Top 10 Contract Management Best Practices for In-House Legal Teams

Many in-house Legal teams find contract lifecycle management (CLM) a challenge due to inefficient and flawed processes. However, organizations that excel at CLM can free up legal resources to focus on strategic activities like mitigating risk and driving compliance.

Download Top 10 Best Practices for Successful Contract Management and learn industry-proven techniques that leading in-house Legal teams are implementing to achieve CLM excellence.

You will learn best practices on how to:

  • Properly organize, secure and access contracts
  • Avoid missed dates, renewals and obligations
  • Reduce business process bottlenecks
  • Accurately track contract redlines and versioning
  • Efficiently handle contract requests and intake
  • And more…

Download your copy today.




Complimentary 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant Report For Contract Life Cycle Management

Contracts are the DNA of modern commerce. However, finding a contract life cycle management (CLM) system can be a daunting task.

A great place to start is with a market report from a trusted research and advisory firm. In our opinion, the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CLM is the most in-depth analysis of contract management products in the market. The firm’s analysts test the software, talk to customers about their experience, vet the vendors, and ultimately select the top players in the space to include in its Magic Quadrant.

This report is a must-read of evaluation of the companies in the CLM space. And now for a limited time, we’ve partnered with Agiloft to offer it at no cost to our subscribers.

Get your complimentary report.




NEW REPORT: 2021 Risk & Compliance Incident Management Benchmark Report

Benchmark Your Whistleblower Hotline Reporting & Investigation Program

According to the US DOJ’s “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs”, an efficient and trusted mechanism where employees can anonymously or confidentially report allegations of misconduct is the hallmark of a well-designed compliance program.

Getting a broader perspective on how your performance matches up to market and industry norms is a critical first (and frequent) step to developing a best practice program. How are you measuring your organization’s efforts?

Download the new 2021 report now and get a deeper understanding of how your hotline and incident management program performs compared to industry benchmarks!




Legal’s Guide for Managing Growing Data Risks (Access Now)

According to ACC CLO’s Survey Report, Legal is playing an increasing role in assisting with complex privacy, cybersecurity and compliance matters. Why? Legal risk and exposure extends beyond the Legal department itself, across the organization.
In this guide, learn how a Legal GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) strategy can help manage these growing data complexities.
Download this guide and learn:
  • Why the quality of your organizational data—and how Legal manages it—is of paramount importance right now
  • How establishing risk minimization strategies across departments is vital to combat an evolving regulatory environment
  • Why the GC/CLO is leading the charge



Receive the resources you need to build a better compliance & ethics program with SCCE Membership

Is your organization up to date with the latest in compliance and regulations?

Since 2004, Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE)® has been dedicated to providing high-quality educational products and events, networking opportunities, and options to earn CLEs—all the support you need to succeed. Become an SCCE member to receive exclusive content and discounts.

  1. Compliance and Ethics Professional (CEP) Magazine®: Learn the latest insights and practical information for compliance, ethics, and auditing professionals. CEP is available in print and digitally on COSMOS ($325 value per year).
  2. Free Web Conferences: Receive four (4) free member-exclusive SCCE web conferences each year ($396 value per year).
  3. Products and Educational Conferences: Receive discounts on educational products and 45+ SCCE conferences, academies, and weekly web conferences throughout the year.
  4. CCB Certification Discounts: SCCE members receive exclusive discounts on Compliance Certification Board (CCB)® exams. Demonstrate your expertise by getting certified with CCB: Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional (CCEP)®, Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional–International (CCEP-I)®.

Resources for all

SCCE offers a wealth of additional resources to members and non-members alike.

