Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage;" in this session we are all players. This program will be your stage, and you will have a part in this two part drama involving both the acquisition of a business enterprise and a subsequent litigation when the parties’ expectations go awry. Here’s the plot of the drama: Through participating in a live negotiation exercise, attendees will gain insights into high-level negotiating strategies and tactics. Through engaging in a workshop, attendees will learn to create leverage in order to increase the likelihood of optimal negotiation outcomes. By viewing a mock mediation staged by the faculty members, attendees will decide where the line is between bluffing and dishonesty. When presented with an impasse, attendees will be given tools to get the negotiations back on track. With input from faculty members, attendees will get feed-back on negotiation styles and exit with pragmatic take-aways for use in future real life negotiations.
Discuss how and why regulators, such as the CFPB and the SEC, are mining big data, and how this trend can impact the financial industry. Learn what laws currently govern and impact big data, and what pitfalls to avoid when advising the business and making big data-related decisions. Understand what it means to be a "data broker” (for businesses that sell or analyze big data). Receive a checklist for essential big data policies, procedures and guidelines. Discuss the growing number of internet-connected wearables and industrial sensors, the questions they raise about data privacy, and the security of parties who aggregate, share, sell or rely upon this information.
Learn what’s new in the realm of executive compensation and how to advise your board and company executives to prevent surprises. Discuss pay for performance, performance metrics and pay ratios. Share best practices for conducting a comprehensive, cross-functional “Say on Pay” shareholder engagement strategy. Examine the role that governance attorneys play (or should play) in executive compensation. Explore recent trends in executive compensation disclosure.
Considering the increasingly active role general counsel play in cybersecurity strategy, risk assessment and prevention, the ACC Foundation recently released an unprecedented study of the state of cybersecurity in the corporate sector. The largest study of its kind, the report serves as a resource for in-house lawyers, corporations and boards of directors directly impacted by one of the greatest challenges and reputational risks facing companies today. This plenary session will provide key takeaways from the report that you can put into action today, as well as guidance on preserving privilege, budget allocation and collaborating with law enforcement or government agencies. Learn what general counsel experienced in data breaches wish they had known before the breach occurred and other important lessons learned.
Discuss how to approach contract negotiation and drafting across jurisdictions and legal systems. Gain insight into techniques and tools to monitor and manage the risks involved with having contracts across several jurisdictions. Identify resources that in-house counsel of international businesses implement to manage such risks, such as country managers, outsourcing, risk guidelines, documented authority delegation and reporting. Discuss challenges and best practices in enforcing contracts across jurisdictions.
More and more, boards of directors in the financial sector are required to assume responsibility for the organization’s risk management, a responsibility edging ever closer to actual managerial responsibility. This interactive session will provide in-house counsel with the tools they will need to educate and prepare the board to take on this responsibility. Discuss increased responsibility of the board in the financial sector in the areas of risk management — edging closer to a managerial responsibility. Learn how to handle risk management within the organization (i.e., responsibilities of parties, reporting lines, etc.) and identify new risks on the horizon. Understand what boards wish to hear: what information to and not to share with your board, and the risks associated with doing so. Learn how the new SEC and FINRA reporting requirements should impact your board advice regarding cyber threats. Discuss the Board's role in managing operations in emerging markets.
Contract Playbooks – Gain a better understanding of how introducing innovative contract negotiation and contracting process playbooks in to your organization can support the optimization of the commercial contracting lifecycle. Data Analytics – Learn how measuring and analyzing contract data helps increase process efficiency, optimize contract content and promote better contract performance. Understand how data analytics is defined in commercial contracting and what information needs to be extracted and reported on to develop analytics. What conclusions and benefits can this analytics provide? Contract Triage – The contract triage process is not merely about allocating tasks to the right skill level, but also adjusting your risk appetite. Understand how to insert triaging into your contract management processes.
What every financial services industry in house counsel needs to know about effective handling of regulatory matters and regulatory expectations. Provide an overview of trends in consumer finance regulation, including the CFPB, and other major federal and state banking regulators. Discuss recent rules, enforcement actions, and regulatory priorities of consumer finance regulators and their applicability to the financial services industry. Compare the consumer finance regulatory regime with other financial industry regulation.
Activist investor campaigns have reached record numbers in recent years and have become increasingly organized and costly to the targeted companies. Through case study analysis of several recent campaigns, this program will go in-depth on best practices for companies to follow before and when an activist comes knocking, including: What went right in recent campaigns? What went wrong? What were the end results and what could have been done differently? What has changed from an investor relations perspective since the activist campaign? What are some investor relations takeaways from what the companies did/didn’t do? What are some general best practices and strategies in these situations that can be implemented proactively, during a campaign and post-mortem?What defenses does a company have against a campaign and/or a proxy fight? How do these case studies demonstrate any larger trends in activist campaigning? What types of attributes/actions might draw activists’ attention, based on these recent campaigns?
Too often we overlook provisions in contracts that we consider customary or “boilerplate” and non-negotiable. This program examines standard contract provisions and challenges the audience to look at them more critically from a litigator’s perspective. The interactive program dissects contract provisions that have hidden traps and provides tips on better risk management with an in-depth look at non-assignment clauses, liability limitations, merger clauses, choice of law clauses and other similar provisions.