Speakers from Black Duck Software and Wolters Kluwer will be presenters in a webinar addressing key open source security and management questions.

The complimentary event will be Wednesday, March 22, at 11 a.m. Eastern time.

Speakers will be Bob Genshaft, Director Strategic Programs at Wolters Kluwer, and Black Duck’s VP and General Manager On-Demand Audits Phil Odence.

“Companies are constantly seeking ways to ensure their application code is secure and effectively managed. For example, M&A acquirers conduct one-time code audits on companies they are buying to avoid legal, operational or security pitfalls. Other organizations are proactive, using an an ongoing solution to make sure their application code is secure and well managed on a day-to-day basis. Increasingly, many companies are opting to use both approaches,” Black Duck says in a release.

Topics will include:

• When is it appropriate to conduct an audit?
• When should your company consider an ongoing solution?
• What are the benefits of doing both?

Register for the webinar.

Yahoo’s top lawyer, Ronald S. Bell, has resigned, and its chief executive, Marissa Mayer, lost her 2016 bonus after a board investigation of the 2014 theft of information on more than 500 million user accounts, reports The New York Times.

“Senior executives, company lawyers and information security staff were aware of the hack in 2014 and also knew about subsequent attempts to break into the affected accounts in 2015 and 2016, but failed to ‘properly comprehend or investigate’ the situation, the company’s board of directors said in a securities filing on Wednesday,” writes reporter Vindu Goel.

Yahoo’s GC is bearing much of the blame for the company’s security failures, including the hack that left up to 32 million Yahoo accounts vulnerable. The company now faces 43 consumer class-action suits related to breaches, as well as a stockholder class-action suit, the report says.

Read the NYT article.

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The National Association of Corporate Directors has published the 2017 edition of the NACD Director’s Handbook on Cyber-Risk Oversight and made it available for free downloading.

The book is constructed around five core principles designed to enhance the cyber literacy and cyber-risk oversight capabilities of directors of organizations of all sizes and in all industries, according to NACD.

This handbook provides

• foundational principles for board-level cyber-risk oversight;
• insight into management of cyber-risk oversight responsibilities; and
• tools to improve and enhance boardroom practices.

Download the handbook.

Kim Technologies will present a seminar titled “Digital Disruption – Impacts for Corporate Legal Departments” on March 21, 2017 for corporate counsel and executives.

The complimentary event will be at Columbia University’s main campus in New York City, beginning with a buffet breakfast at 8:30 a.m. The main program will be from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Dr. Art Langer, director of Columbia University’s Center for Technology Management, will discuss digital disruption in the 21st Century.

Bjarne Tellman, SVP and general counsel of Fortune 100 company Pearson PLC, will discuss the vision for a transformed legal service.

Karl Chapman, CEO of Riverview Law, will talk about moving from a technology-enabled to technology-led legal service delivery model.

And Susan Hackett, LEL, former SVP and GC of Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), will host a moderated discussion involving in-house counsel.

Register for the seminar.

Bio-Rad Laboratories has agreed to pay $3.5 million in legal fees for the team that represented former general counsel Sanford Wadler during a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit Wadler brought against his former employer, reports MassDevice.com.

The agreement came after a federal jury in California awarded Wadler $11 million in the lawsuit he brought against Bio-Rad. The jury awarded Wadler $2.9 million in back pay and stocks and $5 million in punitive damages, with the back pay award slated to be doubled, bringing the total award to $10.8 million, reports Sarah Faulkner.

“Wadler, who was fired in 2013, alleged that he was let go right before the company was planning to present findings from a bribery investigation in Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. Wadler accused the company of stonewalling his efforts to uncover evidence of similar bribery in China,” Faulkner writes.

Writing about the case on the website of Baker Donelson, shareholder Robert E. Hauberg Jr. explains that the court had ruled Wadler could use as evidence otherwise privileged materials, because the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s protection of whistleblowers pre-empted the attorney-client privilege. (See “Whistleblower General Counsel Prevails Through Use Of Attorney-Client Privileged Information.”)

Read the MassDevice.com article.

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The generic drug industry has come under fire the last couple of years because of staggering price increases, but now generic drug executives can expect to face tougher legal repercussions, reports MedCity News.

The efforts come in the wake of a 500 percent hike in the generic price of the EpiPen and the 5,400 percent jumpin the price of Daraprim for the treatment of potentially deadly parasite infections, writes Johanna Mayer.

In November 2016, Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc. sued two of its former executives, Jeffrey Glazer and Jason Malek, using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). And in December 20 states sued six companies, including Heritage, after a major antitrust investigation by the state of Connecticut.

“Experts predict that these diverse types of lawsuits could ignite a legal domino effect,” Mayer writes. “They also suspect that, as cases like these develop, they’ll expand to touch multiple prongs of the pharmaceutical industry, such as wholesale manufacturers and pharmacies.”

Read the MedCity News article.

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Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick said in a memo to employees that allegations from a former employee that she’d been sexually harassed at work, and that the company’s human resources department tried to cover it up was the first he’d heard of the incident. But two groups weren’t surprised, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times: women who work in tech, and Silicon Valley employment attorneys such as Kelly Dermody.