  • Get access to a growing selection of books, newsletters, articles, conference materials, and more on SCCE’s COSMOS. COSMOS’ powerful search function allows users to easily access specific topics across multiple publications.
  • Ask questions, network, and share insights with over 10,000 compliance and ethics professionals on our complimentary social network, SCCEnet
  • SCCE & HCCA partnered with the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) to create guidance on the application of COSO’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework to the management of compliance risk. Access the complimentary support content referenced in the publication. An example of applying the guidance to the management of General Privacy Risk in a Global Organization. Download the example
  • To support the compliance profession during these difficult times, SCCE has developed a variety of complimentary COVID-19 resources to help you stay informed, manage risk, and maintain the effectiveness of your program.
  • Get the latest compliance news and updates with blogs and podcasts



Gartner’s State of Privacy and Personal Data Protection: How to Adapt Your Privacy Program

According to Gartner, “As the world adjusts to a “new normal” brought on by COVID-19, security and risk management leaders must adapt their privacy programs for better scale and performance as well as tighter budgets in 2021.
Get complimentary access to this Gartner report, compliments of Exterro, and learn:
  • The pace of proposal for and adoption of modern privacy regulations accelerated through 2020
  • How technology-driven capabilities supporting the facets of a progressive privacy program have developed substantially over the past 18 months
  • Why organizations are focused on cost optimization, often leading to impulsive decisions to deprioritize compliance with non revenue programs



Meet the New AZA Partners

AZA’s three new partners are a triple threat. Their practices fall into the two primary areas of AZA’s work for our clients — commercial litigation and intellectual property.

Masood Anjom focuses his practice on intellectual property and patent work, including patent preparation and prosecution, as well as patent litigation and technology contracts. He has represented plaintiffs and defendants in patent infringement suits before U.S. district courts and the International Trade Commission and has worked on different phases of patent litigation from initial fact investigation to discovery and trial. He received a summa cum laude law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. And while obtaining his electrical engineering degree before that, he worked in the nanotechnology lab at the Cullen College of Engineering of the University of Houston.

Taylor Freeman focuses on complex commercial litigation, including breach of contract, energy, tort, intellectual property and construction. For example, he served as lead counsel in getting 100% of requested damages for a jury and helped obtain a $12.2 million court judgment for an international energy company. He has a law degree from New York University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University. He was named to the 2018-2020 Texas Rising Stars lists for his excellence in business litigation. The list, which is compiled by Thomson Reuters’ Texas Super Lawyers, honors leading attorneys age 40 and younger and those who have been in practice no more than 10 years.

Monica Uddin is a commercial trial lawyer who has represented energy companies and other businesses and individuals in complex matters. For example, she successfully represented an exploration and production company win a substantial sum in arbitration and defeated the refiner’s counterclaims of over $400 million. She has a technology background and has also been active with AZA’s intellectual property and patent litigation team. A University of Chicago Law School graduate, she has an undergraduate degree from Stanford University. She was named to the 2021 list of “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch” for commercial litigation and was selected for the Texas Rising Stars’ lists for 2013-2020 for her excellence in business litigation.




2021 Top 10 Trends in a New World of Risk & Compliance Priorities

While hindsight may be 20/20, how can we use this to gain foresight into 2021?

The last twelve months have permanently altered the role of risk and compliance—increasing it in scope and elevating the function to a top-of-mind priority.

Your profession is forever changed—and for the better. While some of the risks realized in 2020 were the product of a crazy year, many more were the inevitable result of longstanding blindspots, siloing and undervaluation . Perhaps 2021 will be the year we recognize risk and compliance cannot be narrowly defined nor addressed. Integration, context, and cooperation may be the best tools organizations have to course-correct and prepare for the next chapter.

Join this popular event with Kristy Grant-Hart and Carrie Penman for lessons learned in 2020 and guidance on how to use these trends to plan for 2021. They’ll be taking your questions after the hour presentation.

You’ll also receive the complete Top 10 Trends eBook the week of the webinar to help you stay engaged and prepare questions during the event.




