Reuters is reporting that more than 100 institutional investors opposed efforts by the U.S. securities regulator to delay a rule requiring companies to disclose a ratio comparing their chief executive’s pay with their workforce median.

The letter, signed by representatives of more than 100 unions, pension funds, activist investors, state treasurers and consumer advocacy groups urged Acting U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Michael Piwowar not to delay the implementation of the rule, writes Sarah N. Lynch.

The requirement went into effect in January and could result in disclosures in many companies’ 2018 proxy statements unless the rule is delayed.

Piwowar said earlier this year that the SEC was accepting public comments on the rule, with an eye possibly to delaying implementation.

Read the Reuters article.

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Omega Advisors Inc. founder Leon Cooperman must face a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the billionaire investor reaped more than $4 million in illegal profits after conversations with a company insider, a judge ruled in rejecting his request to throw out the case, according to a Bloomberg report.

A federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that the SEC had produced a “plausible claim for insider trading” and set a trial for November. The judge also dismissed claims that Cooperman failed to file required reports about his beneficial ownership of stocks of eight public companies.

Reporters Chris Dolmetsch and Patricia Hurtado write that the case will ultimately test the SEC’s novel theory that outsiders are liable for trading on inside tips even if they received the information before agreeing not to use it.

Read the Bloomberg article.

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Shareholder activists are pushing back against a major business trade group’s request that the White House use its influence on the U.S. securities regulator to make it harder to get governance, political or environmental issues onto corporate ballots, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Reporter Sarah N. Lynch writes that existing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules have “given shareholders an important voice,” and should not be changed, the five investor groups said in a March 15 letter to the White House’s National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn.

SEC rules now allow shareholders to submit proposals to corporate ballots if they own $2,000 or 1 percent of a company’s outstanding stock. The SEC can override a company’s objections if the proposal meets certain legal standards and should be on the ballot, Lynch explains.

Read the Reuters article.

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A Dallas attorney says Texas may have to ask for permission to change election laws after a panel of federal judges ruled the maps drawn for three congressional districts violate federal statutes, according to a post on the website of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing.

The judges found the maps used for the congressional districts covering parts of South and West Texas intentionally discriminated against minority voters by either violating the U.S. Constitution or the Voting Rights Act.

Constitutional law attorney David Coale of Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst says the decision means that Texas may face a rare remedy referred to as a “bail-in,” which could lead to requiring prior federal approval of any changes to district lines.

“The issue here is not so much what the court said about these districts, since none of them were actually used in an election. It’s whether Texas’ process for drawing districts was so flawed that the federal government has to take over.”

Texas can appeal the ruling before early May, but that will mean more uncertainty and added delay to an already complicated case, adds Coale.

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Stinson Leonard Street LLP announced that Stuart Funderburg joined the firm as a partner in the Decatur, Ill. office.

Funderburg joins the firm from Fortune 50 company, Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), where he has worked since 1998, most recently serving in the role of Chief Corporate & Securities Counsel and Assistant Secretary. In this role, he led ADM’s securities law compliance, capital markets and corporate governance efforts. Funderburg also previously served as Associate General Counsel for ADM’s Europe, Asia and Africa operating regions, working closely with senior management to advise on a wide variety of complex legal matters, as well as assisting with the development of business strategy and evaluation of potential transactions.

He works in securities law compliance, capital markets and corporate governance matters, complex transactional matters, including joint ventures and strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions and commercial transactional matters.

“Having served as the lead securities lawyer for one of the largest companies in the world, Stuart has led a wide variety of large, complex transactions, including significant capital markets transactions. In addition, Stuart brings with him to Stinson a unique understanding of how best outside counsel can serve their clients in order to plan, strategize and solve problems effectively and efficiently,” said Jack Bowling, the co-chair of the firm’s corporate finance group. “Our clients will benefit from the addition of Stuart to our deep bench of corporate finance attorneys.”

“Stuart is an incredibly talented attorney who knows the agribusiness industry from the inside out. He has the kind of experience and industry knowledge our clients demand. He has closed multi-million and multi-billion dollar financial transactions around the globe for a Fortune 50 company for nearly two decades,” said Scott Roberts, the managing partner of the firm’s Decatur office. “We are thrilled that he is joining our team.”

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Before she was fired as CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer’s golden parachute was estimated to be as high as $55 million. So the figure recently announced — $23 million — may not seem so outrageous.

