The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) has elected Andrew Kopon, Jr. president-elect for the 2016-2017 term. Beginning in July 2017, he will serve as president of the IADC, which is the preeminent, invitation-only, global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests.

Kopon is a founding member of Kopon Airdo, LLC in Chicago. His practice focuses on complex civil litigation matters, including class actions, mass tort litigation and employment litigation. He has worked as national and regional counsel for major consumer and commercial product manufacturers and has successfully tried and argued cases before the Illinois Supreme Court.

In addition to his service to the IADC and its Foundation, Kopon is an active member of the Defense Research Institute, Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel, and National Foundation for Judicial Excellence. He is Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent™ rated and has been recognized by Illinois Super Lawyers and Leading Lawyers Network for multiple years. He received his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School and B.A. from Providence College.

Founded in 1920, the IADC has approximately 2,500 members from six continents, more than 45 countries and all 50 U.S. states and includes corporate and insurance defense attorneys and insurance executives. The core purposes of the IADC are to enhance the development of skills, promote professionalism and facilitate camaraderie among its members and their clients, as well as the broader civil justice community. The IADC also takes a leadership role in many areas of legal reform and professional development.

Littler, which bills itself as the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has added Jeffrey D. Hanslick and Curtis R. Summers as shareholders in the Kansas City office. The addition of Hanslick and Summers, who were previously partners with Husch Blackwell, follows the arrival of shareholder Anthony Romano who made the move to Littler’s Kansas City office in August.

“Jeffrey and Curt have developed a strong reputation locally and nationally for advising clients on critical issues impacting the workplace, including discrimination and harassment claims and wage and hour litigation,” said Daniel B. Boatright, office managing shareholder of Littler’s Kansas City office. “Their extensive industry knowledge and diverse experiences will enhance our services to clients and expand our presence in the region. We are excited to welcome them to the firm.”

The firm’s release continues:

Hanslick has extensive experience defending clients in employment litigation matters, including wage and hour class and collective actions, employment discrimination and harassment claims, and contract and commercial disputes. He regularly serves as lead counsel in traditional labor arbitrations, counsels employers on the protection of trade secrets and enforcement of restrictive covenants, and conducts human resources audits and training sessions for clients on labor and employment matters.

Summers balances his practice between litigation and human resources counseling. On the litigation side, he has defended employers at the administrative agency, trial court and appellate court levels against a variety of discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims. Summers also has experience pursuing claims for violations of restrictive covenants. On the counseling side, Summers focuses his practice on human resources compliance and litigation avoidance strategies, including policy development, training, workplace investigations, and guidance on best practices in the employer-employee relationship.

“Littler has an exceptional reputation and we are excited to join its growing Kansas City office,” said Hanslick and Summers in a joint statement. “We look forward to leveraging the firm’s innovative products and services, geographic reach and network of talented attorneys to expand our offerings to clients.”

Hanslick earned his J.D., cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law and his B.A., with highest honor, from DePaul University. Summers earned his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law and his B.S. from Kansas State University.

Exterro has published a complimentary e-book that presents best practices for streamlining the e-discovery process, especially relating to transitions between different stages.

“In today’s competitive legal market, many legal teams are looking to streamline their processes, and while focusing on streamlining the different stages of the e-discovery process is a great way to gain consistency and lower costs, there is much to be said about streamlining between those stages, before getting to the most expensive e-discovery stage: document review,” the company says on its website.

This e-book contains a series of tips and best practices to smooth out those bumps that fall in the gaps between the well-defined parts of the e-discovery process before the review stage, including transition tips between (1) information governance to identification, (2) identification to preservation and (3) preservation to collection/processing.

The book includes:

• 7 tips on leveraging information governance to streamline identification
• 5 questions to ask during identification for smart preservation
• 6 ways your preservation strategy should influence your collection approach

Download the e-book.

The Federal Trade Commission, in its first public remarks since a federal judge last week entered a $1.3 billion judgment against payday loan businessman Scott Tucker, called the penalty the largest of its kind, reports The Kansas City Star.

The judgment against Tucker and related entities eclipses the FTC’s previous record judgment from litigation: a $478 million judgment in 2012 ($501.4 million, when adjusted for inflation) against John Beck, the perpetrator of a deceptive real estate get-rich-quick scheme, according to reporter Steve Vockrodt.

U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro last week entered a $1.3 billion judgment against Tucker and others to wrap up a case brought by the FTC in 2012.