Exterro Collaboration Tools & E-Discovery

Overcoming discovery challenges presented by Slack, Teams and other communication apps

During this pandemic, there’s a high probability you’ve expanded the usage (and potentially the number) of workplace tools that allow you to collaborate with other team members. As a result, new new pre-litigation discovery risks are rapidly growing.

Download this white paper and learn:

  • How to preserve, collect, and review data from business collaboration tools like Teams, Slack, etc.
  • Immediate process improvements to ensure data collection and preservation of this data
  • Technology considerations for automating the data collection and review process



A Unique Perspective

Letitia Quinones understands and takes seriously the level of trust and responsibility required when another lawyer refers a case to her firm. The same when a lead lawyer invites her to join the team representing a corporation or individual against the great weight of government prosecution.

When her client, Arkema Inc., and its CEO Richard Rowe, beat back a misguided criminal prosecution arising out of the mayhem of Hurricane Harvey, teamwork, passion and courtroom acumen made all the difference. As in The State of Texas v. Arkema, Inc., Ms. Quinones has deep experience working closely, in the glare of publicity, with legal colleagues in either a support role or as lead trial lawyer.

Letitia Quinones has practiced criminal law for more than 20 years. Her presence before a jury – her ability to connect with jurors, help them follow the narrative of a defense and to accept the defense theory of the case – sets her apart from her peers.

Ms. Quinones is board-certified in criminal defense by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America and the American Academy of Trial Attorneys. She is deeply committed to her community and believes attorneys have a responsibility to make positive contributions in all walks of life.

She brings unique perspective and diversity in training, perspective and life experience. Long ago, she embraced the need to outwork others with grit and determination and believes, in the practice of law, this is an asset. Finally, she has never lost touch with the experience of the everyday men and women who populate our juries.

To speak to Ms. Quinones or learn more about her and her practice, call 713-481-7420 or Letitia@Quinonesandassociates.com.




Join the Compliance & Ethics Community with SCCE Membership

How will being an SCCE member help you?
As corporate counsel, it is crucial to be informed and get ahead of changes in regulations and compliance for your organization. SCCE membership provides access to educational resources and conferences to stay current and help you grow in your career.

MEMBER BENEFITS INCLUDE

PROFESSIONAL GROWTH + NETWORK
Learn from industry professionals about emerging best practices for effective compliance and ethics programs. Grow your network with like-minded individuals dedicated to serving the profession.

EDUCATION
Receive discounts on educational conferences, web conferences, and products. Our offerings cover a diverse range of topics including: anti-trust, diversity and inclusion, internal investigations, privacy, cybersecurity, liability, and more.

CERTIFICATION
SCCE Members receive exclusive discounts on Compliance Certification Board (CCB)® exams. Demonstrate your expertise by getting certified with CCB: Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional (CCEP),® Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional – International (CCEP-I).®.
Request and earn the CLEs you need as a lawyer to keep up your licensure.

OTHER MEMBER-EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS
– Four free web conferences a year ($396 value)
– Compliance & Ethics Professional (CEP) Magazine ($325 value)




E-Discovery Day is Coming on December 3, 2020

The largest virtual e-discovery event of the year is less than two months away.

Due to COVID, this year’s event will look a little different, but there will be no shortage of e-discovery innovation and fun! We are planning virtual celebration events (think yoga and happy hour), educational webcasts, a virtual expo hall, and loads of other online resources to help you broaden your e-discovery knowledge.
We are excited for this year’s celebration and look forward to having you join us!

Why Attend
All too often, e-discovery professionals operate in the background. Hot-shot litigators argue cases in court. Judges command attention from the bench. Even IT security pros and hackers get occasional headlines when there’s a data breach.

In 2015, we decided that enough was enough. E-Discovery plays a critical—and growing—role in the legal process. After all, the e-discovery industry is expected to reach almost $19 billion per year by 2023, up from more than $10 billion in 2018. To get e-discovery, and the hard-working professionals who make it happen, the attention they deserve, we established E-Discovery Day.

