Comply or Die: Corporate Record Keeping in a Digital World
Although compliance is generally thought of in a regulatory sense, every corporation that could be involved in litigation needs to consider the implications of how and what information is stored. In a sense, heavily regulated industries such as health care, securities, banking, and commodities are in a better position since the specifics of record keeping are set out in great detail. All industries that interact with the government can assume that their time will come. Other corporations may not discover whether they are adequately preserving information until they are faced with a discovery request. In either event, failure to comply can have dire financial consequences.
New Effort on Talent Management
General counsel are increasingly recognizing the need not only to manage the talent within their departments, but also to develop and enhance the group and its individual lawyers. <BR>In this, the second article in a three-part series on talent management, we focus more closely on what innovative initiatives law departments are using to capitalize on existing capabilities and what steps some of them have taken to continually add to the effectiveness of team performance.
Do Your Discrimination Policies Go Far Enough?
In the years since <i>Farragher</i> and <i>Ellerth</i>, numerous courts have been asked to decide whether or not constructive discharge (<i>ie</i>, the employee felt forced to resign because conditions were unbearable) is a tangible job action negating the employer's ability to raise the affirmative defense. The decided cases have had differing outcomes.
Do You Know Who Your 'Supervisors' Are?
As distinguished from cases of supervisory harassment, an employer may not be held liable for a sexually hostile environment created by a victim's co-worker unless the employer knew or should have known about the sexual harassment and failed to take appropriate corrective action. Accordingly, in assessing the potential for employer liability it is important to determine, in the first instance, whether the alleged harasser is properly classified as a supervisor or a co-worker for Title VII purposes.
Hotline
Recent developments of interest to corporate counsel.
The Critical Crossroads Of Corporate America
The general counsel function is the critical crossroads of corporate America. Even the most skeptical of senior managers and board members evince a growing awareness that the role of the general counsel is crucial and strategic, and not merely technical and subordinate. The question, however, is whether this crossroads can bear the increasing volume and weight of the traffic coming its way.
Three Issues in Law Department Talent Management
A key element to in a successful law department is management of in-house legal talent. By the term 'talent management,' we mean all the methods available to general counsel for training, mentoring, coaching, motivating and directing in-house lawyers. This article, the first in a series of three, is based on consulting projects and research Hildebrandt International has conducted with a number of leading law departments. This article will describe the top three issues law departments have with talent management, and more importantly, will show some of the techniques now employed by general counsel for coping with them. The second part of the series will describe three progressive practices in the arena of talent management, and the series will close with a foray into three controversial practices. Taken together, the series will survey law department talent management ' its major issues, newer practices and difficult decisions.
Corporate Investigations: Their Hidden Traps ' and How to Avoid Them
This is the first in a two-part series on how to conduct corporate investigations for corporate counsel. Corporate counsel face a myriad of challenges when conducting or overseeing an internal workplace investigation. From ethical issues to potential third-party liability, the pitfalls are everywhere. New responsibilities and risks under Sarbanes-Oxley make the job even more daunting for counsel in publicly held firms. However, with advanced planning, there are ways to conduct a workplace investigation that may prevent it from coming back to haunt you.
