Events

During a protracted period of crisis management, drastic business disruption and a distributed workforce under unrelenting pressure, how are General Counsels pivoting and evolving to lead their teams and organizations?  More than ever, decisiveness, flexibility, empathy, and inclusivity are eclipsing traditional lawyerly traits of deliberateness, consistency, convention, and hierarchy in importance.  What are GCs doing to identify and develop these strengths in themselves and in their teams?  How do these changes affect GC relationships and expectations with your executives/boards, internal clients, and outside counsel? 

Join us for a conversation about these important questions with the following leading chief legal officers:

·  Elizabeth Allen, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary at NPR

·  Monica Douglas, SVP & General Counsel at The Coca-Cola Company

·  Lucy Fato, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Global Head of Communications and Government Affairs at AIG

·  Michael Wu, Chief Legal Officer at Bath & Body Works

·  Simone Wu, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & External Affairs at Choice Hotels International

Moderated by Audrey Jean, ACC NCR VP of Programming and SVP, Privacy Officer & Senior Associate GC at AARP

ACC members, in-house counsel, ACC NCR annual relationship sponsors*, and select guests** are invited to join us for this special event, including time for networking in small-group breakout rooms.

*ACC NCR annual relationship sponsors may send two representatives, except Diamond, which may send three.

**Guests may include business colleagues and significant others, but may not include law firm or vendor representatives that compete with our sponsors.

The increased pace of M&A transaction timelines and the demand to realize near-term economic and strategic benefits from acquisitions has placed a premium on effective acquisition integration.  Both prior to and after the acquisition, legal counsel face a number of challenges related to integration, made more complex and taxing by the demands of closing the transaction itself and a host of potential differences between the companies’ operations, policies, plans and systems.
This interactive roundtable will both identify and discuss solutions and risk mitigation strategies for the “speed bumps” that can challenge successful M&A integration.  Areas to be addressed include: Employment and Labor; Tech, IT Systems and IP Issues; Corporate Governance; Branding; Compliance Policies; Customer Relationship and Continuity; and Residual Purchase Agreement Issues (including post-closing purchase price adjustment processes and indemnity issues).  

This free-flowing discussion format will enable in-house counsel an opportunity to hear from veterans of numerous M&A integration processes, as well as share their own insights, expertise and experience.

Presented by Holland & Knight partners Jonathan Wolcott (Corporate/M&A), Kara Ariail (Employment & Labor) and Glynna Christian (Technology Transactions), Afsaneh “Affie” Ambrose, Vice President, Corporate Counsel at Acumen Solutions, a Salesforce Company and Lisa Anastos, General Counsel of Edifecs.

This session is for informational purposes only, no MCLE credit will be offered.

 Join us for a virtual happy hour hosted by our LGBTQ+ affinity group. Pour your favorite beverage or just join us to catch up with others. All members are welcome to attend.

The Demand for Skilled Talent is your look into the hiring trends making noise across the country. Learn why top candidates are rejecting job offers — and what they’re looking for in their next role. Also explore the hiring and retention strategies employers are using to recruit and keep talent. This presentation also delves into the latest numbers on hiring, skills shortages across industries and more.

Sponsored by Robert Half

Speakers include:

• Patrick Doherty, Vice President & Practice Director at Robert Half
• Marina Wikner, Vice President & Director of Permanent Placement Services at Robert Half
  

Join our ACC NCR 2022 Lawyers Have Heart Team!

We are thrilled that this year’s 32nd Lawyers Have Heart 10k, 5k, and Fun Walk will be held on Saturday, June 11, 2022 in person in Washington, DC and virtually.

We would love if you would join our team and help us raise funds for the millions of Americans who are affected by heart disease and stroke. You do not have to be a runner to participate! You do not have to be in person to participate!

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer worldwide and stroke ranks second globally. Please join our team or donate today and help us change this statistic. The Heart Walk is a time of celebration, joy and inspiration. People unified in support of a single goal: to see a world free of heart disease and stroke. Together, we are a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. 

Register for our 2022 ACC NCR team here.

With no geographic boundaries for virtual participants, we would love for you to recruit your colleagues and friends to join our team.

Best,

Your ACC NCR Lawyers Have Heart Co-Chairs – Affie Ambrose and Lori Sher

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has had a profound impact on privacy law globally, including in the United States.  Yet the US Congress has resisted adopting a law similar to the GDPR.   Numerous US state legislatures, however, have already enacted or are considering enacting their own data privacy laws, incorporating aspects of the GDPR with local variations.  What do these developments mean for US companies as a practical matter?  What should a company do if all these laws apply?  

