Expert Opinion

Litigating 'Best Efforts' Considerations for Defining or Not Defining What Effort to Expect

Jeremy J. Gray | June 22, 2018

Unforeseen or uncontrollable events make the full extent of risk associated with development and commercialization unknowable.

Expert Opinion

Losing the Ability to Conduct Business, Period: The Potential Impact of Multilateral Development Bank Sanctions

William Jacobson and Lauren Muldoon | June 21, 2018

Every company participating in multilateral development bank-financed projects must be cognizant of their compliance guidelines and the impact of their investigative and disciplinary functions.

Expert Opinion

Does Compliance Really Have Different Interests Than Legal?

Michael W. Peregrine | June 20, 2018

Recent public comments by well-known compliance consultant Hui Chen provide an important, if not also provocative, perspective on the role lawyers should play as part of a compliance team.

Expert Opinion

Seven Steps to Ensuring Your and Your Law Firm Partners’ GDPR Compliance

Barry Ader | June 19, 2018

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25 and with it, the European Union (EU) Parliament has set an impressively high standard for data privacy with the new rule.

How US Companies Can Prepare for New Foreign Investment Rules

Priya R. Aiyar | June 18, 2018

Companies should be prepared for restrictions on Chinese investment and export of technology to Chinese persons to come into force prior to or alongside the passage of any legislation as part of the administration’s response to China on trade issues.

Expert Opinion

Stay or Go: Reading the Tea Leaves of a CEO Transition as General Counsel

Lee Udelsman and Ryan Whitacre | June 18, 2018

Leadership transitions put employees on edge, and for good reason: a new chief executive officer means that everyone in the company is once again auditioning for their job.

Expert Opinion

Mastering Legal Holds: What Is the Scope of Preservation and Best Practices to Comply? Part III

John Tredennick | June 14, 2018

When a legal hold duty arises, an organization must decide what to preserve and how to do it.

Commentary

Better Information Governance Means Better E-Discovery Outcomes—Part III: Practical Approaches to IG

Yodi S. Hailemariam and Amy Ramsey Marcos | June 13, 2018

In Part III, we explore practical approaches to establishing an information governance framework, including an overview of three IG projects that benefit e-discovery.

Commentary

What You Need to Know About the European Trade Secrets Directive

Peter Lando and Thomas McNulty | June 12, 2018

Companies doing business in Europe or with European entities should understand the new protections afforded trade secrets in Europe, as well as which countries are in compliance and which have not yet made the necessary changes.

Corporate Dating Policies: Thoughts on Balancing Employee Bliss With Employer Interests

Daniel K. Wiig | June 12, 2018

Corporate counsel, in conjunction with human resources management (HRM), should consider drafting and implementing a balanced dating policy that both respects the employee’s personal lives yet protects the employer’s interests in avoiding touchy personnel matters.

Avoiding the Next Wireless Patent War

Joseph Siino | June 08, 2018

Joseph Siino presents a three-pronged plan for ending the wireless patent wars and creating a more productive and less litigious patent licensing sector.

How to Improve In-House Effectiveness

Abbott Martin | June 07, 2018

Boosting department effectiveness doesn’t require huge investments in new systems, but instead a leadership and management focus that weighs the creation of system capacity as much as it does the priority matter sitting on your desk.

Taking Company Documents to Support Whistleblowing— When Is 'Self Help' Unlawful?

Kevin Griffith and Ed Ellis | June 05, 2018

Even as federal protections for whistleblowers have expanded, employers can still take strategic actions to address employees taking confidential and proprietary business information to provide to a governmental agency or for use in a whistleblower action.

Expert Opinion

GCs: How to Manage New Hire Expectations

Mike Evers | June 05, 2018

The results from the 2018 Career Satisfaction survey for in-house counsel make it abundantly clear that most of you crave upward mobility.

Commentary

The Power of an Idea

Frank Ramos | June 04, 2018

If you can create an environment in your legal department where ideas are born, germinate, grow and flourish, you will create a legal department that solves not only legal problems, but business problems, sales problems, customer problems and every company problem imaginable.

Commentary

Prepared for the Hack: Demystifying Cybersecurity for Corporate Executives

Lynn Haaland and Paul Rosen | May 31, 2018

Many executives are less comfortable confronting cybersecurity risks than they might be with other corporate issues.

Commentary

Tips for Running a Successful Foreign Language Document Review: It’s Not All Greek

Maureen Murchie | May 30, 2018

The ability to manage a successful FLDR in an increasingly global social system can be tricky.