“The FTC tracked and sued Tucker, his brother Blaine Tucker and several corporations under their control on claims that they extended loans that deceived consumers about the true cost of their credit,” Vockrodt explains. “For example, the FTC said that $300 loans extended by Tucker’s companies cost $390, at a 30 percent interest rate. In reality, through deceptive loan terms and automatic loan renewals, the FTC said many consumers ended up paying nearly $1,000.”

Read the article.

A federal judge has ruled that closure of Orlando-based Butler & Hosch law firm was illegal because executives knew it would close and didn’t warn employees in accordance with federal law, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

When the firm closed in 2015, about 700 employees in Dallas, Orlando, Miami, Tampa and other locations were told in a conference call that they would not be paid for their final three weeks at work, writes reporter Paul Brinkmann. Law requires 60-day notice of mass layoffs, but employees were told of the plan on the last day.

“If the company were still functioning, the law says it could be required to pay wages and benefits for 60 days to each employee, plus a fine totaling about $21 million — $500 per day per employee,” according to Brinkmann.  But now that claim becomes part of the firm’s bankruptcy process.

Read the article.

Reuters is reporting that U.S. regulations, proposed by the Treasury to crack down on companies that try to reduce taxes by rebasing abroad, have begun a White House review and could be finalized shortly.

The regulations would make it difficult for U.S. business operations to avoid taxation while shifting profits overseas through a practice called “earnings stripping.”

The White House Office of Management and Budget regulations received the proposed regulations last week and now has up to 90 days to decide whether the rules should be finalized or returned to Treasury for further consideration, reports Reuters’ David Morgan.

“The Obama administration has faced widespread criticism from the business community over its regulatory assault on tax inversions, which are tax-driven mergers in which a U.S. company acquires a smaller, foreign business in a low-tax country and shifts its headquarters there, if only on paper, to avoid higher U.S. taxes,” according to the report.

Read the article.

Businesses of all types are dealing with the influx of millennials and the departure of baby boomers, but the impact of a multigenerational workforce is just beginning to shape legal departments, according to The Generational Shift in Legal Departments: Working with Millennials and Avoiding Baby Boomer Brain Drain.

The Thomson Reuters report surveyed 153 attorneys working in corporate legal departments and representing three generations: baby boomers, Generation Xers and millennials. The report identified current perceptions of millennial corporate counsel and revealed that legal departments are unprepared for the generational shift taking place as baby boomers retire and more millennials join the workforce.

Several factors — from emerging technologies to the use of legal process outsourcing and alternative providers — are transforming the practice of law. The survey reinforced how some changes involve lawyers themselves; the generational shift is changing the face of the profession too.

“The generational shift encompasses everything from how colleagues interact based on their perceptions of millennials — from the positives, such as millennials’ tech savviness, to the negatives, such as their job-hopping — to ensuring that legal departments capture and share baby boomers’ institutional knowledge before they retire,” explained Bernadette Bulacan, director of Market Development for Thomson Reuters Corporate segment.

Bulacan noted the importance of tapping the potential of millennials now, as the pace of baby boomers’ retirement accelerates. “In-house leaders are still dealing with the rise of new technologies and all of the changes in the practice of law since the 2008 economic meltdown. The workforce evolution is another challenge legal department leaders have to address, and it’s crucial they act quickly,” Bulacan said.

Yet the survey indicated in-house leaders may not be prepared. Overwhelmingly, corporate counsel reported they’re not doing anything to prepare for this generational shift. Only 26 percent of legal departments have a succession plan in place, and the vast majority of legal departments do not have a formal mentoring program; only 6 percent reported having such a program in place.

The low numbers may be attributed to the length of the typical corporate counsel career path, which includes law school followed by a law firm role; in other words, millennials are just now starting to work in-house. With the relatively smaller number of millennial employees currently in legal departments, general counsel may have avoided these issues so far. But they can’t be ignored any longer.

“In-house leaders need to capture baby boomers’ extensive experience while making the most of millennials’ traits and skills,” said Bulacan. “It takes time to identify which key roles will need to be filled when baby boomers leave, and to mentor millennials and Gen Xers to prepare them to step in. Legal departments can’t afford to wait.”

Download the full survey report.

Train safety expert Carl Berkowitz, Ph. D. discussed the value of a system called positive train control in a televised interview with Maurice Dubois of the CBS New York affiliate. The discussion came after the Oct. 29 train crash in Hoboken, NJ, that injured 100 passengers and killed a woman who was standing on the station platform.

Berkowitz explained that positive train control maintains the appropriate speed for a train, depending on where the train is at the time.

