The Gulf of Mexico oil spill generated an unprecedented volume of requests from litigants, Congress and governmental agencies—nearly 650 in a two-day period. The rulings of the district court and court of appeals, as well as the pending motions and appeals in the Macondo litigation, could dramatically impact the drilling and insurance industries. They present several issues of first impression with regard to jurisdiction, interplay between federal and state environmental law, liability under key federal environmental statutes, indemnity/risk allocation, fines and penalties, additional insured coverage and proper and ethical management of the hundreds of document and information requests in litigation and governmental investigations. Compliance is key. Parties and individuals who violate legal mandates will be held accountable. Learn how these rulings can be crucial to in-house litigators for crisis response and preparedness, and to transactional counsel who negotiate agreements within these evolving parameters.
A panel of seasoned attorneys will examine the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and antitrust policies (drafting, implementation, etc.) in small law departments; and will address other policies companies should have in place from a general compliance standpoint.
All law departments handle an ongoing mix of contracts requiring drafting, review and revision. Traditional ways to handle contracts are very labor-intensive. This session will take you into the evolving process, labor and software solutions addressing the “more for less” challenge of efficiently handling contracts. Modeled after “hackathons,” this session will team you with 5 to 7 other participants to design and map an efficient process to handle agreements in a hypothetical case, from intake through storage. You will learn about and practice integrating workflow and software solutions into your maps.
Diversity and inclusion are catchphrases in the boardroom, the executive suite and the lunchroom. And for good reason: As the world becomes more interconnected geographically, it is more important to understand and engage the various backgrounds and differences that employees bring to the workplace—at least, that is the corporate goal. The legal goal is to help your company set and meet diversity and inclusion goals while avoiding the very real legal risks that attend any program directed at monitoring, influencing or engineering workforce demographics. Attend for a discussion of legal issues impacting diversity and inclusion policies internationally.
Your company wants to expand internationally, but you know almost nothing about doing business in other countries. If your company is too small for an international office, what do you do if you just want to experiment and see whether you can generate revenue? Should you use independent contractors? Outsource? Hire employees? While you may not be able to learn all the laws of different countries, you can learn to identify key considerations for your clients and make solid business arguments for legal compliance. Learn about issues that should be considered and gather information for some specific jurisdictions.
If your company decides to establish a business presence in another<br />country by partnering with a local firm, what considerations come into play in structuring and implementing a joint venture with the local partner? This program will examine the practical considerations relating to structuring the joint venture and negotiating its key terms,<br />including management control provisions and mechanisms to exit the joint<br />venture, seconding or transferring employees to the joint venture and cultural considerations in dealing with your local partner.
Papers, files, emails, texts. Healthcare companies are overflowing with records and data. This panel discussion will help you answer key questions for in-house healthcare lawyers. What competing data retention requirements do health care companies face? What is a record? How long must it be maintained? What are the pitfalls for dealing with vendors in healthcare? What does maintaining all these records cost? Get tips for reducing the cost and helping your business streamline its record retention processes.
Environmental risks and liabilities, which can be substantial, are a part of most commercial and real estate transactions involving in-house counsel. Parties to a transaction must identify, evaluate and allocate those risks and liabilities in order to protect their interests; and the parties—sellers, purchasers, lenders and insurance companies—have diverse perspectives and methods for managing environmental risks. Learn the sources of environmental liabilities, including federal and state statutes, implementing regulations, local ordinances and rules and common law. Then discover contractual provisions for allocating or limiting environmental risks, including definitions, representations and warranties, covenants and conditions precedent, indemnities, releases and other contractual mechanisms to allocate or limit such risks. Speakers also will reveal non-contractual ways to allocate or limit environmental risks, including deed restrictions and environmental insurance.
Competition authorities in Africa can be a significant factor in the decisions and plans of companies that depend on overseas markets for revenue growth and business expansion. Changing legal frameworks and the emergence of regional institutions are creating unprecedented layers of complexity and uncertainty for corporate decision makers, resulting in unforeseen hurdles, delayed plans and risks that directly impact the corporate strategy. Hear from a group of experts in the field how these changes can affect the ways you conduct business in Africa.
This presentation will cover recent cases and give in-house counsel practical tips for deciding which scheme of protection to use regarding subject matter eligibility for patents, copyrights and trade secrets. Cases will include recent US Supreme Court decisions on patent- eligible subject matter and the Federal Circuit case deciding scope of copyrightability in Oracle v. Google, among others.