The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) is the world's largest organization serving the professional and business interests of attorneys who practice in the legal departments of corporations, associations, nonprofits and other private-sector organizations around the globe.
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Cyberattacks are sharply on the rise in Australia, with 15% more reported data breaches in 2022 being due to cyberattacks as against 2021.
Additionally, further reforms to the Australian Privacy Act are expected to be announced later this year following the reforms late last year which increased the penalties of mishandling personal information or failing to report notifiable data breach.
Law Squared, who have signed on as an official supporter of Privacy Awareness Week 2023, will take you through a guided privacy and data training session focusing on:
An overview of some of the anticipated changes to the Privacy Act.
The importance of privacy awareness within organisations.
Good data hygiene practices for staff to avoid mishandling personal information.
How to reduce the risk of a data breach in day-to-day operations.
How to handle data breaches.
Practical steps that can be implemented to ensure you remain safely ahead of the curve.
Modernising Legal Operations: How digitising legal contracts reduces costs and improves efficiency
The need for legal departments to reduce contract cycle time, improve visibility and maintain compliance is more important than ever.
Join this webinar to find simple ways to save your legal team time, effort and cost through digitisation.
Hear how legal departments have transformed their contract operations and generated benefits for their teams and stakeholders. We will share their challenges and how digitising contract management helped them accelerate business, save time and reduce risk. Hear about the features, tools and solutions that are used most by our legal customers and how you can quickly and easily get started with your transformation journey.
Join this live virtual discussion to learn:
What is driving investment in the digital transformation of contracts?
How to streamline contract processes to reduce turnaround times - generating, sending, negotiating and signing.
Why improved visibility into contracts and contracting processes reduces risk and improves compliance?
How to scale your team by doing more with the same.
The overlap between tax and disputes is complex and can create tensions within organisations that are not prepared for them. Julian and Muhunthan will chart a course through this broad topic.
They will explore:
The perennially contentious topic of when to bring in the lawyers (both internal and external);
The equally contentious topic of whether to go to litigation;
Avoiding, mitigating and navigating reviews, audits and ultimately litigation;
Current ATO programs and focus areas, and an overview of State and Territory focus areas; and
Some of the ATO’s areas of sensitivity so that you do not inadvertently poke the bear where it is sore!
Listed companies are feeling more and more vulnerable to unsolicited takeover approaches given market dynamics and the greater willingness of financial sponsors to pursue ASX listed entities.
Boards will expect their company’s inhouse legal teams to do what they can to prepare the company for receipt of a control proposal.
This webinar, hosted by Gilbert + Tobin’s market leading M+A team in conjunction with ACC Australia, will help in house legal teams to consider, prepare for and understand how respond to both formal offers and unsolicited approaches in relation to takeovers and mergers.
This session will focus on:
developing a takeover response strategy;
being prepared for the critical first 48 hours;
being alive to continuous disclosure obligations; and
unpacking some of the key strategies and tactics that may be deployed if necessary.
Gilbert + Tobin are also hosting Be Empowered: Navigating the Key Elements of Public M+A on Tuesday 22 August 2023, which members might also be interested in attending. Click here for more details.
General counsel and company secretaries of listed public companies (and other disclosing entities) are tasked with helping their board ensure the company complies with its statutory obligations, including its continuous disclosure obligations. Getting it wrong can have a range of implications for the company and its officers, including suspension from ASX, an ASIC infringement notice, civil and criminal penalties, not to mention the risk of litigation and serious reputational damage.
This seminar will introduce in-house counsel and company secretaries to Australia’s continuous disclosure framework, and will explore a number of hotspots including:
leaks and lost confidentiality;
upgrades or downgrades to earnings guidance and earnings surprises;
material exposure to ESG issues; and
regulatory investigations or other material events potentially causing financial loss or reputational damage.
Regulatory investigations and enforcement actions are running at unprecedented levels across Australia. Major regulators have been very public as to their priority focus including matters canvassing cyber security and cyber resilience, data management and disclosures concerning ESG, in particular climate change and the “greenwashing or greenhushing” debates.
It is crucial for in-house counsel to have a comprehensive understanding of various strategic factors that have the potential to significantly influence the outcome of a regulatory investigation.
This CPD event, hosted by Gilbert + Tobin’s Disputes + Investigations team in conjunction with ACC Australia, will explore a range of topics including:
recent regulatory trends, including in relation to data breaches, greenwashing and crypto currency;
working with your executive team and Board in anticipation of a regulators’ focus;
the impact of regulatory actions on a company’s strategy and operations; and
tips for in-house counsel when managing a regulatory investigation, including engaging with the regulator, preparing for compulsory processes, document and evidence management and stakeholder engagement.
The energy sector is undergoing rapid transformation. Climate change and technological advancements are disrupting energy markets, and creating challenges for regulators, policy makers and market participants.
This webinar, hosted by Gilbert + Tobin’s award-winning Competition + Regulation team, will explore the latest regulatory developments in the energy sector, including:
major interventions in gas markets;
changes to the electricity grid connection rules; and
the ongoing development of Government schemes to support investment in renewable energy zones.
This CPD session is a must for in-house counsel who expect to be involved in major projects, transactions or disputes in the energy sector over the coming year.
Artificial Intelligence (particularly Generative AI) has truly now arrived in the legal industry and has the potential to shake up the way we practice. But don’t panic! This session will serve as your trusty guidebook to the AI technologies that will likely change the way we find, review and write legal content. Taking a vendor-agnostic approach, we’ll bypass the hype and explain everything you need to know about:
With historically low unemployment and increased employee mobility post pandemic, many have suggested that Australia is currently experiencing the Great Resignation. While organisations work to retain talent, it is inevitable that employees will change jobs in the current market. The key challenge for many employers is ensuring that the organisation’s staff, customer relationships, confidential information and trade secrets don’t follow the ex-employee to their new job.
Please join Employment Relations Partner, Erin McCarthy, for a webinar on legal and practical issues in protecting confidential information and minimising the impact of staff turnover.
In this session we will cover:
What is and isn’t confidential information;
The challenges of managing confidential information in the current age (bring your own devices, working from home);
Surveillance of employees’ use of devices and IT resources;
Use of exit procedures to minimise loss of confidential information;
Post-employment restraints including non-solicitation and non-competition type clauses;
How to minimise the risk of departing employees poaching staff and customers; and;
Contract and policy reviews to provide the best foundation to protect your organisation’s valuable information and relationships.
What’s next on your Legal Department’s DEI journey?
In the words of the great Maya Angelou “If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going.”; and this is certainly the case for your legal department’s DEI strategy. No matter where you are at on your DEI journey, the ACC Foundation’s DEI Maturity Model (ACCF DEI MM) can help get you to where you need to be. The ACCF DEI MM has been designed for use by legal departments around the world to benchmark maturity of their efforts regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across a wide range of functional areas that have been proven relevant to optimising DEI impact and results.
Join our panellists Christalyne Look and Sneha Balakrishnan in a roundtable facilitated by Carmel Mulhern, the Group General Counsel and Group Executive, Legal & Group Secretariat, CBA to check where your department is at against the ACCF DEI MM, identify DEI challenges particular to your industry and hear about inclusive practices you can adopt to support your organisation to achieve its goals and increase innovation and growth through equity and inclusion.