One of the most important topics in corporate compliance and governance compliance is subsidiary management. In our expanding global economy, the challenges of managing subsidiaries are complex, fraught with risk, and can quickly become an administrative nightmare. In this panel, compliance and governance professionals will discuss their experiences in managing entities across the world, working with agents and outside counsel, and managing tax issues. The program is aimed at identifying lessons learned, improving work practices, and reducing the risks and expenses your organization faces in maintaining entities around the world.
A candid and thoughtful discussion regarding the role that the general counsel (GC) has in managing the heightened level of ethical scrutiny as it applies to the “C-Level” suite. Included in this review will be the challenges that the office of the general counsel faces in balancing the role of ethical counselor to the members of the executive management team and the GC’s fiduciary responsibility to the board of directors. We will review recent “C-Level” ethical transgressions and debate appropriate courses of action as they relate to preventing ethical breaches and dealing with the consequences once they have occurred.
Cross-border compliance obligations for multi-nationals means a lot more headaches for in-house litigators tasked with managing cross-border discovery. Discovery obligations vary from country to country — but try telling that to your home regulator who is clamoring for you to turn over documents that another regulator forbids you to. Explore the growing international complexity of discovery/ediscovery compliance with a lively panel discussion that looks at recent regulatory actions, litigations and sanctions, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the UK Code of Business Conduct and the Eighth Amendment to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China.
This program will discuss conflicts of interest and its impact on organization by exploring real world scenarios involving family, financial and personal relationships, board memberships, financial self-dealing, gifts and entertainment. The presenters will share best practices for managing the risks created by conflicts of interest, and offer ways to implement practical, flexible solutions, including policies, training, pre-approvals, questionnaires and audits.
This program will focus on a series of case studies involving in-house lawyers who got into trouble for (allegedly or actually) violating legal ethics rules, acting improperly in response to government investigations, and assisting their employers in perpetrating fraudulent or criminal acts. We will review the case studies, discuss what the lawyers involved could have done to avoid trouble, and tease out steps that you and your law department can take to protect yourselves from the potential pitfalls highlighted by the case studies.
Today’s government contractors, especially those just realizing that they are government contractors, face a compliance and ethics requirements environment significantly different from that of strictly commercial companies. To address the unique compliance and ethics needs of government contractors, panelists will provide an update on recent suspension and debarment matters, awards from the False Claims Act and the lessons government contractors can learn from those decisions. This session will review the Federal Acquisition Regulations on codes of conduct and compliance programs for government contractors. Panelists will also identify strategic ways to demonstrate due diligence in managing risk to government customers, regulators and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Executive compensation remains a hot issue. This program will discuss the following: (1) proxy advisors say-on-pay assessment process and voting outcome; (2) lawsuits claiming breach of fiduciary duty resulting from failed say-on-pay votes; (3) compliance with Internal Revenue Code Section 162(m); (4) shareholder outreach to discuss company pay practices, compensation plans and decisions; (5) Dodd-Frank rules on compensation committee and advisor independence; and (6) pending Dodd-Frank regulations relating to compensation, including pay for performance, pay disparity and clawbacks.
When corruption or other potential wrongdoing comes to light, in-house counsel are typically called upon to manage and direct their company's response. In this session, contestants" selected from the audience will play a version of the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Contestants will be asked multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty related to the principal stages and elements of a company's response to the discovery of potential wrongdoing. The audience will be encouraged to participate to assist contestants. A panel of experienced outside and in-house counsel will comment on and discuss each of the answers given by contestants and the audience, identifying best practices and pitfalls to avoid.
This risk inventory tool has been developed to provide assistance in developing a compliance risk inventory and in conducting the initial phases of a compliance risk assessment for all businesses within a company’s North America Region.
This program identifies key considerations for providing legal advice to business clients in nonprofit organizations. It is important for business clients to understand that a not-for-profit designation does not mean that the organization should behave differently than a for-profit company. Additionally, when counseling business clients, in-house attorneys may need to assist them in seeing the "little" picture. Areas covered will include: risks associated with receipt of donated goods, services and real estate; conducting due diligence analysis of vendors/suppliers; brand/intellectual property protection; and costs and risks associated with new ventures or risky activities.