“There’s a phenomenon that happens in several industries, namely tech and financial services, where there’s a buffer around the men who are considered ‘high contributors,’ ” said Dermody, who has represented hundreds of women who work in the tech sector in gender discrimination cases. “They get to have a different set of standards, and their business success translates into them being above the law of the companies.”

Susan Fowler, the former Uber engineer who made the allegations, joined Uber as a site reliability engineer in November 2015. She claims that her manager at the time propositioned her, but Uber’s HR team told her it was the man’s first offense, so “they wouldn’t feel comfortable giving him anything other than a warning and a stern talking-to.” They also told her the manager “was a high performer,” writes reporter Tracey Lien.

Read the LA Times article.

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A webinar featuring the chief operating officer of Interfor International will discuss corporate security as it continues to evolve in a growing and complex matrix of threats and responsibilities.

The webinar will be Thursday, March 2, at 2 p.m. EST.

Don Aviv, CPP, PSP, PCI, Chief Operating Officer, Interfor International, will take a look at the 2017 security landscape and explore four trends central to delivering quality corporate safety and security.

During the webinar, he will discuss:

1. Successfully deploy corporate security systems:
2. Improving workplace violence awareness and response
3. Protecting the lone employee and duty of care responsibility
4. Enhancing global employee communication and location awarenesscu

Register for the webinar.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. and the estate of co-founder and former CEO Aubrey McClendon have agreed to settle a multimillion-dollar dispute over data, stocks and use of a corporate jet, reports The Oklahoman.

The deal calls for Chesapeake to pay $3.25 million in legal fees and drop claims for $445 million related to data McClendon took from the company when he was fired in April 2013.

In exchange, the McClendon estate agreed to drop claims on remaining compensation from the separation, including cash, stock and use of Chesapeake’s corporate jet,” writes Adam Wilmoth.

Read The Oklahoman article.

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The recent California appellate ruling in Glen Provost v. Regents of the University of California sheds significant light on judicial views of written settlement agreements, writes Robert S. Luft in the JAMS ADR blog.

“For corporations, whether or not a settlement agreement can be enforced depends on who signs it. A corporation acts through its employees and agents and that raises the question of what employee or agent can bind the entity to Judgment enforcement.  This issue was partially answered in the Provost case.” Luft explains.

It’s best to err on the side of over qualification of a corporate employee representative to sign a settlement agreement to ensure it will be enforceable, advises Luft.

Read the article.

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Executive pay that is disproportionate to a company’s past performance may also signal that poor returns are coming, according to a study released by shareholder activist group As You Sow and reported by Reuters.

The California nonprofit claimed returns for the 100 S&P 500 companies it had identified as having the most questionable pay went on to underperform the index by 2.9 percentage points over a roughly two-year period ended on Jan. 31, writes Ross Kerber.

Among the chief executive officers it labeled as “overpaid” was Discovery Communications Inc. CEO David Zaslav, who received $32.4 million in 2015. During the study period, Discovery shares fell 12 percent.

Read the Reuters article.

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Hogan Lovells announces that Gregory C. Hill will join the firm’s corporate practice as a partner in the Houston office.

Hill focuses on representing clients on transactional matters including mergers and acquisitions, capital investment and fund formation. He works with private equity funds, as well as private and public companies on acquisitions, dispositions, mergers, joint ventures, and fund raising activities. Hill also has experience representing companies in agricultural, financial services, technology, and waste/recycling and renewable sectors, the firm said in a release.

The release continues:

“Texas is a prominent market for energy, cross-border and other significant transactions. Greg’s practice is a natural complement to the firm’s capabilities, both in the region and globally,” said David Gibbons, Hogan Lovells’ Global Corporate Practice leader, “He is a well-established and respected corporate lawyer in Houston, who will be able to utilize the firm’s platform to enhance the value and services we provide for clients.”

In addition to his transactional practice, Hill represents boards, audit committees and special committees on matters related to conflict of interest transactions and internal investigations. He has an in-depth knowledge of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and general financial fraud issues.

“Greg’s versatile experience in complex transactions and governance matters will contribute significantly to the development and growth of our footprint in Houston,” said Bruce Oakley, Managing Partner of the firm’s Houston office. “His arrival exemplifies the strategic investment the firm is making in the market. We have tripled our headcount since 2014 and look forward to Greg playing a leading role in the continued expansion of our transactional practice as we move to our office space in the new 609 Main building.”

Prior to joining Hogan Lovells Hill was a partner in Locke Lord’s Houston office where he chaired the firm’s corporate governance practice. He earned his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law and his B.A. in Political Science, cum laude, from Texas Christian University.

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Zapproved has published its new 2017 In-House E-Discovery Data Processing Benchmark Report, detailing the most satisfying and concerning aspects affecting data processing for e-discovery.

These insights can offer a roadmap to create better, more efficient data processing and review approaches in the year ahead, the company said on its website.

