The Recorder
Ross Nadel, the former criminal chief of the San Francisco U.S. Attorney's Office who founded and led the highly regarded Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property unit before joining Cooley Godward Kronish, has gone to Adobe Systems to be senior legal counsel of worldwide anti-piracy. He said he liked Cooley, but the gig at Adobe, with its distinct mix of enforcement and cybercrime, was too appealing. Most big software companies have at least some in-house lawyers working to track down software pirates.
Corporate Counsel
These are heady days for Chinese Internet companies, which are emerging
from assembly-plant anonymity to fashion their own distinct identities.
Just this winter China passed the U.S. as the country with the most
people online -- 220 million. Though there are still plenty of
impediments that inhibit e-commerce in China, Chinese Internet companies
are poised for even better days ahead. And the Alibaba Group -- the
parent of Alibaba.com -- is arguably China's most impressive Internet
outfit.
Texas Lawyer
Lenders are using their newfound bargaining power to allocate the risk of future market downturns to borrowers, which is bad news for general counsel at companies seeking to borrow money. Lenders are doing this by inserting a special kind of contract clause: material adverse change provisions for general market or industry conditions -- a market MAC. For GCs dealing with market MACs in M&A negotiations, attorney Charles W. Schwartz discusses several key things to keep in mind.
The National Law Journal
A trio of recent court decisions illuminate -- and possibly expand --
the fiduciary duties of corporate officers who aren't also company
directors, beefing up the sparse body of Delaware case law that
specifically highlights the duties of officers, according to lawyers.
The decisions may help eliminate confusion about an issue that has been
addressed mostly in snippets for more than 40 years, said Michael
Maimone, a partner at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge.
Legal Week
One reason F&C Asset Management's former legal head Gillian Switalski's sex discrimination case has made the headlines is that, if she receives the compensation she's seeking, it will set new records in the U.K. Another key issue that will be on the minds of senior in-house lawyers is the practicality of flexible working arrangements. In-house lawyers will be watching to see whether Switalski's claim will negatively impact the widespread perception that company lawyers have a better work-life balance.
The American Lawyer
Shearman & Sterling has eliminated the job of its full-time general counsel, John Shutkin, who was one of the few law firm GCs brought in from outside the law firm world, part of a wave of hirings of in-house lawyers at The Am Law 100. Elizabeth Chambliss, a law professor at New York Law School who has written about law firm general counsel, says that Shutkin's ouster "raised eyebrows," especially since so many firms are creating general counsel positions.
Fulton County Daily Report
Despite increasing scrutiny, pressure and responsibilities, most general counsel report deep satisfaction with their jobs, according to the Association of Corporate Counsel's eighth annual Chief Legal Officer Survey, released last month. The survey also found that GCs continue to spend most of their time on corporate transactional work and that records management will be the next big issue for GCs to tackle in 2008.
Fulton County Daily Report
Speaking at the State Bar of Georgia's conference on the global rule of law, Home Depot GC Jack A. VanWoerkom offered a candid assessment of the risks of doing business in the world's fastest-growing markets. VanWoerkom issued warnings about the Chinese economy, corruption in Russia, overburdened courts in India and personal safety in Brazil. His assessment: Despite domestic corruption scandals and rapid growth in overseas markets, the United States retains distinct advantages for doing business.
Special to Law.com
So your company loans an employee a laptop. The employee resigns, but he doesn't return the laptop. The company can certainly deduct the cost of the laptop from the employee's final paycheck, right? Wrong. While in many cases deductions like this one might appear reasonable, says attorney Jennifer Blum Feldman, the law in this area is anything but. In fact, determining whether a deduction is legally permissible requires some careful analysis under both state and federal law.
