In the last few months I’ve been involved in a number of roundtable discussions, World Café events, advisory boards, awards and publication launches, all within the in-house world. I’ve enjoyed the interactions, the company, the humour and the conversation. Some of you may even have met me at one or two of these occassions.
Continue reading “What did you do when you weren’t at the office today?”
The compliance stakes are climbing higher and higher for global companies. Over the past few years, French companies in particular have had a wake-up call: three of the ten biggest-ever FCPA fines have been levied on businesses headquartered in the country.
Continue reading “Creating a fun and interesting compliance programme – Pernod Ricard tells us how”
It happens in every private equity deal; private equity firms engage outside legal counsel to conduct extensive pre-acquisition due diligence. The primary result of outside counsel’s hundreds – or even thousands – of hours of legal review is a thorough due diligence report highlighting actual and potential legal risks associated with the target company.
NYU School of Law professor Kenji Yoshino’s Covering makes the impassioned argument that despite the enshrinement of equality in the American justice system, the right of the individual not to have to ‘cover’ or mute aspects of their difference that are perceived as a ‘choice’ remain unprotected to a large degree – in everyday life as well as the courtroom.
Continue reading “GC reads… Covering – The Hidden Assault On Our Civil Rights”
Along the way, RPC has taken on an increasingly international focus, making strategic headway into Asia and beyond, building on its existing membership of international network TerraLex.
The Middle East is never boring. The West has long been fascinated by its geo-strategic importance and abundant oil and gas reserves, and frustrated by its variable codification of commercial laws and (in some cases) capricious political stability.
Nina Macpherson (NM): We are a truly global company and, as such, we do business in more or less every country of the world. In meeting the challenges of a global operation, Ericsson has a code of business ethics based on the UN Global Compact principles, which covers human rights, labour standards, environmental management, anti-corruption and so on.
Once upon a time, in a country far, far away, there was a local tax official. He approached the local manager of a major multinational, offering a reduction in the company’s tax bill in exchange for a bribe. When asked for advice, the general counsel of the multinational forbade the bribe, because to make a payment to the local tax official would be a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Every day at TVN is different. Not a lot of it is spent on practising law, although when that happens, the matters that land on my desk are the most strategic or confidential legal issues. Quite a lot of time is spent on management work with my direct reports. My duties also include monitoring and presenting TVN’s point of view on any legislative initiatives that may impact operations.
Continue reading “In-house life: Marek Szydłowski, TVN Group”
Ten months ago Tim Slotover became the master of his own destiny, creating his own legal services business in the Hedge Fund space. flexGC promises bespoke in-house general counsel services to asset, hedge fund and investment managers on a flexible, as-needed basis. Sound familiar? Continue reading “Flying solo”