“But looks can be deceiving,” writes reporter Michael Hiltzik for The Los Angeles Times. “One reason Mayer’s severance package appears to have shrunk is that the company’s latest disclosure leaves off tens of millions of dollars in stock options held by Mayer as of March 8, but already vested. So they aren’t subject to the accelerated vesting of $20 million in stock incentives that would result from the sale and Mayer’s departure from the company. That acceleration would provide the bulk of her severance.”

Because $56.8 million in options evidently have vested since the sale of the company to Verizon deal was announced in July, it’s reasonable to add them to the invoice, Hiltzik explains. “That puts Mayer’s out-the-door price nearer to $80 million.”

He said the situation raises some questions, including: Do America’s boards have any ability to distinguish good performance from bad, and pay their executives accordingly?

Read the LA Times article.

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Reforms in the U.S. tax code proposed by President Donald Trump and Republican Congressional leaders could have significant implications for the energy industry in the U.S., and worldwide, according to an article published on the website of Hogan Lovells.

Authors of the article are Washington partners Jamie Wickett, John Stanton and Robert Glennon.

“Full expensing of capital expenditures and a reduction in the U.S. corporate tax rate from the current 35 percent to 20 percent or 15 percent will on balance significantly reduce the tax cost of doing business in the U.S.,” they write. “On the other hand, the loss of the deduction for net interest expense proposed in the Blueprint — will raise the cost of debt in the U.S.”

Also, “The ability for U.S.-based corporations to repatriate profits from foreign subsidiaries on a tax free basis (after paying a one-time tax on all accumulated earnings and profits of foreign subsidiaries) should significantly increase the incentive for these companies to repatriate cash and use it to make U.S. investments (or perhaps to pay down debt or pay dividends).”

Read the article.

Employers may think their noncompete agreement or restrictive covenant prohibiting departing employees from taking a similar job at a competitor is ironclad, but that’s not always true, warns David B. Ritter, a partner in the Chicago office of law firm Barnes & Thornburg.

Ritter participated in a question-and-answer exchange with SHRM Online about the enforceability of restrictive covenants, what to consider when crafting them and which states limit enforcement of these agreements.

The discussion covered such questions as: What should HR know about the enforceability of restrictive covenants? What else should employers consider when crafting these measures? Which states are particularly limiting when it comes to restrictive covenants?

The discussion is on the site of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Read the article.

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One of the more litigated issues in transactional law is whether parties to a writing evidencing preliminary intent to proceed with a proposed transaction actually contracted and, if so, to what extent, writes Glenn West in Weil’s Global Private Equity Watch.

His article discusses two recent cases, one from England and one from New York, that illustrate the difficulty this issue can present to deal professionals and their counsel.

“In some sense, the term ‘preliminary agreement’ is an oxymoron,” West writes. “If the so-called agreement is truly preliminary, in the sense that it does not evidence a fully-baked deal, with agreement on all the essential terms, it really isn’t an agreement at all.”

Read the article.

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Above the Law has started a multi-part series on contract management tools and services in the alt.legal world.

The first installment features a question-and-answer exchange between Above the Law’s Ed Sohn and Steve Obenski, chief commercial officer at Kira Systems, a startup focuses on contract analytics.

Topics include how far contract lifecycle management (CLM) technology has progressed in recent years, where the market is headed in 2017, how companies like Kira are moving lawyers to adopt contract analytics, where the technology is headed, and how organizations will behave when everyone is equipped with CLM tools.

Read the article.

Two Dallas lawyers are good examples of professionals who have found clever ways to make their personal passions part of their legal marketing efforts, writes Amy Boardman Hunt in a post on the website of Muse Communications, LLC.

These two role models show that — rather than insisting on keeping our work and non-work lives separate — we should find ways to incorporate the personal into what we do professionally, within reason, Hunt writes.

One of the examples is is Amy Elizabeth Stewart, founder of Amy Stewart Law, an insurance coverage law firm.

“Next to deciphering insurance policies, Amy’s other passion is an organization called Attorneys Serving the Community, a volunteer group of Dallas women lawyers,” Hunt writes. “Every year, ASC selects a beneficiary organization whose programs benefit women, children or families. The group spends the year fundraising for the non-profit, including a fun run and an annual luncheon.”