“You can’t leave everything in the hands of the individual because of human factors involved, and the reason for positive train control is to take human factor out of the equation and to make the system safe,” he said.

Installation of the system “was something that was mandated years ago, and the railroads just kept avoiding doing it. They didn’t want to spend the money. They didn’t think it was an important issue. So they let it go,” he added.

Watch the video.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP represented Sithe Global Power, an affiliate of the Blackstone Group, in the $1.2 billion sale of its interests in GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. Co.  and GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co.  to Aboitiz Power Corp., through its subsidiary Therma Power Inc.

GMCP is a 604 MW coal-fired power plant that has been operational since 2014 and GNPD is a new 2 x 668 MW facility under construction. Both facilities are in Bataan, Philippines. The sale is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016. The full release is available here.

The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Andrew Calder, Rhett Van Syoc and Kfir Abutbul and associates David Thompson, Ahmed Sidik, Sanjay Bapat and John Montgomery; and included tax partners Thomas Evans and Polina Liberman; antitrust partners Sally Southwell and Sarah Jordan and associate James Parkinson; environmental transactions partner Paul Tanaka and associate Michael Saretsky; and debt finance partner Andres Mena and associate Duncan McKay.

The National Association of Corporate Directors has published the 2016 NACD Blue Ribbon Commission Report: Building the Strategic-Asset Board. The report is designed to help readers prepare for boardroom discussions on top-of-mind issues related to board strategy and composition.

The NACD says this report, based on the recommendations of leading directors, investors, and subject matter experts, outlines steps corporations and general counsel can take to help the board continuously improve boardroom performance, including how to

• make relevant updates to your governance principles;
• plan board succession in line with the company’s long-term strategy; and
• consider tenure issues as part of your director review process.

The full report is available exclusively to NACD members, but the executive summary, which includes a list of additional recommended steps for building a strategic-asset board, is available to anyone.

Download the summary.

Farrell Fritz announced that Christopher M. Opisso has joined the firm in its Uniondale office as a corporate & finance associate.

Opisso was an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP (New York, NY) from 2013 – 2016, where he began as a summer associate in 2012. Christopher was a legal secondee at Global Infrastructure Partners in 2015; a law clerk at the New York City Department of Education (summer 2011); and, from 2007 – 2009, a Latin teacher at the Delbarton School (Morristown, NJ).

Opisso , a New York, NY resident, earned his Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from St. John’s University School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the St. John’s Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University, where he was an editorial board member of the Brown Classical Journal.

The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP announced that 22 of its associate attorneys have been promoted to partners. The new partners are in the firm’s Chicago, Indianapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. offices.

The new partners are Sarah R. Anchors, Joel A. Austin, Cristina M. Choi, Vanessa A. Davis, Simone Colgan Dunlap, Krystal Aspey Fleischmann, Stephen J. Gardner, Nikia L. Gray, Jonathan G. Howard, Darrell S. Husband, Maria Frenn Kallmeyer, Jessica Lin Lewis, Anne M. O’Brien, Andrea M. Palmer, Isaac J. Roang, Michael A. Rogers, Matthew J. Splitek, Andrea S. Tazioli, Robert G. Vaught, Stuart V. Warren, Hillary J. Wucherer, and Katrene Zelenovskiy.

Firm Managing Partner Fred Lautz, who supervises the partnership across the firm’s 10 nationwide locations from Milwaukee said, “Throughout their tenure with the Firm, these attorneys have demonstrated excellent lawyering skills, have been terrific business and legal advisors to our clients, have provided services at levels which surpass client expectations, and have generally shown commitment and engagement to the Firm and our clients which reflects our values and culture. We are confident they will contribute valuably to the continued growth and success of Quarles & Brady.”

“We congratulate these men and women and are proud to have them represent Quarles & Brady as partners,” added Firm Chair Kimberly Leach Johnson. “We look forward to their continued contributions in serving our clients at the highest levels.”

The attorneys’ new status as partners becomes effective on October 1.

