The Association of Corporate Counsel and Laurence Simons surveyed corporate legal departments to learn more about their teams in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The ACC/Laurence Simons 2012 EMEA Legal Department Survey is available to members and non-members.
When government action or public controversy affects corporate practice, commercial speakers must be wary of exposure to massive civil penalty suits. Even when speaking honestly and in the best interest of the public, accusations of deceptive and misleading conduct may surface. This article presents three tips to keep in mind, before you’re punished for speaking your mind.
As in-house counsel preparing for a “bet the company” transaction, it is important to address a number of issues with your outside M&A counsel as soon as possible. From assessing qualifications to filing with the SEC, the authors have compiled a roadmap to help you and your outside counsel navigate an M&A transaction successfully.
When an employee parts ways with the company, it isn’t just a box of office decor that gets carried out the door: Any skills or information learned on the job is now potentially benefiting your competition. Many variables can affect the successful application of a non-compete agreement. This article explains how different countries handle non-compete agreements and what the alternatives are to protecting your company’s resources.
In today’s streamlined market, negotiating contracts is increasingly viewed as a superfluous step in the transactions between buyers and sellers. If one party’s expectations fall short, both may find themselves demanding court-supplied justice. Learn the fundamentals of sales negotiations on both sides of the deal.
Do the various companies in the United States stand together in terms of federal legislative and regulatory efforts to harness market forces in reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? The answer is not intuitive, primarily because of the enormous disparity in GHG emission inventories among companies. California utilities, for example, with one of the lowest CO2 inventories in the country, may find themselves on the short end if federal cap-and-trade policy allows tradable rights based on historic CO2 emissions — a starting point that would benefit utilities in coal-burning states. The panel will begin with a brief primer on cap-and-trade basics, and then launch into a debate on the key issues companies will have to work through as they help shape federal cap-and-trade policy for GHG emissions.
Don’t let a demand letter drag you out of the dark: In-house counsel may not know about their clients’ international commissioned agents until trouble presents itself. Learn how to establish a method that vets agents carefully, assesses risks and establishes an informed sales agency agreement.
Completing a successful Chinese M&A transaction can be trickier than new math. There are tons of legal hurdles to clear: government approval, anti-trust clearance, transferring real estate, trademarks and patents and repatriating profit, to name a few. Trying to tackle the transaction without a game plan is a sure set-up for defeat - but this article outlines an experienced attorney's firsthand knowledge to make the process less cumbersome.
Hopefully your company will never have to defend itself against a proxy contest brought on by a major activist shareholder. However, if you do find yourself drafting a settlement agreement for use in settling a proxy contest, refer to this article—which lists 10 elements that the agreement should contain—during its structuring.
This article details how to deal with the "free-rider" problem in which discounters take advantage of the capital investments of other dealers. Through those investments, they've helped establish brand recognition and a reputation for quality products. The discounters are unfairly trading on the brand without having made any investment in it. The sales department doesn't care what it's called. They just want to know one thing: "How can we stop it?"