The other example is  Michelle May O’Neil , a founding partner in O’Neil Wysocki, a prestigious family law boutique. “For several years, Michelle has been active with Team in Training, a fundraising arm of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She runs in their events, holds periodic fundraisers in her home and makes her support of the organization an integral part of her work and personal life.”

Read the article.

By Lisa Spathis

The demands on today’s general counsel are many, complex, and unfortunately often in conflict with the wider business. Corporate counsels are their company’s traditional guardians, expected to protect the business against unnecessary risk from poorly thought out plans, regulators, unscrupulous partners, class-action lawyers, bad business processes and more. But with this traditional approach, business silos are as prevalent today as they were 20 years ago. As CEOs and business directors look to destroy them, the General Counsel becomes the fall guy, often getting the bad rap for inhibiting progress in areas of business development — an area criticized for not being taught in law schools today.

But in the modern age, General Counsels and their legal departments are increasingly expected to be business partners, collaborating with executives and functional experts in finance, HR and marketing to drive bottom-line results. Legal is being elevated into the C-Suite alongside other functional leaders like the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resource Officer, Chief Strategy Officers, and others to help CEOs break apart silos that prevent rapid-business decisions. In this regard, General Counsels are also expected to become innovators—or at a minimum not preventing innovation—by helping their colleagues and IT test new ideas and technology at a rapid pace.

Technology Can Help Lawyers Lead the Way

The truth is, the corporate legal world has been much slower to embrace technology to help solve business problems and break down silos. Take the bread-and-butter tool for General Counsels and front-line legal team: the business contract. Even at some of the most sophisticated organizations, contracts are still created in Microsoft Word and set in stone through PDF documents. Email is the primary means of conveyance and inboxes function as contract storage system. In the case of PDFs, templates are still fixed and any change requires intervention by a lawyer—who must edit the source word-processing document before handing it back to the business user waiting for it. This lawyer, by the way, is usually juggling a wide range of other demands, from regulatory meetings to HR issues, and the last thing they have time for is deleting a sentence from the document.

In fact a few weeks back I was talking to a sales executive of a leading B2B services provider the other day, and he was lamenting at his contracting process. Not only did he have too many contracts for a similar solution, but these contracts were too long, too complex, and they were only available to his sales force in, of course, in PDF format. This is a company with 25,000 customers, both large and small businesses, and the sales force needs a more flexible contract than a PDF. Even small changes to the pre-approved contract require getting the attention of the shared-service legal team—something that can add days to the sales process.

These and thousands of other examples out there represent the opportunity facing legal leaders, to shift toward a business-driven mindset and embrace technology where they can exert the most influence. In this area, they can follow the lead of their functional-area colleagues. Human Resources departments in deploying HR systems, or sales teams in deploying CRM. Organizations are increasingly adopting Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions in the cloud to rapidly adopt and create change in their organizations. For legal, the opportunity is ripe for making an impact on contract management by becoming the leaders of the digital transformation of contracts. This revolution is not just the effort of making contracts digital in a searchable repository, but in the revolution of enabling self-service workflows with legal counterparts for transforming business processes in the use of contract management lifecycle (CLM) solutions.

How corporate legal departments can adopt this innovation into their organizations can be exemplified in the transformation of everyday consumer technology that we often take for granted today.

The Airline Industry Example: Pioneers of the Self-Service Digital Contract
The airline industry issues tens of thousands of contracts to consumers every day in the form of airline tickets. There used to be a time, not that long ago, when every purchase had to assisted by an airline employee, and then validated in person by another airport-based employee. All tickets (aka contracts) were paper based and had to be received or validated by gate agents (think of them as front-line corporate attorneys). American Airlines rolled out its first self-service kiosk at airports about 15 years ago to speed up the pace of business for their consumers.

Today, most passengers manage their own ticketing without having to see a gate agent at all. To initiate a ticket, consumers open their smartphone and search for flights on their airline’s app. After selecting the flights, they can purchase a ticket with a few clicks from anywhere in the world with cell service or Wi-Fi. Most consumers opt for digital tickets, show it to security, and proceed to their gate.

For consumers who need assistance they can interact directly with employees. It’s not just airlines that have moved toward digitally enabled self-service business models. Today, just about everybody pays at the pump, and fills their car with gas. Zipcar, car2go and Maven have transformed the rental car business into a do-it-yourself experience. An article last year in the Harvard Business Review entitled How Self-Service Kiosks Are Changing Customer Behavior highlighted scores of other businesses that are embracing the self-service model—from McDonalds to your neighborhood bank. The goal is to remove what the author called the “social friction” that happens when people get involved in a transaction.