• Sarah R. Anchors — Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team
• Joel A. Austin — Intellectual Property Team
• Cristina M. Choi — Business Law Team
• Vanessa A. Davis — Product Liability Team
• Simone Colgan Dunlap — Health Law Team
• Krystal Aspey Fleischmann — Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team
• Stephen J. Gardner — Intellectual Property Team
• Nikia L. Gray — Intellectual Property Team
• Jonathan G. Howard — Business Law Team
• Darrell S. Husband — Real Estate Practice Group
• Maria Frenn Kallmeyer — Labor & Employment Team
• Jessica Lin Lewis — Intellectual Property Team
• Anne M. O’Brien — Health Law Team
• Andrea M. Palmer — Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Creditor’s Rights Team
• Isaac J. Roang — Real Estate Team
• Michael A. Rogers — Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team
• Matthew J. Splitek — Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team
• Andrea S. Tazioli — Litigation & Dispute Resolution Team
• Robert G. Vaught — Labor & Employment Team
• Stuart V. Warren — Real Estate Team
• Hillary J. Wucherer — Intellectual Property Team
• Katrene Zelenovskiy — Business Law Team

If the goal of compensation clawbacks is to keep corporate executives honest, then they aren’t doing the job, according to a report by The New York Times.

As evidence, writer Gretchen Morgenson points to recent action by Wells Fargo’s board. The bank’s directors acted on Tuesday to recover $60 million in stock grants from two top executives after a phony-account-opening scandal rocked the company and its executives. But the move came almost three years after the improprieties came to light.

There are several reasons givebacks are rare, Morgenson reports: “One is that corporations limit the scope of their recovery policies. For example, the policies are written to cover only a portion of an executive’s pay.”

“Clawbacks extending to all types of compensation are uncommon,” James F. Reda, managing director of executive compensation consulting at Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, told the reporter. “They typically only apply to the cash portion and only to the top executives.”

Read the article.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP will host a complimentary webinar, “Recent Updates in Design Patent Law,” presented by Fitch Even partners Calista J. Mitchell and Joseph H. Herron. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, October 12, 2016, at 9 am PDT / 10 am MDT / 11 am CDT / 12 noon EDT.

Understanding the latest developments in case law and USPTO examination standards is important to drafting effective design patent applications. This webinar will address numerous current issues in U.S. design patent law. It may be of interest to those who seek to broadly protect products with design patents, as well as those who draft design patent applications, litigate design patents, or prepare freedom-to-operate or patentability analyses for design patent applications.

Our speakers will cover these topics and more:
• Recent court decisions involving design patents
• The role of obviousness in patentability and invalidity determinations
• Current trends in examination by the USPTO

CLE credit has been approved for California and Illinois and is pending in Nebraska. Other states may also award CLE credit upon attendee request.

Following the live event, a recording of the webinar will be available to view for one year at fitcheven.com.

Register for the webinar.

While the oral arguments about the merits of the Clean Power Plan are heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) remains confident the plan will be upheld by the courts, reports Renewable Energy Magazine.

The Clean Power Plan is the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule placing the first-ever federal carbon pollution limits on American electric power plants, writes Robin Whitlock.

Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA, issued a statement, saying in part: “The clean-energy train has already left the station in the form of affordable renewable energy already making major carbon pollution reductions today. The Clean Power Plan reasonably builds on these existing trends in the power sector that have allowed many states to reliably and cost-effectively slash carbon pollution at a rapid rate over the last decade through investment in clean sources of electric generation, like wind power. We fully expect the D.C. Circuit to agree that EPA correctly took these facts into account in considering well-established pollution control measures, such as renewable energy, when establishing carbon reduction standards for power plants under the plan.”

Read the article.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administrationreleased new policy guidelines in September for its review of private settlement agreements presented to the agency for approval in whistleblowing actions, reports Littler Mendelson P.C.

Authors Ed Ellis, Chip Jones and Kevin Griffith write that OSHA issued these guidelines based on its concern that certain confidentiality and other provisions in settlement agreements may unlawfully restrict or discourage employee activity that the government would like to protect and promote. The new policy guidelines track the approach recently adopted  by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The article explains that the SEC issued an agreed cease-and-desist order on August 10, 2016 in BlueLinx Holdings, Inc., requiring the company to amend its severance agreements. “In that cease-and-desist order, the SEC directed the company to remove language from its agreements that prevented employees from accepting monetary awards from the SEC for whistleblowing complaints. BlueLinx also agreed to pay a $265,000 civil penalty,” according to the article.

Read the article.

Farrell Fritz announced that Jennifer Gebbie has recently been appointed to The Child Center of NY’s board. She will serve a three-year term.

Gebbie, a Wantagh, NY resident, is a real estate associate. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Hofstra University School of Law and her B.S. from Pennsylvania State University.

The Child Center of NY seeks to strengthen children and families through skills, opportunities and emotional support to build healthy, successful lives. The Center’s main program areas include early childhood education, behavioral health, prevention & family support and youth development.

