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Today's boards are holding the purse strings tighter than ever and every department is vying for money. With the predicted economic downturn approaching, legal departments need to make their requests stand out from the crowd in order to gain the budget to drive successful initiatives for the legal team.

With remote working on the rise and its impact on mental health, this will become ever more important. It is important for us to see this as a way to pave opportunities for females, minorities and those with disabilities to gain more senior roles in the future, but we must also be wary of the challenges remote working will also bring to our mental health if inclusivity is not considered.

Companies are increasingly initiating or defending concurrent lawsuits in foreign jurisdictions – each with its own opportunities and risks. Companies competing in the global economy should not ignore the global litigation landscape. Speakers will address opportunities and risks presented by various jurisdictions, and important strategic considerations in managing concurrent disputes throughout the world.

Hackers love exploiting weakness. As data breaches increase in frequency and size, corporate legal departments must be armed and ready to proactively tackle these crises and reduce risk and damage to the company.

In the past few months, we have witnessed a sharp rise in litigation cases. Law firms are inundated with new cases and juggling these over a virtual platform for the first time. General Counsel and their litigation teams are also increasingly feeling the burden of these cases and must work closer than ever before with their law firms and partners to produce a successful outcome.

The pandemic has forced companies to deal with an abundance of contractual challenges across the supply chain and with vendors. With the challenges not likely to disappear for 2020, how can General Counsel successfully navigate these novel contractual issues from force majeure, public disclosure to global supply chain disruption. Collaboration with external advisors and partners will be key to securing successful outcomes, yet for many General Counsel reservations still stand with security fears ranking top of the list.

In today's world of social media, bad PR travels fast. To combat these situations, the best offense is often good defense. Legal teams, marketing and PR teams and firms must work in tandem to swiftly handle negative attacks against them. Industry leaders know that this requires a well-reasoned crisis management plan, and one that involves multiple key teams to be effective.

With corporate governance coming under the microscope, in house teams need to ensure they have a handle on their responsibilities to their company and as a leader in the organization. There is a balance between providing advice and mitigating risk. In addition, General Counsel in today's environment must deal with increasing scrutiny from not only the board, but also the media and government.

Privacy has remained top of the agenda for 2020 from the escalating concerns surrounding the sudden shift to remote and digital working; the impending CCPA enforcement date; to the increasing rise of data breaches and cyber-attacks. It is easy to understand why these developments raise further ethical questions, concerns and unease among legal departments. Legal departments must ensure the correct infrastructure is in place to tackle these challenges or face the huge risks associated with any one of these concerns.