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Guidance for Recommending Action to the BOD During an M&A Deal

Register by February 18th. This is your opportunity to experience firsthand (in a fictional setting) how a deal plays out in the board room and how to guide your stakeholders through the process. Our M&A Partners with Procopio and Transaction Advisory Services professionals with BDO have worked on hundreds of deals, and will share their vast knowledge and tips. They'll walk you through real life scenarios, assist you with how to dissect and analyze a deal, provide a primer on legal, accounting and financial diligence, and guide you on how to make critical decisions.

One week prior to the workshop you will be provided with the details of a fictional deal, as well as all the materials you’ll need to make an informed decision – including a term sheet, diligence check list and the financials for both the “buyer” and “seller”. You’ll be assigned to participate on either the Buy-side or Sell-side board of directors. The two groups will be divided into separate zoom rooms to discuss the details during the mock board meeting. Our moderators will guide you on what to look out for and important steps not to skip when working through this type of transaction.

After analysis from both sides, we’ll join together in one zoom room to determine – deal or no deal?

Login details for the webinar will be provided upon registration, and you will be pre-assigned to either the "buy-side" or "sell-side" group. Materials for you to review will be emailed one week prior to the workshop.

As companies enter 2021, questions still remain as to how to best prepare for upcoming cyber threats, the best next steps towards compliance under the CPRA, and other emerging privacy laws. Join us as we offer a state of the (cyber) union and unpack what’s in store for the new year under these umbrellas and how the cyber insurance market is adapting.

Attendees will walk away understanding:

1. The CCPA, its trends and enforcement;
2. The CPRA, including the Agency’s focus, new requirements, and compliance timeline;
3. Cyber Insurance trends and pitfalls;
4. Current cybersecurity threats, including ransomware and fallout from the SolarWinds attack; and
5. 2021 predictions on whether more states will implement privacy laws, as well as the potential for federal privacy regulation.

As the coronavirus vaccines are deployed, employers considering workplace vaccination programs are seeking legal guidance for the contours of such programs. On December 16, the EEOC updated its guidance regarding vaccination in the workplace and outlined the permissible scope of mandatory workplace vaccination programs. While the guidance has neither the force nor application of a statute or regulation, it provides a compelling structure for a legally compliant workplace vaccination program.

Implementing a workplace vaccination program requires an understanding of how the coronavirus vaccines provide protection — and the limits of that protection. Employers should also understand the “Emergency Use Authorization” process and whether newly authorized at-home COVID-19 test kits would be considered “medical tests” subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Please join Mintz’s Employment, Labor & Benefits and Health Law attorneys and noted immunologist Dr. Darryl Carter for a webinar to discuss key takeaways from the EEOC’s recently updated vaccination guidance and other COVID-19–related workplace questions, including:

Expert Analysis

• What is an mRNA vaccine? How were the two vaccines authorized for use, and what is known and not yet known about how they work?
Regulatory Considerations
• What is the scope of the EUA vaccine and home testing process? What can we expect in the near future?
Legal Guideposts for Employers
• The basic contours of a legally compliant workplace vaccination program.
• The importance of qualified and trained personnel to administer and manage accommodation requests;
• The need for compliant recordkeeping with respect to medical information that might be obtained in connection with such a program; and
• The importance of individualized assessment for employees who refuse to take a vaccination, and the flexibility to accommodate such employees based upon their positions, job duties, and functions in order to balance the “direct threat” and “undue hardship” standards.

Session Two:

Best Practices To Protect Your Trade Secrets

How can companies protect their trade secrets from misappropriation, especially in light of changes in business conduct resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic? These new work practices can jeopardize your company’s trade secrets, particularly work-from-home directives for employees that include routine video-conferencing for meetings, and massive layoffs resulting from the pandemic. It is critical for businesses to address the security of their trade secrets and you may be surprised by what you have forgotten to think about in these chaotic times. The panel will offer “best practices” to minimize risk and a checklist of steps to protect your trade secrets.