Commentary

Cloud Technologies in Legal: Do More, Spend Less

Andy Wilson | May 29, 2018

New technologies are helping corporate legal teams meet the challenge of doing more with less, and cloud-based software is one of the leading tools.

Commentary

The One Thing Missing From Most CLM Platforms 

Monica Zent | May 29, 2018

CLMs should be more than just a repository for contracts; they should also provide a means for attorneys and business teams to collaboratively negotiate contracts.

News

Everyone's Worried About GDPR, but It May Be the Y2K of Data Privacy

Dan Clark | May 25, 2018

The message that lawyers have for companies nervous about GDPR compliance and heavy fines: For now, keep calm and carry on.

News

Money Isn’t Everything for In-House Counsel, Report Says

Dan Clark | May 23, 2018

Only 26 percent of attorneys surveyed by Evers Legal believed that compensation was the most rewarding aspect of their work.

News

High Court Approval of Class Action Waivers in Landmark Case Seen as Victory for Companies

Dan Clark | May 23, 2018

“It’s a significant victory for employers in that those that have arbitration agreements that contain class and collective action waivers are now able to enforce them without any question,” said one of the attorneys who argued for Epic Systems before the U.S. Supreme Court.

News

Chinese Trademark Applications Filed With PTO Could Create Headaches for US Businesses

Dan Clark | May 21, 2018

Chinese companies are on track to file more foreign trademark applications than U.S. companies in the next couple of years, according to recent data.

News

Monsanto and Husch Blackwell's Case Assessment Mastery Made Them ACC Value Champions

Dan Clark | May 21, 2018

As a result of implementing a new algorithm to assess asbestos cases early, the number of active cases has declined by 53 percent and settlement costs were reduced by 30 percent for Monsanto. Spend on outside counsel on these matters is down by 10 percent.

Expert Opinion

ADA Lawsuits and Businesses: Take Steps to Avoid Litigation Now

Patrick P. Dinardo and Erika Todd | May 18, 2018

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990, but it is newly urgent for businesses. Lawsuits filed under Title III, which requires businesses that are open to the public to be accessible to people with disabilities, have increased exponentially in recent years.

Keeping the “General” in General Counsel: Why GCs Still Need Broad Skillsets

Craig Mills | May 17, 2018

As part of the Legal Innovators Interview Series, Craig Mills, a shareholder and co-chair of the Litigation section at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, talks to Rob Edmund, the chief legal and talent officer at Kforce.

News

Is GDPR a 'Spark for New Business Models?' Some Companies Say 'Yes'

Dan Clark | May 16, 2018

A new survey indicates that, believe it or not, GDPR spells opportunity for some companies.

Q&A

HUB International GC John Albright Says Legal Has 'Only Begun to Scratch the Surface' With AI

Dan Clark | May 16, 2018

Albright gave his take on how legal departments should go about purchasing AI and whether or not it's going to replace human lawyers.

Expert Opinion

Mastering Legal Holds: When Does the Hold Obligation Arise? Part II

John Tredennick | May 16, 2018

In the first of this three-part series on mastering legal holds, I introduced the concept of a legal hold and offered seven steps for implementing a hold.

Expert Opinion

Unexpected Successor Liability Arising From an Asset Purchase

Gary S. Matsko | May 15, 2018

It is an article of faith that a company seeking to acquire a business without being saddled with its liabilities does so by acquiring assets: “Most jurisdictions, including Massachusetts, follow the traditional corporate law principle that the liabilities of a selling predecessor corporation are not imposed upon the successor corporation which purchases its assets ...,” as in Milliken & Co. v. Duro Textiles, 451 Mass. 547, 556, 887 N.E.2d 244, 254 (2008).

News

Legal Artificial Intelligence Vendors On the Rise, Report Says

Dan Clark | May 14, 2018

Options abound for legal departments attempting to integrate more artificial intelligence into their work.

Expert Opinion

A Legal Ops Pro With His Eyes on the Future: A Q&A With Gary Tully of Gilead

Dan Clark | May 14, 2018

Tully spoke to Corporate Counsel about the evolution of legal ops, his day-to-day challenges, his project to help with law firm data security and more.

Expert Opinion

India: An Emerging Economic Powerhouse and the Need for In-House Counsel

Pooja Mahbubani | May 14, 2018

With sustained economic growth above 7 percent and an exploding start-up culture, the Indian economy is booming. And thanks to the ongoing economic liberalization brought about by the Modi government, it’s never been more accessible for foreign companies.

Expert Opinion

Outside Liability in the #MeToo Era: The Viability of Aiding and Abetting Claims

Lynne Hermle and Annie Prasad | May 10, 2018

Executive heads continue to roll in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which now has boards of directors and shareholders in its crosshairs.

