savings is not a strategy. Imagine a CEO opening an earnings call by celebrating the money the company “saved” on deal counsel and due diligence by not moving forward with an otherwise strategically vital acquisition. The stock would crater because leadership would rightly be judged as majoring in the minors.

As a line item, legal spend is a minor consideration. Rather, legal spend is better characterized as a relatively small investment that enables the business to execute on what matters.

Legal spend should be dictated by business needs. Those business needs are only escalating with the explosion in legal complexity. The increasingly law-thick environment in which businesses operate is having a profound impact on corporate top lines, bottom lines, valuations, and strategic opportunities. Trying to save money on legal is myopic—and excruciatingly common.

This is a sample employee handbook.

Meaningful, effective, and enduring diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives require an organization-specific approach. Learn about how inclusive leadership, structural changes, and psychological safety are critical to the success of DEI initiatives.

This article discusses how President Biden's Executive Order on artificial intelligence and follow-up actions by federal agencies will impact federal risk-management practices, likely serving as a model for AI risk management by private-sector employers.

The U.S. Department of Labor has blogged about the safety of workers during the busy holiday season, indicating an area of potential enforcement for OSHA in the coming weeks. As this is the season for office holiday parties, check out this article from Seyfarth Shaw detailing tips to minimize your organization’s exposure to legal liability and, more importantly, prevent an undesirable incident from occurring at your office holiday party.