The Journey Towards Self-Service Contracting
The idea of self-service in CLM is still fairly new in the corporate world, but it’s rapidly starting to take hold, and the process is easy for lawyers to embrace and trust while preventing unnecessary bottlenecks for tens or hundreds of business users who need to get a contract executed.

Self-service contracting means giving employees the tools to initiate contracts (say laptops, desktops or mobile devices) with pre-approved language and the ability to make slight modifications to contracts or provide input on necessary areas, while still giving senior executives and legal teams the control they need. Business teams can do their jobs, while lawyers can efficiently review and validate contracts. Just as important, self-service contracting frees up corporate attorneys to do the more sophisticated, and strategic assignments that can drive business goals and break down business silos.

The ability to enable the automation is based on technology in the CLM system that allows the system to be pre-configured with contract templates that allow specified users to add or remove specific clauses based on their functional role in the organization. The logic in the system also is able to monitor the number of changes being made, where similar to the self-service kiosk of the airline ticket example, legal and other business executives can be notified and actively involved in the contract authoring / editing process of a specific business when too many changes are being made.

The benefits to the enabling self-service create a new empowerment for General Counsels, providing them an outlet to be more involved with the ability to transform the contract management process within their organization. As the overseer of contracts, General Counsels and their teams can be active participants in the deployment of CLM technology and begin playing the business partner role so crucial in the modern age. Moreover, through the active deployment of technology, the organization also can realize new efficiencies and controls in the process of initiating contract requests and approvals. Through the digitization of the contracts, organizations have a newfound level of insight and control that empowers users, but still providing legal the ability to protect the business against unnecessary risk through innovation.

But transitioning to self-service contracting is not something that can be done overnight with the flip of a switch. While the investment in time pays dividends in the future, there are key elements that need to be in place for self-service contracting to work. These include:

• Contract Templates. For a purchasing department, for example, this could mean creating templates for purchase contracts, statements of work, change orders, leasing agreements and technology purchase agreements. For sales this could mean creating bills of sale or SLAs. Other common agreements that are easy to template include mutual non-disclosure agreements.

• Editable language. A key to giving business leaders the ability to conduct business rapidly through contracts is identifying which clauses are sacrosanct and unchangeable, and which ones can be altered.

• Digital contract repository. One challenge with contracts is that they exist in many areas in a company including laptops, file cabinets and email inboxes. Lawyers and executives need a central repository where contracts and templates can be stored, secured and accessed.

• Mobile functionality. Business is done on the fly today—at all hours and locations—and business executives and lawyers alike need to be able to access documents from their mobile phones and tablets.

• Workflow Triggers. Self-service doesn’t mean going it alone. When it comes to infrequent contracting users, legal teams need to be available to provide assistance. Successful legal departments create automatic triggers—based on user edits—that require their review before final approval.

• Electronic signatures. There are multiple solutions on the market today that track the execution of contracts, enabling these documents to travel across companies and departments at digital speed.

For those of you who remember the first airline self-service, you’ll remember that it took time for users to embrace new technology. At first, even frequent fliers opted to see a gate agent to check-in and print a boarding pass. Today, frequent fliers pride themselves on their ability to zip through airports faster than anyone else. The challenge for today’s legal departments is to help their organizations implement and deploy the right digital contracting tools so that a business’s early adopters can move quickly—the rest of the company will follow.

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A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted a former Hunton & Williams partner of insider trading charges of tipping off his financial adviser to his client King Pharmaceuticals’ then-pending $3.6 billion acquisition by Pfizer Inc., reports Bloomberg Law.

Robert Schulman of McLean, Va., was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy charges. Post-trial defense motions are due April 14.

Schulman had represented King Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a patent case against Purdue Pharma LP as a lawyer with Hunton & Williams, the report says.

The indictment says Schulman tipped off his investment adviser of Klein Financial Services in Valley Stream, N.Y., about a Pfizer takeover plan during a dinner in August 2010 after having learned of it from another Hunton lawyer. During that dinner Schulman had several glasses of wine when he blurted to his adviser, “It would be nice to be King for a day,’” according to the SEC.

The adviser traded on the information and made profits for himself, Schulman and some other clients.

Read the Bloomberg article.

