The annual meeting of the Association of Corporate Counsel in Phoenix in October will feature more than 140 sessions that will allow participants to earn up to a year’s worth of CLE/CPD credit in less than three days.

The event will be Oct. 27-30.

Topics at those sessions will include such subjects as contract drafting, data security, corporate sustainability, records management, and business education for in-house counsel.

Register or get more information.

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP will present a CLE program for in-house lawyers only to help attendees learn how to identify and disseminate pro bono opportunities and become familiar with special rules that apply to in-house lawyers.

The event will be Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019, with registration and a hosted breakfast beginning at 8 a.m. Pacific time. The program will last from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PT. Lunch will be provided.

This program will be hosted in the firm’s Seattle office and broadcasted to each of the firm’s other locations: Anchorage, Bellevue, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Presenters from Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile, Starbucks panelists about how to:

* Develop a strong and impactful pro bono program
* Build a CSR, sustainability, and community arm
* Institute pro bono policy and establish a pro bono form bank
* Form or recalibrate/energize a pro bono committee
* Identify meaningful pro bono opportunities
* Enter into corporate partnerships with PPPs
* Comply with ethical rules regarding in-house pro bono work

Attendees will receive a resource manual with sample polices, forms, briefs, templates and a menu of pro bono opportunities.

The keynote will be by Lucy Lee Helm, chief partner officer at Starbucks

For registration or questions: JoannaBoisen@dwt.com

The 2020 edition of Best Lawyers in America recognized 30 Greenberg Traurig attorneys in 31 practice areas across the global firm’s three Texas offices.

Additionally, Kyle K. Fox, a shareholder in the firm’s Austin office, was named “Lawyer of the Year” in the category of Mergers & Acquisitions. Only one attorney in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as a “Lawyer of the Year.” Those recognized with this honor are selected based on voting averages received during peer-review assessments for their legal acumen, professionalism, and integrity.

Read a list of the honored lawyers.

For marketing a law practice with email campaigns, a well-maintained email distribution list could mean the difference between engaging or alienating your audience, writes Christina DiPinto of Muse Communications.

“Creating a strong distribution list requires a large investment of time at the front-end,” she explains. “But if you take the steps to create an organized list, it will allow you to get more creative and intentional with your email marketing. Plus, it shows your audience that you’re taking the time to send content that is meaningful to them.”

In her post, she offers some tricks of the trade, and a brief warning.

Read the article.

J. Michael Bernard, Detroit-based member in Dykema’s Corporate Finance Practice Group, was elected chairman of the World Services Group (WSG) for 2019 – 2020. Bernard officially took over the chairman position at the WSG 18th Annual Meeting, which took place in Washington, D.C., from September 4-6.

In a release, the firm said WSG is a recognized resource for professionals and their clients to receive legal, investment banking and accounting services, with coverage in more than 130 jurisdictions.

In his law practice, Bernard focuses primarily on business counseling and planning, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions (representing both buyers and sellers); capital raising transactions (including private placement, private equity and seed and venture financings); corporate formation matters (including shareholder control and buy-sell arrangements); corporate governance (for-profit and nonprofit entities); and executive employment agreements and related matters. He has experience in a variety of industries, including automotive, manufacturing, service and technology.

Bernard has held various other leadership positions throughout his career. He is a former member of Dykema’s Executive Board, as well as a former leader of the firm’s Corporate Finance Practice Group. He is also a member of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Executive Committee and its Board of Directors. Bernard is also a member of the Detroit Athletic Club’s Board of Directors and Chair of its Community Outreach Committee.

S. Starling Marshall is joining Crowell & Moring’s New York office as a partner in the firm’s Tax and Litigation groups, the firm announced in a news release.