News

The GDPR Deadline is Coming, Get That Cyber Insurance Policy Ready

Dan Clark | May 10, 2018

Attorneys said that companies need to be especially thoughtful about their cyber coverage now that the GDPR is imposing tougher rules on many of them around data.

You Need to Network Like Your Life Depends on It—and Other Reflections on Founding a Start Up as a Lawyer

Ben White | May 09, 2018

As the traditional legal career path evolves into more of a career “zig zag,” an increasing number of lawyers, like me, are finding themselves pursuing…

Ushering Legal Operations Into the Future: A Q&A With Reese Arrowsmith of Campbell Soup

Dan Clark | May 09, 2018

Arrowsmith, who also chairs the ACC's operations group, believes that sharing knowledge and stories of legal ops successes and failures will move the field forward.

How to Handle EU Employee Data Under the New General Data Protection Regulation

Dan Clark | May 08, 2018

There are plenty of complexities around how companies can and can't use the personal data of EU employees under the massive new GDPR.

Expert Opinion

Matter Management Can’t Do It All

James Beckett | May 07, 2018

Innovative legal leaders are measuring beyond the level of just matter management. They are measuring subjective performance data and sharing the results with their law firms.

Building Legal Ops From the Ground Up: A Q&A With Mike Russell of Ingersoll-Rand

Dan Clark | May 07, 2018

Mike Russell of Ingersoll-Rand spoke about artificial intelligence, building an operations function and where legal department outsourcing may be heading next.

Expert Opinion

Leadership and Mentoring: Leading by Serving

Frank Ramos | May 04, 2018

Leadership is not a title. Nor is it a right. It is not an excuse to boss others around. It doesn’t bestow upon its owner powers over others’ choices, values or decisions. Leadership is service.

Sourcing Your Next Great Hire

Mike Evers | May 03, 2018

Every general counsel understands the importance of hiring the right people. Take your time. And do your best to take control of the process.

Analysis

Can Driverless Compliance Programs Be Effective? One CECO’s Perspective on AI

Daniel Trujillo | May 01, 2018

Our building blocks are: leadership, risk assessment, standards, training, awareness and monitoring. How a company executes these building blocks is the complicated part.

#MeToo and the Male Business Executive: A Call For Proactive Leadership

Todd A. Leeson | April 27, 2018

Picture an upscale steakhouse in a bustling downtown of a mid-size southern city—a swanky joint where every night hundreds of patrons happily pay $50+…

The Rise of the In-House Legal Counsel Role in China

Jack McDouall | April 25, 2018

From bureaucracy to cultural differences, the challenges of operating in China are well known. In order to stay competitive and address the global needs of customers, both Chinese businesses and foreign companies operating in China are rushing to develop sophisticated corporate legal departments.

Mastering Legal Holds: Best Practices for Legal Professionals

John Tredennick | April 24, 2018

This three-part series will provide a primer on the duties surrounding legal holds and preservation and offer tips on how to fulfill your responsibilities as a legal hold administrator. It is written for legal and IT professionals who want to learn best practices for effectively managing and implementing legal holds. This first article focuses on key steps to consider in implementing the hold.

Expert Opinion

Tactics for Shattering the Glass Ceiling and Building the Next Generation of Glass Breakers

Kim Stuart | April 23, 2018

Leadership is defined as “The ability of an individual to ‘lead’ or guide other individuals, teams or entire organizations. … A process of…

Expert Opinion

Anticipating the 2018 CLOC Institute and Grading Legal Ops Progress: 'Nevertheless, We Persist …'

Susan Hackett | April 20, 2018

About a year ago, I wrote two articles for Corporate Counsel about the 2017 CLOC conference—one article appeared in advance of the meeting to discuss what registrants might expect; the other was published after the conference ended to offer up some concluding thoughts and explore top takeaways.

Best Practices

'Prenups' Are Not Just for Individuals: Protecting Your Client in a Business Divorce

Byeongsook Seo and Stephanie Kanan | April 18, 2018

Before your corporate client gets hitched, counsel them on why a solid business prenup makes sense. The following are key items to consider.

Expert Opinion

Waiver of the Attorney-Client Privilege: Mitigating Risks When Working With Litigation PR Consultants

Lisa M. Baird and Erica Yen | April 18, 2018

When it comes to the attorney-client privilege, confidentiality matters. The privilege ordinarily is lost when otherwise confidential attorney-client communications are exposed to third parties, and that makes such communications vulnerable to discovery in litigation.