The 6th annual celebration of e-discovery is bigger and better than ever. In 2019, 23 supporting organizations collaborated to host 19 webcasts and 16 live events from California to London and New York to Johannesburg. Participation in E-Discovery Day continues to grow with over 3,000 participants in 2019.

E-Discovery professionals deserve the recognition and opportunities to learn, network, and celebrate all that E-Discovery Day brings. We truly appreciate your participation in this year’s celebration and look forward to connecting with you again next year.

Check out the new e-discovery website




The New Role of General Counsel in Today’s Big Data Privacy Age

Complimentary access to 2020 in-house privacy benchmarking report

Overcoming the economic crisis spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with growing regulatory burdens in 2020 are requiring general counsel to take the reigns and ensure compliance with major data privacy laws.

With responses from representatives of more than 200 small, mid-size, and large businesses, the 2020 In-House Privacy Benchmarking Report is filled with valuable information. You’ll learn:

  • How privacy regulations have affected legal departments so far this year
  • Why legal must ensure privacy compliance
  • Why the need for cross-departmental communication is greater than ever

Download the report.




NAVEX Next – Beyond the Moment

Register for NAVEX Next, our annual risk and compliance virtual conference. Formerly the Ethics & Compliance Virtual Conference (ECVC), the new name recognizes that we must be forward-looking as we face an increasingly complex business, regulatory and social environment. Success will require new ideas and approaches to manage risk and foster ethical workplace cultures.

Our theme this year is: Beyond the Moment. It defines our 2020 agenda and supports sessions that help your organization move past a defensive stance on current events and trends. Our goal this year is to help everyone be proactive and more holistic in their approach to risk and compliance management. The future demands we be prepared, no matter what comes next.

Read through the full agenda and list of speakers.




Exterro 2020 In-House Legal Benchmarking Report

COMPLIMENTARY ACCESS FOR A LIMITED TIME

Amid economic uncertainty, social unrest and a changing workplace environment, it’s more important than ever that in-house attorneys are being proactive by continuously evaluating legal and business practices to ensure defensibility and efficiency.

Just released, download this 2020 In-House Legal Benchmarking Report and get:

  • Data from over 150 in-house attorneys, like yourself, on how their practices have evolved this past year
  • Answers to in-house legal’s 25 most commonly asked questions
  • Insight into how in-house legal departments are becoming more efficient and streamlining costs amid these economic pressures

Access this report now.




Legal Experts are Made at Drexel

As industries become increasingly specialized, you need the relevant knowledge to stay competitive in the job market. Drexel University’s online LLM programs from the Thomas R. Kline School of Law help you gain the expertise you need to establish yourself as a specialist in either cybersecurity and data privacy or health care and pharmaceutical compliance. With the ability to complete the program online on either a full- or part-time basis, Drexel makes earning your degree convenient for you.

LLM in Cyber Law and Data Privacy
With a focus on topics like EU data privacy and internet law, this specialized program will help you fill a knowledge gap that’s needed in the cyber law and data privacy field. You can also tailor elective courses to specific fields such as health care, finance or higher education.

LLM in Health Care and Pharmaceutical Compliance
The health care and pharmaceutical industry is increasingly complicated and ever-changing, and this program prepares you with the insider knowledge you need to successfully navigate the system. You can focus on either Health Care Compliance or Pharmaceutical Compliance or take classes in both areas.

Learn more.




AZA – Our Seven New Lawyers Hired Just Since April

Alex Dvorscak is a commercial litigator with experience handling bankruptcies, class actions, advising distressed companies facing large potential mass tort liabilities and on a variety of other disputes. A graduate of Columbia Law School, he is admitted to the New York bar.

Joshua H. Harris is a commercial litigator whose experience includes executive employment issues, securities and product liability disputes.  A University of Chicago Law School graduate, he was an associate for two years at Simpson Thacher in New York City and is admitted to the New York bar.