Marshall focuses her practice on litigation, complex IRS audits, and administrative appeals. She also advises clients on privilege and protecting proprietary information in a wide array of contexts

Marshall was previously at Covington & Burling. Prior to that, she served as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division, Court of Federal Claims Section. There, she was responsible litigation, from motions to discovery to trial on a variety of issues involving tax shelters, complex refund suits, 1603 grant cases, and TEFRA proceedings. She served on the Tax Division’s employment tax enforcement task force. She tried several cases as lead trial counsel, and litigated matters of first impression, including a case to determine the effect of a TEFRA judgment on penalties against partners, a case regarding the proper treatment of earn-out rights, and a case about the treatment of nuclear decommissioning liabilities.

Marshall is the latest hire for the firm’s New York office. Labor partner Eric Su, cybersecurity and data privacy partner Jarno Vanto, and advertising litigation partner Holly Melton joined the office following the 2018 addition of the New York Health Care practice, which included a nine-lawyer team led by partners Paul Mourning, Stephanie Marcantonio, Kathy Hirata Chin, and Brian McGovern. Other recent laterals include Brian Paul Gearing, Ph.D., partner in the Intellectual Property Group; Paul Freeman, senior counsel in the Environment and Natural Resources and Government Contracts groups; former federal prosecutor and First Assistant Attorney General of New Jersey, Rebecca Ricigliano, partner in the White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement group; and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Enforcement at the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, Juan A. Arteaga, partner in the Antitrust Group.

Marshall earned her law degree from Fordham University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Emory University. Her pro bono work includes serving as lead counsel with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and ACLU-Utah, in a Bivens action against U.S. marshals who raided a family’s home on two successive days.

Robert J. Ernest has joined Arent Fox LLP as a partner  in its Logistics & Transportation group.

Ernest joins the firm’s Boston office after serving as general counsel of Americas at The Panalpina Group (now DSV Panalpina A/S), a provider of international transportation, logistics, and supply chain solutions. He will advise clients on issues relating to their international and domestic supply chains.

Ernest has more than 20 years of experience in the logistics and transportation industry, with a focus in managing a diverse range of corporate and regulatory issues. As an executive team member at Panalpina, Ernest was involved in company strategy and provided legal, business, and risk management advice to C-level decision makers. In addition, Ernest directed all phases of affirmative and defensive litigation matters at Panalpina, including multi-million dollar commercial disputes with customers and actions by individual claimants, the firm said in a release.

Prior to his role at Panalpina, Ernest served as corporate counsel – North America for Kuehne + Nagel Inc. in the international freight forwarding industry, and as an attorney for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Zapproved LLC and Nuix announced that the companies have entered a technology partnership that will integrate Zapproved’s powerful ZDiscovery platform for managing in-house litigation response with industry leading Nuix processing engine for electronic discovery.

In a release, Zapproved said this partnership will improve the ZDiscovery platform’s speed, file coverage, and flexibility by tapping the powerful processing capabilities of Nuix. ZDiscovery’s Legal Hold Pro and Digital Discovery Pro modules will continue to offer the same simplicity and intuitive experience that have made it the most widely-used software among in-house legal teams. The integration of the Nuix processing engine is commencing and will be available to Zapproved’s users in 2020.

“We are seeing a surge in adoption of our ECA and review product among in-house legal teams,” said Monica Enand, CEO and Co-founder of Zapproved. “We saw an opportunity to further enhance our platform with the Nuix processing engine by integrating it with the industry’s leading legal hold management system used by hundreds of enterprises. We work in partnership with others in the ediscovery ecosystem, and this is a creative path to work with a proven leader to further support our many hundreds of in-house teams.”

“Nuix and Zapproved have worked together for many years and this is a natural step in our relationship,” said Rod Vawdrey, Group Chief Executive Officer of Nuix. “This partnership opens another path for us to bring Nuix’s processing capability into the ediscovery market with an established leader.”

