Section 307 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act establishes new standards of professional conduct for attorneys who appear and practice before the SEC in the representation of a public company. Read this article to learn how you can meet your new obligations.
Failure to discover that your company may have had insurance coverage could cost your company. You must make it clear who is responsible for seeking insurance coverage and dealing with your insurance coverage issues: in-house counsel, outside defense counsel, or outside coverage counsel. The best place to allocate those responsibilities is in your company's engagement letters and guidelines for working with outside counsel. Thus, in selecting a law firm to defend a case, it is critical to determine whether that firm has sufficient insurance coverage experience. If it does not, it is advisable to retain separate coverage counsel early on.
In the midst of all of the corporate scandals that have erupted since the Enron bankruptcy filing last year and in light of the new requirements established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, what do in-house counsel of public companies need to do both to protect their clients (the corporation, its officers, employees, and shareholders) and themselves? Read this article to get a better grasp of the scope of the problem and use the five-point compliance plan to help plan a solution.
This article offers practical tips on how to "flip the coin," suggesting that in-house counsel help outside counsel become genuinely more client-focused and thus better able to deliver value, not just time and effort.
This article identifies the complexities and potential pitfalls of the relationship between in-house and outside counsel in litigation and suggests strategies that in-house counsel can use to manage the in-house/outside counsel relationship effectively and accomplish the corporation's goal of successful dispute resolution. This article also includes a handy checklist.
Recent regulations and future proposed changes likely will encourage in-house counsel to involve themselves in their client's financial affairs and to report improper conduct. In-house counsel need to consider corporate conduct and investigate misconduct. This article discusses the broad responsibilities of in-house counsel and provides an overview of the
post-Enron environment from the in-house perspective.
This article, the first in a series that will examine and profile-through the eyes of in-house counsel-companies' "best practices," highlighting ideas that you can borrow while implementing your own compliance plan concerning corporate governance.
Thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, public companies face potential civil and criminal liability and new internal reporting obligations. Read this article to prepare your company to respond if a whistleblowing complaint comes in.
Companies that adopt forced ranking systems are most vulnerable to age, sex, and race discrimination claims. This article will help you to minimize such risks.
This article provides in-house counsel a framework to understand the wage and hour provisions of the FLSA.