Each year, Zapproved produces a report on the the state of in-house e-discovery, based on a short survey. Participants include a range of in-house e-discovery professionals, from IT personnel to legal operations staff. The 2017 In-House E-Discovery Data Processing Benchmark Report reveals participant satisfaction with data processing speed, cost, ease of use, security and risk reduction. These attributes are correlated with business criteria, such as case types, matter sizes, data sources and future trends.

The resulting report illustrates what really impacts data processing decisions today and how to plan for the future.

It covers:

• What most influences speed, cost, ease of use, security and risk reduction
• When to use in-house versus external solutions
• Why spending more in-house can make sense
• Which data sources are the next big trend

Download the study findings.

Some of the  potential benefits of the U.S. House would give companies more incentive to keep jobs in the United States and less to overextend themselves on borrowed money, points out The New York Times.

And there could be big vast savings by reducing what companies spend on tax lawyers, who help them game the current system, writes Neil Irwin.

“Yet these changes could also set off a cascade of more harmful effects. The plan could shift trillions of dollars of wealth from Americans to foreigners; set off an emerging markets financial crisis; wreak havoc in global oil markets; and cause sustained harm to the American higher education and tourism industries (including, as it happens, luxury hotels with President Trump’s name on them),” Irwin writes.

He goes on to discuss effects on the value of the U.S. dollar by the proposed destination-based cash flow tax and its “border adjustment.”

Read the NYT article.

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A federal judge blocked the $54 billion merger between health insurance giants Anthem and Cigna, saying the deal would increase prices and reduce competition, according to a report by The Washington Post.

Carolyn Y. Johnson reports that this ruling is the second recent court decision to uphold the Justice Department’s opposition to deals that would have consolidated the five largest insurers in the United States into three companies.

“The evidence has also shown that the merger is likely to result in higher prices, and that it will have other anticompetitive effects: it will eliminate the two firms’ vigorous competition against each other for national accounts, reduce the number of national carriers available to respond to solicitations in the future, and diminish the prospects for innovation in the market,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in a 12-page order.

In the merger agreement, Anthem had agreed to pay Cigna a $1.85 billion termination fee if the deal is blocked because of regulatory interference.

Read the Washington Post article.

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Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, outlined proposed legislation to clear away many rules bankers say have hobbled investment and economic growth in a staff memo reported by Reuters.

Hensarling’s plan would roll back Wall Street rules and consumer protections conceived after the 2008 financial crisis, a step that will largely define the financial deregulation debate in the Trump era.

“Under Hensarling’s plan, the largest U.S. banks would face less oversight — though not as little as they had been hoping for – while startups would have easier access to investors,” writes reporter Patrick Rucker.

Read the Reuters article.

A federal jury awarded the former general counsel of BioRad Laboratories $8 million in back pay and damages — which will increase to $11 million — for whistleblower retaliation involving potential bribery in China, according to a Courthouse News article.

Sanford “Sandy” Wadler won $2.96 million for economic losses and $5 million in punitive damages. Because the Dodd-Frank Act allows double back pay damages for whistleblower retaliation, the back pay award will increase to $5.92 million, bringing the total to nearly $11 million, explains reporter Nicholas Iovino.

Wadler sued Hercules, California-based BioRad Laboratories and its CEO Norman Schwartz in May 2015. He alleged he was fired in June 2013 for reporting potential bribery in China, a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

David A. Nenni and Jessica L. Sussman of Jackson Lewis also wrote about the verdict in the firm’s Corporate Compliance and White Collar Advisor blog:

This case implicates a number of key issues confronting companies and their in-house legal teams, including:  (1) protections and scope of the attorney-client privilege; (2) what constitutes protected activity from an in-house attorney or compliance officer; (3) the importance of consistent and timely performance critiques; and (4) preparing adverse employment decisions to be scrutinized by a judge, jury, or arbitrator.  The case also highlights the existing split among federal courts regarding what constitutes a “whistleblower” under the DFA.

Read the Courthouse News article.

Read the Jackson Lewis blog item.

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A Washington lawyer at a prominent firm was arrested in a disguise while trying to sell a copy of a secret lawsuit involving a company that was under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, Bloomberg Law is reporting.

Jeffrey Wertkin immediately lost his job with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP after he was picked up Jan. 31 in the lobby of a hotel in Cupertino, California. The FBI said he believed he was about to collect $310,000 for selling the lawsuit.

Wertkin believed he would hand a copy of a complaint to an employee of the company, which was accused in the complaint by a whistle-blower of falsely billing the government, report Bloomberg’s Jef Feeley, David Voreacos and Joel Rosenblatt.

That employee turned out to be an FBI agent, according to arrest documents unsealed on Feb. 6.

Read the Bloomberg article.

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With international and domestic supply chain contracts, there is little or no room for error. according to an article posted by a team of lawyers at Foley & Lardner LLP.

“While some supply chain contracts incorporate negotiated provisions in the form of a letter agreement or long-term agreement, many supply chain contracts rely on standard purchase order terms and conditions. This can result in contracts of considerable value and corresponding high risk receiving  little attention from in-house or outside counsel,” they write.

They offer advice on how to manage supply chain contract risk, supply chain contracting in light of regulatory changes, and international contracting.

Read the article.

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