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Professional, ethical conduct requires sensitivity, recognition, and constant vigilance. Corporate counsel should be every bit as good, if not better, than our outside counterparts at educating our people, and recognizing and appropriately addressing ethical issues. While doing so, we must also provide our clients with “Hall of Fame” service that goes well beyond the basics of good file handling, excellent legal advice, and reporting.

For over 50 years, members of the European Union have worked to create a single, harmonized pan-European internal market. However a seeming paradox has arisen: The more "harmonizing” legislation is passed at EU level, the more important divergent nationals laws become. This rise of national law, combined with the devolution of activity from EU to national regulators, has serious “real world” compliance ramifications for companies doing business in Europe.

Climate change is about more than smokestacks. Lawyers need to understand what legislators, regulators, and plaintiffs plan to do about climate change, carbon, green house gasses, and energy efficiency statutes and regulations. Learn from a panel of authorities about the demands that may be placed upon your buildings, operations, public disclosures, and energy purchases, and the role that you as inside counsel will be required to play in the implementation of, and compliance with, emerging environmental regimes.

Think your commercial contracting experience will easily transfer to understanding and negotiating government contracts? Think again. This session delivered a primer on how contracting with federal agencies differs from private sector contracting. We also showed you how to determine which statutes and regulations apply and discussed how to develop the requisite compliance program. More importantly, you will walk away understanding how signing a public contract might affect your business and its property rights and when you need to hire an expert.

Increased levels of corruption, a heightened regulatory environment, and pointed questions from their auditors and boards, have led companies to be much more vigilant in their efforts to address corporate fraud. This session focused on the role of in-house counsel in designing, implementing, and communicating an anti-fraud program. We considered areas of vulnerability, early detection processes, how to avoid and prepare for possible litigation stemming from corporate fraud, and how to reduce potential for class action lawsuits.

Environmental regulatory and liability concerns increasingly touch upon thousands of products in the marketplace based on the chemicals they contain. In some cases, if not reformulated, products are banned. A panel described how the list of controlled chemicals (like lead and mercury) has grown in the last decade, what laws regulate products, and how manufacturers are reacting to demands for bans or restrictions on certain chemicals.

ERISA is a complicated topic and opportunities to have it sorted out for you and the risks quantified are few and far between. This program did exactly that. It identified areas where many companies have deficient compliance programs and risk management, then offered practical solutions to address those challenges with a focus on adoption of best practices. The presentation focused on both regulatory compliance and discharge of fiduciary responsibilities.

Not sure how to respond to environmental, health and safety matters? This program brings you up to speed. It covers the basics of dealing with regulations issued by federal and state environmental and safety agencies, such as EPA and OSHA. The panel covered such issues as key regulations, permits, inspections, record keeping, and responses to enforcement activities.

We all know that compliance with the electronic discovery rules is a challenge. But what about the ethical issues we face as attorneys? How can we best preserve the attorney-client privilege? What are the ethical implications of outsourcing? How about our own technological competency (or lack thereof)?

Reporting “green” can ensure your company meets certain legal or social goals, but such reporting is not without its risks; it must be done with care. This program provided an update on the latest requirements, standards, codes, and guidelines for making environmental disclosures, particularly disclosures regarding the impact of climate change on business operations. This includeed those made under the SEC’s S-K regulations, GAAP and FIN standards, and under the “green” guidelines of the FTC.

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