Zapproved said growth of in-house processing and review systems is accelerating in response to the need to lower ediscovery costs and increase data security. According to the BDO’s 2019 Inside E-Discovery & Beyond survey published in April 2019, “[a]s the volume of data explodes and data privacy and regulatory compliance concerns grow, 71 percent of corporate counsel are considering leveraging technology and/or best practices to streamline their legal operations in the next 12 months…. That number climbs to 91 percent for organizations with annual revenues of over $1 billion.”

Above the Law is reporting that Morgan Lewis & Bockius will be offering voluntary buyout packages for all of its legal secretaries, across the country.

Senior editor Staci Zaretsky writes:

“Sources say that the firm’s separation package is extremely generous, and that those who take the deal will receive 2 weeks’ salary for each year of service, up to 52 weeks’ pay. Compared to the six-month cap we’ve seen at many Biglaw firms, longtime legal secretaries at Morgan Lewis could be walking away with a huge payday should they choose to leave.”

Read the Above the Law article.

The New York Times reports that the White House on Tuesday fired John Mitnick, the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, after months of shake-up at an agency responsible for carrying out President Trump’s immigration agenda.

A Trump administration official said Tuesday evening that Chad Mizelle, an associate counsel to the president, would replace Mitnick. But a Department of Homeland Security official said later that Joseph B. Maher, the department’s principal deputy general counsel, would be taking over, write the times‘ Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Maggie Haberman.

Mitnick was the fifth general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security.

Read the NY Times report.

U.S. prosecutors have accused three JPMorgan traders of rigging futures trades in precious metals for nearly a decade, making millions of dollars for the bank at the expense of counterparties that included the bank’s own clients, reports Bloomberg.

The charges outlined in the criminal indictments were the latest turn in a years-long investigation that has previously yielded guilty pleas from traders at several banks, including two from JPMorgan, according to the Bloomberg report.

Prosecutors said more than a dozen JPMorgan employees ultimately helped make manipulative “spoof” trades for the bank, in part by using the strategy their new colleagues brought in May 2008 after JPMorgan took over Bear Stearns.

Read the Bloomberg article.

A recent federal court decision reminds employers that an employee’s electronic acceptance of an arbitration agreement may not, by itself, be enough to prove that the employee has agreed to arbitrate, points out Stokes Wagner post.

In Shockley v. PrimeLending, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently affirmed the lower court’s decision to deny the employer’s motion to compel arbitration where the arbitration agreement was signed via the employer’s automated intranet system.

The author, Jordan A. Fishman, discusses the reasons that acceptance via intranet system was insufficient.

Read the article.

Duane Morris LLP trial partner Dominica C. Anderson has been elected president and board chair of Professional BusinessWomen of California.

Anderson is managing partner of Duane Morris’ Las Vegas office and practices in both the firm’s Las Vegas and San Francisco offices. She is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and the governing Partners Board, and serves as vice chair of the Duane Morris Women’s Impact Network for Success Steering Committee.

In a release, the firm said Anderson has more than 30 years of experience in high-stakes commercial litigation, including representing insurance companies in complex insurance coverage cases, CGL and D&O throughout the United States, and works with numerous clients to resolve issues abroad. She represents businesses in complex contract disputes; unfair competition; business interference; false advertising; securities; antitrust; defamation; e-commerce and intellectual property issues; domain name disputes; and trademark, trade secrets and copyright issues. Anderson also serves as a team lead for the Duane Morris Fashion, Retail and Consumer Branded Products Industry Group. She advises and represents iconic and budding fashion designers and related companies and retail entities.

Anderson is a 1986 cum laude graduate of the University of San Francisco Law School and a graduate, with high honors, of the University of California at Berkeley, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She is a member of the American Bar Association and the National Association of Women Lawyers.

Emily K. Strunk has joined Venable LLP as counsel in the Regulatory Practice in Washington, DC.

In a release, the firm said Strunk focuses her practice on regulatory matters and consumer protection issues, primarily as they relate to products regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The firm said Strunk works with clients in the food, dietary supplement, medical device, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries to develop and implement strategies for regulatory approvals and clearances, compliance and enforcement actions, crisis management, rulemaking, and public policy issues. Her experience also encompasses matters before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), National Advertising Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Customs and Border Protection, and Environmental Protection Agency.

