Resource Library

In dispute resolution, the bottom line often is the bottom line. Arbitration was conceived to be a less expensive alternative to litigation, but recent trends have chipped away at its effectiveness, making arbitration an increasingly expensive proposition. In this presentation, veteran arbitration and commercial litigation attorneys will offer battle-tested strategies for controlling costs during arbitration proceedings. Specific topics they will address include selecting an arbitration service provider, pre-arbitration planning, use of motions, prehearing briefs, opening and closing statements, witnesses, exhibits, attorneys’ fees, and common mistakes that add unnecessary expense.

Learn which regulations may impact your normal course of doing business (e.g., how confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements with clients and employees could run afoul of FINRA rules and whistleblowing laws). Discuss unique challenges facing the financial sector on the interplay with social media and advertising, securities offerings, loan application communications, the Community Reinvestment Act and more. Explore how your organization may be impacted by non-financial focused regulation such as HIPAA, state ban-the-box rules and the JOBS Act.

This is a sample services agreement between a California based corporation and an individual consultant.

This document provides useful examples of Legal Department vision statements to reference during the strategic planning process.

Conducting discovery efficiently and effectively can significantly reduce litigation costs and enhance the chances for successful dispute resolution. This panel discussion will deal with discovery best practices, including litigation hold management, recent changes to the discovery portions of the US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and techniques for managing and reducing the costs of discovery.

Information governance (IG) overwhelms companies, creating compliance risks, increased discovery costs, privacy threats, and lower employee productivity. Siloed approaches to information governance fall short. This program explores building the case for a cross-functional approach to information governance. After this session, attendees will be able to list IG compliance risks and related in-house counsel’s ethical responsibilities; identify messaging strategies to get C-suite support for IG; list the ideal composition of an IG committee; obtain a seven-step project plan for launching an IG program; and quantify the benefits of an IG program. Attendees will also receive a business case outline to present to the C-suite, sample committee charter, and checklist of do’s and don’ts in building your case.

You are familiar with the US Federal Sentencing Guidelines and have heard about compliance best practices, but wonder: "How in the world am I going to do that?" As a small legal department, the demands are great, resources are scarce, and, often, the businesspeople don't completely understand your role. The Guidelines acknowledge differences between large and small organizations in meeting the requirements for an effective ethics and compliance program. The question is often the “how” of implementation. What are regulators’ expectations for companies with limited resources? What are cost- and time-efficient methods to address constant regulatory scrutiny and change? This program will explore the critical issues for prioritizing with limited resources while regulations continue to increase. This session will also focus on creative strategies to do more with less, such as using risk-based prioritization, tailoring compliance to meet business needs and objectives, and finding third-party vendors to provide support at a reasonable cost.

Unprecedented documentation of human thought, decisions, and actions defines this era. People and entities leave a digital imprint of a large proportion of every thought and action. This indelible imprint profoundly affects corporations and in-house counsel. Extracting useful information from the digital deep sea takes knowledge and skill. In-house counsel with the agility and skill to effectively and efficiently retrieve and distill critical information from electronic media can be an astonishing strategic advantage to their corporations. This session will outline the strategic, advantageous use of analytics in a variety of legal contexts to extract key facts better, faster, and more cost-effectively. Presentation of case studies from litigation, investigations, antitrust, and mergers and acquisitions will highlight the benefit of applied analytics. The program will close with a discussion of emerging uses of analytics and predictive analytics as tools for predicting corporate misconduct.

No longer is the annual report a dry recitation of financial figures. Increasingly, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings have become a canvas for broad, aspirational statements on corporate environmental and social practices. Publicly traded companies now face overlapping and sometimes conflicting demands for transparency from the SEC, activist shareholders, customers, and non–governmental organizations on subjects as disparate as conflict minerals, climate change, material environmental liabilities, and social mandates. These disclosures, which inevitably carry some degree of subjectivity, are fraught with obvious risks, including SEC enforcement actions, shareholder lawsuits and civil litigation based on consumer deception or false advertising claims. This program will provide corporate counsel with tips and case studies for working with their corporate colleagues and outside auditors to obtain information critical to making accurate and defensible disclosures that will highlight company accomplishments without creating unnecessary litigation or enforcement risk.

The threat of antitrust litigation, both through government action and civil suits, is very real. Can your employees recognize an antitrust red flag when they see one? How do you train an employee about a complex legal topic that has real-world implications to the company as well as him or her personally? This session will review the increasing enforcement trends regarding antitrust compliance both in the United States and abroad, provide real tools for you to incorporate into an antitrust compliance program in your company, and touch on international antitrust developments. This program will emphasize what employees need to know (certainly not statutory code numbers!) and how to communicate antitrust principles to your employees in a meaningful manner. The session will include an abbreviated real employee training: Can you answer the antitrust scenarios put to your employees?