Resource Library

A list of ACC legal resources related to each session presented at the Risk Management Track of the Mini MBA Business Education course held at Boston University.

Unless You Ask: A Guide For Law Departments to Get More From External Relationships

This program material covers the current and future states of law firms, lawyers and technology, and how to build a new relationship between law departments and law firms.

Knowing how and when to balance risk and reward is a skill necessary for in-house counsel to master. In order to achieve success in today's markets, in-house counsel need to be not only legal savvy leaders but tech savvy leaders too.

This list contains limited examples and portions of important vendor clauses. It serves as a starting point for ongoing discussion of the business deal and agreement.

Janice More, vice president, European general counsel, company secretary at HJ Heinz, and winner of the ILO and ACC Europe’s European General Counsel of the Year award, shares insight on legal department leadership in this article. More’s collaborative approach has created streamlined, strategic engagement between her in-house team members and their business and legal partners. More leverages partnerships to add value to the Heinz business.

Published by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), a legal association connecting more than 40,000 in-house lawyers employed by more than 10,000 organizations across 85 countries, the ACC Law Department Management Report is a global study of corporate law departments and their operations. In an effort to re-connect the cost and value of legal services, ACC surveyed nearly 300 chief legal officers (CLOs), general counsel (GC), and legal operations professionals on specific aspects of law department budget, spend, and management practices. The report also includes insight from interviews with GC and CLOs of Global 1000 and Fortune 500 law departments.

In this article, you will learn what to do when a corporation’s global ethical standards (“oppose censorship” for a global media company) collides with national law (China’s extensive state censorship).

Hear the latest news and views from current and former ACC leaders about life in the legal industry from the corporate and government perspective. First off, learn firsthand what it’s like to move from being the general counsel of a large corporation to general counsel of one of the largest US government agencies, the Department of Homeland Security. What leadership lessons are transferable from the private sector to the public sector, and how does one successfully navigate the maze "inside the Beltway"? What are the daily challenges, trials and tribulations involved in overseeing over 1,700 attorneys? Next up, participate in an interactive town hall discussion on current events affecting your work today. Key discussion points will touch on cyber-security, disaster preparedness and crisis management, immigration reform, and financial reform. What’s the hot topic of the moment? Who knows, anything could happen.

This survey was sent to session participants prior to the meeting asking questions about their legal department, their company and the sorts of risks that they encounter in their daily practice.