Alex R. Hernandez focuses on trials and appeals and has worked on constitutional challenges, environmental, energy, and securities cases. A University of Texas School of Law graduate and former Baker Botts associate, he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.


Steve Jugle focuses on intellectual property litigation with experience in all stages of the litigation. A former Baker Botts associate, he has prosecuted patents involving wireless and telecommunications technologies, petrochemicals, and more.  A Harvard Law graduate, he has inter partes review experience.


Omar Marawi is an electrical engineer and a graduate of the University of Houston Law Center. His focus is intellectual property and analyzing the merits of patent and design infringement suits, aiding in claim construction and patent prosecution. He is not yet licensed to practice law in Texas.


Monica Moussighi focuses on intellectual property matters including patents, trademark, and copyright. An engineer, she received her law degree from University of Houston Law Center. On the Texas Rising Star list, she previously worked at several prestigious national law firms.


Colin B. Phillips focuses on patent litigation, patent licensing and transactions, inter partes reviews, trademark matters, commercial litigation and financial restructuring.  He has a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center and an aerospace engineering degree from Texas A&M University.

Read more here.




E-Signatures White Paper: Beyond Business Continuity

OneSpan has published a white paper titled “Beyond Business Continuity, The New Normal in Remote Banking and Insurance” and made it available for downloading at no charge. (See the download form below.)

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends toward remote banking, digitization, and remote work as the world embraced new technologies and processes to keep our financial institutions, businesses, and society functional. Around the world, people now rely more than ever on digital solutions for interactions and transactions that have traditionally involved a visit to the branch or a face-to-face meeting with an advisor.

In this paper, we explore the top financial processes to digitize with e-signatures and digital identity verification technology – as well as key security considerations to support the rise of the digital-first financial services provider.

The new normal is here, and electronic signatures are key to continued success.

In this white paper, you will learn:

  • Global regulatory responses shaping the new normal
  • The top financial processes to digitize with e-signatures
  • How to determine your organization’s readiness to deploy e-signatures

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6 Proven Steps to Maximize Insights from Your Legal Spend Data

Improving rate management to optimize cost-effectiveness of your legal department operations.

By Kris Satkunas, director of strategic consulting of LexisNexis CounselLink

As businesses of all sizes scramble to cut costs and reformulate budgets during today’s economic uncertainty, corporate legal departments are under immense pressure to smartly manage outside legal spend. In turn, this pressure is prompting inside counsel to examine the rates they pay outside counsel and raising questions about what rates are justified. But to properly determine rates they should pay outside counsel, corporate legal departments must use their enterprise legal management (ELM) systems to mine data, analyze it, and make wise decisions.

How do you optimize ELM data to get the answers to your business questions? Below are six essential steps to take.

Step 1: Choose Your Metrics
Consider the questions you need to answer to choose the best metrics. In this case, the goal is to identify where the greatest opportunities are to negotiate lower rates. What metrics will help you best? I’d suggest three are highly relevant:

• Current year timekeeper billed rates – for obvious reasons. This is the current state.
• Change (increase) in timekeeper rates over the last two years – Firms that have increased rates more significantly are likely ones where there is greater leverage to negotiate. Evaluating the percentage change over a two-year period will help to normalize for firms that may have increased rates by a significantly higher amount in one year, but minimally or not at all in another.
• Two-year hours billed – It’s important to focus analytic efforts on areas likely to yield the greatest results. There may be a partner that bills $2,000/hour, but only is engaged on your matters for a couple of hours per year. Bringing a volume metric into this analysis helps keep the focus on what’s most relevant.

Step 2: Organize Your Data
Legal departments pay widely disparate rates for different types of legal work, e.g. work that is largely commoditized vs. work that is unique or requires specialized legal skills. Therefore, when comparing rates paid to multiple firms, it’s critical to look at comparable types of legal work. Most organizations classify legal work by matter type, which will help with this step of segmentation.

