Exari presents a free on-demand webinar discussing how document automation can alleviate the burden of creating HR documents.
The webinar also includes a demonstration of Exari’s Document Assembly and Contract Management products from an HR perspective.
Topics include how document automation can transform HR, if automation is right for your organization, and the most common types of HR documents to automate.
Corridor Company presents a free on-demand webinar aimed at anyone ready to issue a request for proposal, as well as those just starting the process.
Presenter Russ Edelman discusses RFP readiness (understanding product landscape as well as your own requirements and current practices), outreach strategies, down-select criteria, and the use of evaluation tools such as a functional comparison matrix, use cases, and implementation scenarios.
The webinar also answe4rs questions regarding the proper scope or timeframe for an RFP in the contract management space.
ReposiTrak has posted a free on-demand webinar on Walmart’s 2014 settlement of 23 cases in the wake of the Jensen Farms class action litigation due to an outbreak of listeriosis linked to cantaloupes.
Walmart’s play that day in court sets precedent that retailers now may be viewed as stepping into the shoes of the manufacturer and are now on the hook when things go wrong in the supply chain, ReposiTrak says on its website.
This webinar discusses this precedent setting settlement and what a retailer or wholesaler can do to protect brand and reduce liability.
Performance-based contracting received a boost this month when the Government Accountability Office found that the U.S. Department of Transportation is making progress in moving toward a national performance-based approach, reports Forbes.
In Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), the DOT recognized the importance of a more progressive approach in the way federal agencies and states do business with each other, with planning organizations and with private vendors.
Accordinng to the Forbes report, in the fiscal year 2013, DOT provided about $50 billion to states and other “grantees” — such as metropolitan planning organizations and transit agencies — to support highway and transit infrastructure and safety.
Ernst & Young has posted a free on-demand webinar on a converged standard for recognizing revenue under U.S. GAAP and IFRS introduced during 2014.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Boardissued the new converged standard.
The new standard replaces existing revenue guidance across industries, impacting most types of transactions.
On its website, Ernst & Young syas understanding the potential consequences of the new standard across your organization — beyond finance — can help you avoid unexpected issues related to your revenue recognition process.
Michael Volkov, CEO of The Volkov Law Group, will discuss the respective mandates of the CCO and legal officers in a free webinar Tuesday, Feb. 3, at noon Eastern time.
With the rise of the compliance function in corporate governance, chief compliance officers and general counsels have had to define their responsibilities and coordinate their activities, the firm says on its website. “To do so, chief compliance officers and legal counsel have to understand their different mandates. As the chief legal officer, the general counsel has to understand his or her responsibilities in relation to the Chief Compliance Officer. They have very different responsibilities but share an important responsibility to coordinate their activities,” the firm says.
Pipeline operator Energy Transfer Partners LP said it would buy affiliate Regency Energy Partners LP for about $11 billion as master limited partnerships seek to simplify their complex holding structures, reports Reuters.
Regency shareholders will receive 0.4066 of an Energy Transfer unit and 32 cents in cash for each unit they own.
Energy Transfer Equity owns the general partner and incentive distribution rights of both Regency and Energy Transfer Partners. Energy Transfer Partners Chief Executive Kelcy Warren is also the chairman of Energy Transfer Equity, according to the Reuters report.
Law firm DLA Piper plans to get into the cybersecurity business, a rapidly changing field that is pushing the legal industry to experiment with ways to help businesses dealing with the complexities of security regulations, reports The Washington Post.
The law firm plans to create a new subsidiary, Blue Edge Lab, its first foray into non-legal work.
Blue Edge Lab consists mainly of a subscription software service called CyberTrak, which will be sold to companies for $25,000 a year, The Post reports.
Encana Corp. has announced the appointment of Joanne Alexander as its new executive vice president and general counsel.
She replaces retiring GC Terry Hopwood at the Canadian energy company
The company says Alexander has more than 20 years of legal and business experience in the oil and gas industry. Before starting at Encana, she was the senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary with Precision Drilling Corporation.
Ropes & Gray has published an examination of a recent 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the False Claims Act (FCA) in United States ex rel. Badr v. Triple Canopy, Inc., No. 13-2101.
As the firm described the case, private security company Triple Canopy, Inc. contracted with the government to provide security services at a U.S. military airbase, then falsified its employees’ marksmanship scorecards to cover up their failure to meet the required qualifications. Although the district court had dismissed the government’s claims, the 4th Circuit reversed, and in so doing it adopted the “implied certification” theory of FCA liability and issued an important decision analyzing materiality as related to that theory, the firm reported.
The American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation has posted a free white paper about the concept of “meeting of the minds” during contract negotiations.
On its website, the ABA says this concept remains misunderstood by many. Surely, by its terms, it should mean that the two parties, in fact, thought the same thing and reached an agreement on the same thing. In what other way could two minds meet? But this illusory concept has never been the true requirement for contract formation, and attempts to import subjective understanding into contract law have largely been unsuccessful, the ABA says.
Merrill Brink International, a leading global provider of language solutions for global companies and law firms, has published a new white paper, “From ‘Detect’ to ‘Prevent’: Translation Solutions as a Preventative Tool in Your Anti-Corruption Program.” Thomas R. Fox, a veteran legal expert and author of several award-winning books on FCPA and UK Bribery Act anti-corruption compliance programs, authored the white paper.