Strunk received her J.D., cum laude, from American University Washington College of Law in 2008 and her B.A., summa cum laude, in Psychology, Political Science, and French from Arizona State University in 1999.

Giovanni P. Giarratana has joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP’s Tampa office as an associate in the Government Enforcement and Investigations Practice Group.

The firm said Giarratana works with civil and criminal investigations, enforcement actions, and compliance issues across various industries. He also has represented clients in matters involving complex litigation and issues related to securities fraud, shareholder disputes, employment discrimination, and patent infringement.

Prior to joining Bradley, Giarratana was an attorney at Gunster law firm.

Giarratana received his J.D. (summa cum laude) from Stetson University College of Law and his Bachelor of Business Administration (summa cum laude) from Belmont University.

Sidley Austin LLP announced that Mateja Maher has joined the firm as a partner in its Investment Funds practice and is based in Sidley’s London office.

Maher joins from Campbell Lutyens, a private capital adviser focused on fund placement and secondary advisory services, where he has served as general counsel since 2017. Previously, he was a partner in the private funds group at Kirkland & Ellis International LLP.

The firm said Maher has in-house experience in the private funds community, working in the private fundraising and secondary market, including buyout, venture capital, infrastructure, debt and real estate. During his career, he has acted on a number of landmark fundraising and secondary transactions ranging from tens of millions to several billion U.S. dollars in size, the firm said.

The National Association of Corporate Directors, in partnership with Marsh & McClennan Companies, has published a report outlining a practical approach to advancing board oversight of digital transformation and emerging technologies.

The report is available by downloading from the NACD website at no charge.

“This report includes fresh, primary research and one-on-one interviews with leading directors and experts and identifies five foundational principles that will help directors navigate the complexities of artificial intelligence, blockchain, the Internet of Things, robotics process automation and more,” the organization says on its website. “Each principle includes specific recommendations to help directors avoid potential pitfalls, spot red flags, and formulate and adopt a more cohesive oversight approach.”

Download the report.

A federal appeals court on Friday revived an ethics lawsuit against President Donald Trump that argues his business interests are conflicts of interest and violate the US Constitution, reports CNN.

Plaintiffs, including a hotel operator and a group of restaurants, claimed Trump’s “vast, complicated and secret” business arrangements violate a constitutional provision, the Emoluments Clause, which bars the president from accepting gifts from foreign governments without the permission of Congress, writes CNN’s Erica Orden.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that a lower-court judge improperly threw out the lawsuit in December 2017. Now, plaintiffs are hoping this victory will allow them to seek detailed records on Trump’s transactions with foreign officials, according to a Washington Post report.

Read the CNN article.

Bloomberg Law reports that LexisNexis Risk Solutions Inc. has been hit with a proposed class action alleging it unlawfully sold to law firms the personal information of drivers involved in car accidents.

Bloomberg’s Alexis Kramer explains:

“The data analytics company obtained names, addresses, and other data from thousands of motor vehicle records and sold that information to personal injury firms, plaintiff Jonathan Hatch alleged in a complaint filed Sept. 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.”

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

Charles Sartain, writing in Gray Reed’s Energy & the Law blog, tells the story of Town of Flower Mound v. Eagle Ridge Operating LLC, in which an operator’s injunction against enforcement of a local ordinance was dissolved.

EagleRidge operates gas wells in the Flower Mound. A town ordinance prohibits work on gas wells (other than drilling) at times other than between 7 a.m. and 7 a.m. Monday through Friday and certain times on Saturday.

A court of appeals dissolved an injunction against the town, holding the trial court had no subject matter jurisdiction over the dispute because the ordinance is penal in nature, Sartain explains. (A violation is considered “unlawful” and is punishable by fine.)

Read the article.