Dealing with employee issues can be as amusing as "A Midsummer Night's Dream," as tragic as "Romeo and Juliet," as perplexing as Hamlet's choice, and at times, as blood as "Macbeth." As the study of Shakespeare is essential to any English major, experience with employment law and related issues is indispensable for the in-house lawyer.
Tips for new in-house attorneys with an Arnold Schwarzenegger twist. Let the multiple talents of Governor Schwarzenegger's filmography give multitalented in-house counsel a few lessons on professionalism.
It is an exciting and challenging time for in-house counsel. These days, the pipeline to general counsel is full of high-potential women and minorities. Read this article for insights and tips on how to achieve your fullest potential by shedding light on what it takes to advance in today's competitive corporate law department and how to use this knowledge to define your unique career path.
Discusses the steps to take in order to have time, energy, an ethical lifestyle that has a place for both our work responsibilities and our duties to our communities and families, flexibility, and the ability to enjoy our lives. Includes what law departments can do and programs for overcoming obstacles to work-life balance.
Every penny that you spend on outside counsel reduces your organization's revenue. So come along, Grasshopper, as we learn the lessons of kung frugal--getting more for your money from outside counsel.
Your outside counsel has just called you in a panic. He has the company's outside auditor on hold on his other line. The auditor is demanding the law firm's evaluation of a very large and difficult lawsuit now pending against the company. The auditor won't accept the formulation from the ABA-AICPA treaty that allows counsel to decline to provide an evaluation unless the lawyer concludes that liability is either "probable" or "remote." The auditor claims that the lawyers can no longer "hide behind" the "treaty" and must provide a complete analysis because of Sarbanes-Oxley. You know that the law firm has a very negative evaluation of the case, which will result in a big reserve and a large hit to earnings if disclosed to the auditor. But you believe that it is too early to get a good estimate. So you tell the law firm auditor to "stick to the treaty." Your outside lawyer asks, "Have you read the Commission's new Rule 13b2-2 regulation"? No? Well, you had better do so.
Because the blame for a covenant violation can ultimately rest on an in-house lawyer, you must take charge of negotiating and complying with financial agreements. This article will discuss the processes that you can use to negotiate and comply with your company's loan documents.
In-house counsel are accustomed to the ritual of negotiating NDAs to prevent unauthorized use and disclosure of their company's confidential and proprietary information, but they often overlook the perils of overnegotiating NDAs. This article highlights these perils and offers practical tips for drafting and negotiating NDAs for U.S. and international companies in order to quickly conclude an NDA that conscientiously protects confidential and proprietary information, without the unnecessary extras.
This article looks at the conflict that can arise between in-house lawyers who are working hard on company business and a CEO who thinks of the lawyers as little more than a necessary evil and suggests methods to communicate with a CEO in terms that he or she will understand.
Success at in-house practice is all about customer service. Using examples from Monty Python, this article shows how attorneys can learn from the true service professionals - the waiter.