Resource Library

More than ever before, corporate boards and their lawyers are squarely in the spot light. Transparency, independence, and informed decision-making are among important governance program features that many believe will help keep companies on track. Companies such as Alcan Inc, Avnet Inc, Bell Canada Enterprises, Cargill Incorporated, ChevronTexaco, Intel Corporation, Lyondell Chemical Company, and Praxair, Inc. share information on board structure and function, board-level practices related to broader governance initiatives, and describe the role of in-house lawyers in helping to develop these programs.

Our 2014 update explores objectives, content and coordination of board education and training programs, as well as the process of on-boarding new directors. This Leading Practices Profile also identifies the role of the legal department, corporate secretary and board committees in coordinating content and managing logistics.

In-house lawyers for companies around the world are playing leading roles in providing proactive legal guidance to corporate clients on governance initiatives. This practice profile shares information on practices implemented at the following seven companies: Alvarion Ltd., Ballard Power Systems, General Motors Corporation, SAP AG, Sun Microsystems, Inc., Westpac Banking Corporation, and Woolworths Limited.

Learn how other in-house counsel and their legal department support corporate governance and compliance and ethics programs. In-house counsel from seven companies share governance practices and examine the alignment of ethics and compliance with the culture and strategic plan of the organization. At the end of the guide, find practical tools and samples, such as a company compliance newsletter, a compliance checklist, a compliance program assessment table and a management attestation questionnaire for legislative compliance.

● Responding to activist challenges in the boardroom.
● Building the boardroom of the future—effective “board refresh” practices.
● Emerging issues and priorities for nominating and governance committee chairs.

In recent years, the compliance landscape for health industry companies has become more
complex, in part because of increasingly aggressive enforcement of privacy breaches and false claims by regulators. At the same time, unprecedented pushes for transparency and disclosure by both the government and the public continue to gain traction. This Practice Profile highlights elements presented by four healthcare organizations as crucial for responding to these trends and nurturing successful compliance programs. Organizational leaders featured here explain department leading practices designed to bolster cultures of compliance while better managing risk and encouraging innovation. They also offer their best practices in areas that can inform your own organization’s approach to compliance, its pursuit of an excellence culture and its effective reliance on outside counsel in responding to
government inquiries.

This Leading Practices Profile, an update to ACC’s 2009 The Role of the General Counsel in Canada LPP, describes practices implemented by the law departments of six organizations in Canada regarding law department structure, the professional development of their in-house lawyers, the selection and management of external service providers and the use of technology. Those practices were designed and intended to enable those departments to provide higher-value legal service to their respective organizations. Four of those organizations are private enterprises; one is an international, not-for-profit corporation and one is a statutory agency of a provincial government.

Financial reporting and internal control practices are facing increased scrutiny these days, and organizations are taking stock of their existing financial practices, and enhancing and formalizing processes and policies. In-house lawyers have an important role in serving as key legal advisers to their organizations' finance functions. Featured in this Profile, are programs and practices for six organizations, including IKON Office Solutions, Inc., NTMA, TIAA-CREF, TOTAL S.A., and Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

In this ACC Leading Practices Profile, learn from the corporate social responsibility programs of five organizations. Understand how their approaches integrate social and environmental imperatives into business operations and interactions with stakeholders.

This Leading Practices Profile (LPP) presents themes, trends and leading practices of general counsel at the helm of six legal departments located in the Asia-Pacific region. The resource explores how the roles of general counsel and in-house counsel in that region have evolved from legal advisors to trusted business partners. It also provides leading practices for the success of legal teams of global organizations located in the Asia-Pacific region.