The white paper provides valuable insights and addresses the following issues:
– Which language resources to choose if/when your organization is accused of fraudulent activity
– The role of language localization in developing corruption prevention and detection programs
– When/how to leverage “in-country” resources and professional language translation providers
– How to choose the right language solution partner for your compliance program
Kinder Morgan will pay $3 billion for pipelines in the Bakken Shale, the company said Wednesday in a flurry of news that also set the date for a key executive transition and reported the first financial results since last year’s corporate restructuring.
Kinder Morgan said it will buy pipeline company Hiland Partners from its founder, Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm, in a deal that includes $1 billion in debt. The transaction will give Houston-based Kinder Morgan a foothold in the North Dakota-centered Bakken, which executives described as one of the most profitable oil and gas plays in the U.S., reports The Houston Chronicle.
The U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to review whether the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission must seek conciliation with employers before suing them for violating federal law, reports Business Insurance.
The high court heard oral arguments last week in a case in which a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled unanimously in 2013 that employers cannot use the EEOC’s failure to seek conciliation as a defense, the site reports.
The EEOC had alleged in EEOC v. Mach Mining L.L.C. that the company discriminated against women in its hiring practices.
Hulsey Calhoun P.C. will present “GoPro’s IPO Stock and Apple’s Camera Patents: Legal & Business Reactions and Responses When A Tech Market Shift Happens” in both live format and as a webinar.
The free live event will be Thursday, Jan. 29, at the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin, 2815 San Gabriel, Austin, Texas from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Participants may opt for an online webinar at the same time.
The firm explains that after a successful 2014 IPO and strong showing at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, GoPro shares dropped 12% on Jan. 13 when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted a cache of competing camera patents to Apple. One of these newly issued Apple patents discloses a wearable camera that could compete with GoPro’s high-definition cameras.
The event will cover:
• GoPro’s products, the exciting 2014 IPO presentation, and the impact on the consumer electronics industry;
• How Apple’s camera patents may pose challenges for GoPro’s technological advancement and the financial relationship between GoPro’s technology and stock valuation;
• Possible legal actions open to both Apple and GoPro, stock value reactions, and strategic responses relevant to sudden and unexpected shifts in technology leadership; and
• What company executives and technology leaders can do to limit permanent business damage as a result of technology shifts affecting market perceptions.
Get more information and register for the event.
This is a time to accept the nature of the energy industry, realistically evaluate current job viability and create an action plan, writes Kelli Lauletta in OilOnline.
“As the energy industry deals with below $50 a barrel oil, how can employees at oil & gas companies proactively and calmly navigate the bumpy road ahead? In a recent webinar, “The Bottom of the Barrel: Developing During a Downturn”, Pink Petro, the social channel for women in energy, offered up enlightening career-survival advice for both women and men in oil & gas.” she writes. “Their advice focused on getting in the driver’s seat and taking the wheel, rather than passively sitting in the passenger seat. As companies announce plans to downsize, it is not time to panic. Rather, it is a time to accept the nature of the industry, realistically evaluate your current job viability and create an action plan.”
ABB presents a free on-demand webinar on the possiblity for a new utility business model in the regulated utility business.
The traditional regulated utility business model is under siege. Demand growth is on the decline at the same time costs, customer expectations and regulatory scrutiny are increasing. Reliability has always been the prime directive of the power industry.
Now a confluence of changes in technology, regulation and public policy have produced a mortal threat to the traditional cost-of-service model that has sustained the industry for more than a century.
The webinar features Stephen Whitley, President & Chief Executive Officer of the New York ISO.
Coreworx has posted a free on-demand introduction to unconventional oil and gas projects, along with a white paper titled “Effective Project Information Control in Unconventional Oil & Gas Projects.”
Shale oil and gas projects have similar project information management challenges to those of Oil Sands Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) projects, Coreworx says on its website. Both face environments of evolving technology, constant change and significant regulatory oversight.
Dawn Fiander-McCann, Industry Consultant at Coreworx Inc., highlights five lessons learned from the Alberta Oil Sands and how they can be applied to current Shale Oil & Gas projects.
Watch the webinar introduction and download the white paper.
North American Windpower has published an article discussing a new notice from the Internal Revenue Service setting performance and quality standards that small wind turbines must meet in order to qualify for the 30% investment tax credit.
David Burton, a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, wrote the article about Notice 2015-4, released by the IRS on Jan. 13.
To qualify as a small wind turbine, the turbine must have a nameplate capacity of 100 kW or less and meet any performance and quality standards specified by the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Secretary of Energy, Burton wrote. The Secretary of the Treasury has delegated this authority to the IRS, which often prefers to issue notices rather than promulgate regulations as the issuance of a notice has fewer procedural hurdles.
The U.S. Supreme Court altered the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s longstanding de novo standard of review for all claim construction in patent infringement cases on Jan. 20 in Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius reported on its website that the Supreme Court instead instructed the Federal Circuit to use a hybrid approach: When reviewing a district court’s subsidiary factual findings that relate to extrinsic evidence, the Federal Circuit must now apply a “clear error” standard of review, but when reviewing a district court’s findings based on evidence intrinsic to the patent, the Federal Circuit will continue to apply de novo review.
The ultimate question of construction will remain a legal question.