Additionally, it’s worth considering whether particular matters have greater strategic value or a larger potential impact on the organization. You may decide that you’re willing to pay premium rates for this type of work, so you want the ability to filter them in/out of your data set and look at them independently.

Step 3: Filter
The matter segmentation referenced in step 2 is one important way to filter data. Additionally, for a billable rate analysis, it’s going to be important to filter data based on timekeeper title (eg. distinguishing between rates paid to partners versus various levels of associates).

Step 4: Analyze & Visualize
In this stage, you’ll evaluate the data you’ve collected to look for the stories it tells. The analytic process typically starts at a higher, aggregate level and then drills down to lower levels of detail to identify patterns vs. outliers. It can be very helpful to have a business intelligence tool that supports data visualization to perform such analysis.

A bubble chart is a useful type of visualization to show the interrelationship of three metrics. In this example, the X-axis represents the two-year percentage increase in rates, the Y-axis represents the hourly rate billed, and the size of each circle represents the volume of hours billed. At an aggregate level, this analysis might start by comparing law firms. Each circle is plotting the weighted average hourly rate (weighted on hours billed) of partners billing from different firms.

Partner Weighted Average Rates by Firm

Using a chart like this clearly paints the story that the law firm handling the highest volume (the largest bubble) has increased partner rates the most, and bills average rates that are materially higher than the firm handling the second highest level of volume (the mid-sized bubble). This firm may be a good candidate for rate negotiation.

A subsequent natural step would be to drill to the individual timekeeper level where each bubble would represent an individual partner, colored by law firm. Remember, start at the aggregate level for analytic purposes, and gradually peel back the onion to probe more deeply. Starting at a more granular level can lead to losing sight of the big picture.

Step 5: Benchmark
The analysis up until now has been based on a given corporation’s legal data. Bringing in external benchmarks at this stage will enrich the analysis and potentially help to validate the conclusions drawn from internal data. ELMs such as CounselLink incorporate benchmarking modules into their platforms for just this purpose.

When leveraging benchmark data, it is critical to be discerning in the filtering process so that external data is as comparable to your legal work as possible. The two most important filters to apply to benchmark data are matter type and law firm size. These are the most highly correlated attributes to hourly rates. For example, if in Step 2 when you organized your own data, one of your material buckets of legal work was immigration-related employment matters, you want to look at benchmarks of what other companies pay for immigration work, not the broader bucket of employment work. Further, if you are using mid-size, regional firms to handle immigration matters, make sure that’s what your benchmark data represents as well. There is a tendency to gravitate toward geographic filters when benchmarking rates billed by law firm, but size of firm has a greater correlation to rates than does geography.

Step 6: Leverage
Once you have categorized, filtered, and analyzed your data from your ELM, it’s time to leverage the output to answer the original question – “Where are the greatest opportunities to negotiate lower hourly rates?” Rather than taking a scattershot approach, you’re now armed with data to target firms with the greatest savings opportunities.

These six steps will set you well on your way to determining what your legal department should be paying, and which vendors will help you meet your budget goals. Remember, it all starts with the right questions. Your data will give you the answers, it’s just a matter of tapping into your ELM in the smartest way.




Invitation: SCCE’s 19th Annual Compliance & Ethics Institute

The annual Compliance & Ethics Institute (CEI) is our largest event of the year, focusing on providing insights and practical solutions to strengthen your organization’s compliance and ethics program.

This year’s virtual conference provides 100+ educational sessions across all compliance and ethics industries and will provide you with the opportunity to earn a maximum od 23.4 live Compliance Certification Board (CCB)® continuing education units (CEUs) from the convenience of your home or office.

Throughout the 3 days of sessions, you will have the ability to choose from a variety of sessions to attend, some of those included are discussion groups. These are sessions lead by the speaker as well as participants and you will have the opportunity to be on camera and interact in small group discussions. (note preregistration is required and session attendance is limited to 40 people per session.)

Get more information or register.