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The New York Times is reporting that German authorities searched the offices of the American law firm Volkswagen hired to conduct an internal investigation of its emissions fraud.

Jack Ewing and Bill Vlasic write that the carmaker confirmed the raid on the German offices of Jones Day, which since 2015 has been conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into who at Volkswagen was responsible for an emissions cheating scheme that has already led to more than $22 billion in fines and settlements.

“Evidence collected by the law firm and shared with the American authorities formed the basis for Volkswagen’s guilty plea in the United States last week over charges tied to emissions deception involving diesel engines,” according to the report.

But the search by prosecutors suggests that authorities believe the firm has not divulged all documents that may be relevant to the case, which could lead to a blow to Jones Day’s reputation, the reports say.

Read the NYT article.

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A U.S. district judge sentenced disbarred Harvard-educated lawyer Matthew Muller to 40 years in prison for abducting a California woman in a crime so elaborate and bizarre that police initially dismissed it as a hoax, the Associated Press reports.

The victim was drugged along with her boyfriend and then dragged from their home in the San Francisco Bay area two years ago. She was forced to endure two days of physical and psychological torture.

“U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley called the abduction a ‘heinous, atrocious, horrible crime’ as he sentenced Muller, 39,” reports Don Thompson. “He had faced up to life in prison, but prosecutors agreed to recommend 40 years in exchange for his guilty plea.”

Prosecutors say Muller used a remote-controlled drone to spy on the couple before he broke into their home with a fake gun, tied them up and forced them to drink a sleep-inducing liquid.

Read the AP article.

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DLA Piper announced the addition of Eric P. Christofferson, a former assistant US attorney, to the firm’s litigation practice as a partner in the Boston office.

For the past six years, Christofferson served in the US Attorney’s Office in Boston, primarily with the Criminal Division’s Economic Crimes Unit. He investigated and prosecuted Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, insider trading, securities fraud, tax fraud and mortgage fraud and has tried nine criminal cases to verdict. He also worked closely with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

“Eric immediately enhances our global white collar and investigations platforms, as well as our national trial bench,” said Loren Brown, co-chair of DLA Piper’s global and US Litigation practices. “Our clients will value his counsel as they continue to navigate a complex regulatory and enforcement environment.”

Prior to his time as a US attorney, Christofferson worked for Ropes & Gray in Boston focusing on white collar and complex civil litigation for clients in various industries, including life sciences and financial services. He’s the latest addition to DLA Piper’s Litigation practice in recent months, following David Sager (Short Hills, New Jersey), George Karavetsos (Miami), Thiru Vignarajah (Baltimore), Matthew Graves (Washington, DC) and Louis Ramos (Washington, DC).

“Eric is a highly respected assistant US attorney and prosecutor in Boston, and his reputation in the white collar community, along with his experience and relationships, will greatly enhance the capabilities of our office,” said John Rattigan, managing partner of DLA Piper’s Boston office. “Our region continues to grow and thrive, and Eric’s broad experience in key industries will be extremely useful to our clients.”

Christofferson received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center, and his A.B., cum laude, from Harvard College.

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Freeborn & Peters LLP announces that attorneys Kenneth M. Crane and Rita W. Garry have joined the firm’s Chicago office as members of the Corporate Practice Group. Crane is a partner and Garry serves as senior counsel.

“Kenneth and Rita both bring extensive experience in corporate and business law matters on behalf of clients in diverse industries,” said Freeborn’s Co-Managing Partner Michael A. Moynihan. “We are enthusiastic about having these two join our corporate practice, which focuses on helping middle-market companies and businesses of all sizes meet their challenges and achieve their full potential.”

In a news release, the firm said:

Crane is a deal lawyer who represents private equity, venture capital and family office clients, focusing on acquisitions and sale transactions. He works with entrepreneurs and companies from inception through closing of realization transactions. He also represents the portfolio companies of his private equity, emerging growth and other clients in a wide range of commercial transactions and legal matters, including equity-based compensation plans, manufacturing, distribution and sales agreements, and intellectual property licensing and development. Crane most recently was a partner with Perkins Coie LLP.