This program will provide a concise summary of the key elements of the EU/UK GDPR and compare those elements to the developing framework of federal and state privacy laws in the United States, with a focus on practical guidelines for compliance.  We will explore, for example:

·  Definitions of “personal data” and what it takes to “de-identify” or anonymize information so that it is no longer subject to privacy restrictions -- how is that different in the EU/UK than in the United States?

·  Who is regulated and on what basis by the GDPR as compared to sector-specific and state-specific privacy laws in the United States?

·  What are the implications of the GDPR’s restrictions on transfers of personal data to the United States, particularly in light of decisions of the European Court of Justice regarding risks to personal data once transferred to the United States?  

·  What do the recent European court decisions regarding cookies mean for the use of automated tracking of website users in the EU and UK?

·  What is the future of targeting online advertising and artificial intelligence under emerging privacy laws and their interpretation -- will individual consent be required?

Tackling these questions is a challenge for Privacy Officers and Compliance Officers across industries.  This program will offer a streamlined framework for approaching solutions.

Presented by James Castro-Edwards, Counsel (London) and Nancy L. Perkins, Counsel (Washington DC) at Arnold & Porter, Doug Curwin, Senior Privacy Counsel, at Veracyte, Inc., and Sarah Leathwood, Data Privacy Leader at Danaher Life Sciences Tools Platform.

Moderated by Jami Vibbert, Partner and Practice Leader for Privacy, Cybersecurity & Data Strategy at Arnold & Porter (New York).  

 
1.5 Hours of VA MCLE pending.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the American workforce in various ways, including the challenges employers now face in their efforts to hire and retain talented employees. “The Great Resignation” describes the status of the workforce where over 30 million American workers resigning from their jobs from Spring 2021 to November 2021. This seismic shift has caused employers to rethink traditional methods for recruiting and retaining employees as compensation is rising and employers and employees address the fallout of the ongoing pandemic. 

Not only has COVID-19 changed the recruiting process, but federal, state, and local governments have also imposed new compliance obligations on the recruiting and onboarding processes in the name of advancing racial and pay equity.  This leaves in-house counsel with a critical role to ensure that their firms obtain the next generation of talent, in a way that avoid legal risk from missteps in this unprecedented environment. 

Presented by Jack Blum and Tony Torain, Shareholders at Polsinelli P.C. and Amanda Dupree, Associate General Counsel at ePlus Inc.

1.5 Hours of VA MCLE pending.

Join us for our inaugural ACC NCR Black & African American Affinity Group hosted by Nicole Greenidge-Hoskins, Kecia Lewis and Ernest Tuckett. At this initial (virtual) meet-up, we will come together to get to know one another and connect. Going forward, we hope you will join us for future meetings to share experiences, topics, and initiatives of interest as well as explore issues impacting Black and African American in-house counsel. If you aren’t able to attend this session but interested in being included going forward, please reply to this email.

Cybersecurity and privacy issues continue to vex many stakeholders, in part because of the constantly changing regulatory environment.  This has led to significant interest in third-party risk management.  In this context, a number of questions arise:

· How can companies protect themselves against third-party cyber and privacy risks?
· In a post-Shrems II world, how can GDPR exposure be addressed?
· What are the main obstacles to effective third party risk management?
· What can be done contractually about supply chain cyberattacks (like SolarWinds, Cocecov, and Kaseya)?

In addition to the above questions, this session will take a look at the future state of privacy and data security law, including the contours of data transfer in the EU, the continued uncertainty around the Schrems II decision, and the potential enforcement posture of DPAs.  We will also discuss the effects of the continually changing privacy landscape on such operational issues as long term planning, revisions to business models, and exit considerations (e.g., mergers and acquisitions or IPOs). 

Finally, we will look at what is on the horizon, including possible widening of the gap between the GDPR and the UK GDPR, additional activity in the states, and the topic of cyber incident reporting (CIR). 

Presented by Sandeep Kathuria, Assistant General Counsel - Cybersecurity and Security Law at Leidos and C.M. Tokë Vandervoort, Chief Legal Officer at the Environmental Defense Fund.

Moderated by Randy V. Sabett, Special Counsel at Cooley LLP.

1.5 Hours of VA MCLE pending.