The General Counsel as a Strategic Business Partner

• Examining the two types of General Counsel:  Reactive versus proactive, and the benefits/reasons for each.
• Understanding the role of the General Counsel in advancing a corporation’s global objectives.
• Maximizing and aligning the value of the legal department and function with the overall goals of the company.
• Creating significant value and advancing strategy through the legal function of the company.
• A look at the relationship between the General Counsel and other C-level executives.

General Counsels and Talent Management

• Best practices for building an in-house team.
• Building rewarding careers for in-house lawyers through rewards and diversity.
• How to obtain and retain talent in a competitive market.
• Learning how to speak the business language, positioning law as a business objective and perspective.

Best Practices for Managing Outside Counsel

• Efficiently managing outside counsel and legal fees in a buyer’s market.
• Importance of unbundling large legal tasks.
• Creating ways to align in-house and outside counsel’s agendas.
• Examining what work to send to outside counsel versus keeping it in-house.
• A look at the value of alternative fees.

Building and Protecting Core Assets:  Extracting Value from Intellectual Property

• Finding ways to show the value of intellectual property to a company.
• Extracting value from intellectual property assets.
• Strategies for protecting your brand in a global marketplace.
• Managing IP and understanding the value of protecting it in all forms of media.

The General Counsel’s Role in M&A, Divestitures and Strategic Alliances

• Due diligence in evaluating and negotiating purchases.
• Examining the legal implications of cross-border transactions.
• Cost-benefit analysis of acquisitions.
• Protecting corporate reputation during growth periods.
• Planning ahead and seeing the implications of the acquisition to the structure and stance of the company.
• Creativity in M&A transactions:  Learning how to continue growth with less liquidity.

Global Compliance Best Practices in the Wake of Increased Anti-Corruption Enforcement

• Red flags to consider when designing effective compliance programs.
• Maintaining compliance with FCPA and other international anti-corruption statutes.
• What the FCPA means and how federal enforcement of the act has changed.
• How to effectively run a legal department in multiple countries.
• Managing regulation that is constantly changing and diversifying as issues and problems seem to converge.

Last updated March 9, 2012

Topic imperatives listed on this website do not equate to the precise panel themes of the member meeting.  Rather, the topic imperatives are areas of discussion that the meeting expects to address throughout the course of the day and through a variety of sessions and discussions.