Crane earned his law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Garry focuses her practice on serving as outside general counsel to many small and middle market companies across an array of industries. With over 30+ years’ experience, Garry works closely with business owners, executive management teams, and stakeholders throughout the business’ life cycles, including entity design and maintenance, commercial transactions, mergers, acquisitions, business sales, joint ventures, corporate governance and succession planning. Additionally, Garry works to assist clients in capital market transactions and finance, including private securities offerings under Regulation D and the new equity crowdfunding exemption. She most recently was a corporate and transactional partner at Golan Christie Taglia LLP. Previously, she served as a partner and chair of the corporate practice group at SmithAmundsen LLC.

Garry earned her law degree from Boston University School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts from Lake Forest College.

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Quarles & Brady LLP announced that partner Edward A. Salanga has been named national chair of the Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice group, and partner Joshua D. Maggard will assume the newly established role of vice-chair of the Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group, effective immediately.

Salanga succeeds Kevin M. Long, who has been the national chair of the Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group for the past 10 years. Long will continue to serve on the Executive Committee (EC), as well as focus on his litigation practice in the firm’s Milwaukee office.

“Ed and I have worked together for many years and I am confident that he and Josh, who have more than 30 years of combined experience at the firm, will be outstanding leaders for the Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution group,” said Long. “Ed is a well-respected member of the community with stellar litigation capabilities and a thoughtful approach to the firm and client matters and I look forward to seeing him advance the ongoing success of the group.”

Having been with the firm for 17 years, Salanga previously served as the chair of the Commercial Litigation Group in the Phoenix office and co-chair of the Real Estate and Construction Litigation Committee. He focuses his practice on construction and commercial litigation disputes. Following Salanga’s transition, John M. O’Neal will serve as chair of the Commercial Litigation Group in Phoenix.

“I am grateful for Kevin’s years of dedicated leadership,” said Salanga. “Together, with the support of Josh, I look forward to continuing the success of the group.”

As partner in the firm’s Milwaukee office, Maggard focuses his commercial litigation practice on class action defense and professional liability defense. He has also served on several technology-focused groups and firm committees.

“I am thrilled to assume this new position and to help shape the future of the Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution group,” said Maggard. “I look forward to collaborating with Ed to continue to develop and strengthen the relationships with litigators across the firm.”

Salanga has received several recognitions for his work including being named by The Best Lawyers in America® in 2013-2016 and receiving Martindale-Hubbell AV® Peer Review Rating. He was a member of the Graduate of Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellows Program, and named Top Pro Bono Attorney by the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education in 2005.

Maggard is active in the firm’s pro bono group, representing clients on appellate issues before the Seventh Circuit. He is also the membership co-chair of the ABA’s Professional Liability Litigation Committee, and a member of Advocate Designation for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.

Salanga received his B.S. from Vanderbilt University, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Maggard received his B.A. from Taylor Univiersty and his J.D., cum laude, from Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law.

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When eDiscovery involves data from more than one country, it increases the complexity of the task at hand, writes counsel Greg Mitchell on the website of UnitedLex.

The proliferation of electronic data and complexity in international privacy laws only add to the burden and cost of litigation. Given the increased legal, regulatory, and reputational complexity and risk, organizations need to be prepared to take a proactive approach to cross-border eDiscovery,” Mitchell explains.

He says the biggest challenge in cross-border eDiscovery is a lack of understanding of data privacy laws in different jurisdictions.

“Due to the nature of litigation, cross-border eDiscovery often places U.S. corporations in the tumultuous position of potentially violating foreign privacy laws. Broadly speaking, the U.S takes a different and less restrained approach to data privacy compared to the rest of the world and many countries view this approach as inadequate,” Mitchell writes.

The blog post includes a link to a UnitedLex white paper on cross-border eDiscovery.

Read the article.

Leading in-house counsel and progressive law firm partners will share new ideas and approaches to control external legal costs, when they gather at the ACC Legal Services Management Workshop, April 19-20 in Dallas.

Participants at the event will learn how internal and external counsel can collaborate to improve outcomes, efficiency, and predictability by using:

• Value-based fees
• Project management
• Process improvement
• Data analytics
• Change management

The Association of Corporate Counsel says the two-day curriculum uses a blend of instruction, practical tools, case study and small group exercises. The ensemble faculty of industry-leading practitioners brings insight, experience, and lessons learned from in-house, law firm and consulting perspectives.

Participation is limited to only 25 law firm partners and 25 law department leaders to ensure a rich, interactive experience and opportunities for exchange of ideas.

The event is CLE eligible for up to 11.25 hours of credit.

General Counsel News readers may use the code LSMGC17 to receive a $100 discount off the registration fee.

Register for the event.