Read John Villa's article for tips on the rules, the substance of the corporate Miranda warning and the risks associated with giving it.
A strong and effective compliance program can be crucial to persuading the prosecutor that your company does not deserve prosecution. If your program is like most programs, the prosecutor is likely to treat it skeptically. Most compliance programs are designed to help prevent an attack, not to help defend the company when authorities raid the company. This article will show you how to strengthen your compliance program against that day.
This article explains the importance and specifics of board training.
In-house counsel charged with implementing the whisleblowing mandates of Sarbanes-Oxley usually bemoan their fate. Yet, the whistleblower provisions of SOX also represent an opportunity to use whistleblowers as a valuable internal early warning system for illegal conduct and other wrongdoing. Read this article to find out how.
Read the interview with Stasia Kelly about the importance of managing a corporate crisis.
Ben Franklin knew a thing or two about inventions and money, though not so much about patent litigation. You can use his wisdom, though, to curb many of patent litigation's costs. Read how up-front investments in defining clear goals, selecting top-notch counsel, retaining the right experts, and realistically analyzing the merits and costs will save you money in the long run.
Determining which documents to keep and which to destroy requires your company to perform a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, the company must
retain documents needed to satisfy its business operational requirements, as well as preserve documents relevant to any potential litigation. On the other hand, your company needs to hold down its costs for storing records. This balancing act becomes particularly complicated if your company is doing
business in Europe, where your company has to comply with a bewildering array of
retention requirements imposed by the various European governments.
How many times have you experienced the "quick look review"—you know, the one where you get to review a contract 25 minutes before the business people are set to sign it? You don’t want to be the company’s roadblock to revenue, but you need to ensure that your company does not enter into a contract loaded with real risk to the corporation. Read how you can win in this situation and other common, vexing contract negotiation situations.
The legal profession still has a long way to go toward building minority representation. The Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline program gives attorneys a chance to increase diversity in the legal profession by reaching out to promising minority students while they're still in high school. Learn how you can get involved with minimal time and maximum impact.
Over the past four years, a stream of news reports has described SEC enforcement actions and criminal prosecutions of inside corporate lawyers. Many in the corporate bar have asked whether the news coverage is exaggerating the frequency of these actions, and if the frequency is real, whether any common factors prompted these proceedings. If the answer to these critical questions is "yes," then inside lawyers can take steps to reduce their risks.