Session One: February 10th

Reducing The Risk Of Trade Secret Misappropriation Claims

Getting sued in a misappropriation lawsuit can be devastating even if the suit is baseless. The expense. The burden. The disruption. The alienation of customers and investors. Can your company be the target of a misappropriation claim, even if it had no intent to misappropriate? Yes, especially in these COVID days when misappropriation claims are on the rise.  The panel will address “danger areas” such as:  

• on-boarding of employees
• business alliances
• reverse-engineering, and
• patents

and will offer checklists of relevant considerations to reduce the risk of misappropriation claims, as well as:

• potential remediation steps upon discovery that an employee used a former employer’s trade secrets for your company, and
• the benefits of using (and how to establish) “clean” development teams. 

Session Two: February 24th

Best Practices To Protect Your Trade Secrets

How can companies protect their trade secrets from misappropriation, especially in light of changes in business conduct resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic? These new work practices can jeopardize your company’s trade secrets, particularly work-from-home directives for employees that include routine video-conferencing for meetings, and massive layoffs resulting from the pandemic. It is critical for businesses to address the security of their trade secrets and you may be surprised by what you have forgotten to think about in these chaotic times. The panel will offer “best practices” to minimize risk and a checklist of steps to protect your trade secrets.

One in five adults will experience a mental illness in any given year, affecting all areas of their life, including work. More than half of workers say stress and anxiety impacts their productivity, quality of work, and relationships with their coworkers. Employers have a unique ability and responsibility to address the mental health and well being of their workers. What are the best practices for handling employees struggling with mental health at work? This presentation will cover employers’ legal obligations around employee health and well-being, how to identify work-related stress, the claims that can arise when situations are poorly managed, and the laws that apply.

This program will include a panel of Jackson Lewis attorneys, discussing some of the most critical issues and legislative bills that affected California employers in 2020 and how to get ready for 2021.

Topics include:

• Key CA legal updates you need to know
• Sexual harassment training requirements and executive orders impacting training for government agencies
• Employee social media use and employee discipline
• Pay data reporting requirement
• COVID-19 notification requirements

A New Year in California means new laws for employers to comply with, and 2020 was no exception.  However, the new year also means the start of the 2021 legislative session in California, as well as a new administration at the federal level, all of which is occurring as employers contend with the “new normal” presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Join us to recap the 2020 legislative changes employers need to know, the federal and state developments employers may face in 2021, and to identify the resolutions employment counsel and employers have on their list to accomplish during the new year.

Join us for the second installment of our two-part introductory Mintz ESG webinar series. ESG — environmental, social, and governance — criteria are becoming increasingly central to the evaluation of investment options, corporate actions, and corporate performance. As a growing number of companies and investors embrace ESG, it is evolving to encompass a broad spectrum of societal developments that shape shareholder interests. Some of these issues include environmental sustainability, the economic, community, and health effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the increased focus on gender and racial equity in board composition, and the call for racial justice — both in the boardroom and throughout corporate America.

In this webinar, members of Mintz’s multidisciplinary ESG team and Silda Wall Spitzer, CEO & Publisher of New York Makers, will explore ESG principles as value-creation vehicles through social impact investing and diversity and inclusion in the C-suite and boardroom.

This session will cover:
• How social impact investing is linked to business purpose and creating both investment and social value
• How emerging legal issues are affecting environmental and social impact investing
• How statutory initiatives and mandates aimed at regulating gender and racial balance for board composition and social justice–related derivative litigation impact board governance
• How corporate diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives influence ESG metrics
 

Exploring diversity, well being and the new world of work
 

Recent global events like the spread of COVID-19 and movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo are having profound and long-term impacts on our workplaces. Organizations across the world are rethinking how to stay relevant, how to prioritize workers’ wellbeing and how to promote social justice and equality, all while planning for an uncertain future.

In our new Global Employment Thought Leadership Series, prominent thinkers will examine these critical themes and offer insights to employers on what companies can do now to make work better and make workplaces fit for the future, whatever it may bring.

Please plan to join us for these informative discussions.