Thomson Reuters and Clifford Chance have joined forces to help global financial institutions deal in a more cost-effective manner with regulatory obligations relating to margin rules for uncleared over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, Thomson Reuters announced.

“Using an innovative approach to contract negotiation and documentation, the partnership offers a flexible, rapidly scalable, technology-enabled solution that will empower these financial institutions to meet their current multi-jurisdictional regulatory obligations and as they continue to evolve in the future,” the company says in a release.

The release continues:

Pressure on both buy-side and sell-side financial institutions is growing as new regulatory deadlines relating to margin for uncleared OTC derivatives loom large and the volume and complexity of contract work needed to meet compliance obligations increases. In addition, the internal challenge within all financial institutions to find further cost-efficient ways to operate has caused many to look again at their own internal processes, specifically their existing documentation and negotiation processes.

The collaboration between Thomson Reuters, one of the world’s most innovative providers of intelligent information and solutions, with Clifford Chance, one of the world’s pre-eminent international law firms, offers deep legal acumen and financial industry experience powered by highly efficient processes and advanced technology. Thomson Reuters is applying its proprietary contract automation software, Contract Express, and abstraction technology built specifically for OTC documentation. This Thomson Reuters technology platform enables its teams to rapidly generate compliant and consistent documentation to clients’ specifications, easily extract key terms from existing documentation and enable advanced analytics of the clients’ agreements, which ultimately results in cost and time savings.

“By working with Thomson Reuters we can combine our deep understanding of the difficult challenges financial institutions face with a powerful, scalable delivery platform to offer clients the best of both worlds,” said Paul Landless of Clifford Chance Singapore. “The fact that we can fully support from Clifford Chance teams across New York, London, Europe and Asia Pacific to work with Thomson Reuters places us perfectly to tackle both the local regulatory issues and the complex, international challenges our clients face.”

David Felsenthal of Clifford Chance New York said, “At Clifford Chance we are always exploring new ways of working to ensure we deliver our legal expertise in the best possible way for our clients across the globe, considering everything from deploying artificial intelligence to working with carefully chosen partners. This is particularly relevant for the complicated, multi-jurisdictional regulatory and documentation remediation challenges now facing the financial services sector.”

“Thomson Reuters supports financial institutions with their ongoing master documentation needs by leveraging a global team comprised of OTC derivatives documentation lawyers and professionals with direct experience working in major financial institutions,” said Gregory McPolin, chief operating officer of Thomson Reuters Legal Managed Services. “Plus we have developed an industry-leading approach to tackling the time sensitive documentation needs driven by new and changing regulations for financial institutions and other heavily regulated industries.”

Maria Garcia, head of Financial Documentation Services for Thomson Reuters Legal Managed Services explained that “combining those knowledgeable resources with advanced technology, such as Contract Express, uniform processes and efficient project management allows us to handle high volumes of work in tight timeframes. As a result, our clients have found their negotiations are propelled forward faster and at a lower cost. We believe this technology-enabled service model coupled with the derivatives-related legal knowledge and counsel from Clifford Chance presents a powerful and exciting proposition to the financial services industry.”

When a client wants to pursue a lawsuit or arbitration, one of the first things an attorney should do is determine whether the statute of limitations has run on the client’s claim, advise Darren Rowles and Scott Cahalan in a post for  Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP’s Construction Law blog.

“Many people are not aware, however, that parties to contracts, including construction contracts, may have the ability to increase the statute of limitations for a written contract by a factor of more than three hundred percent just by adding a few words to make their contracts ‘under seal.’ As a result, these people may increase their exposure to breach of contract/warranty claims without knowing they are doing so,” according to their post.

They explain that, in Georgia, for example, a written contract that is not for the sale of goods would normally have a six-year statute of limitations measured from the date of breach, But a contract signed “under seal,” has a statute of limitations of 20 years from the date of breach.

Read the article.

Fort Worth lawyer Steve Laird has once again been recognized by his peers and independent researchers, who have named him to the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Texas and Best Lawyers in America.

On his website, Laird has published articles with headlines such as “Study Shows Incredible Benefits of Collision Avoidance Systems,” “Texting and Driving Accidents on the Rise,” “Speed Limiter Delay Raises Danger on Highways,” “Questions Created by Catastrophic Injury, Wrongful Death,” “New Highway Law Allows Too-Low Insurance, Hides Safety Scores” and “Tractor-Trailer Cameras Benefit Safety.”

His firm, the Law Offices of Steven C. Laird, P.C., is located at 1119 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Worth, Texas 76104.

Read more.