Since the turn of the millennium, Africa has been a hotbed for foreign investment activity. As China’s ‘Go Out’ investment policy hit full stride and western investors sought new, potential high-return ventures in which to place their capital, the prominence of Africa as an investment destination has burgeoned.
Continue reading “The changing talent economy in sub-saharan Africa”
GC Magazine was excited to host the second in its cutting-edge events series, Trailblazers, in Zurich on 8 June 2016. Once again, we were working with Tom Sager, the innovative former general counsel of DuPont.
So you keep hearing from people like us that you need to function more like a leader in your legal role. The problem is, you’re too busy dealing with all the other requirements that your role keeps throwing at you, to even get a moment to think about how to develop like a leader. Continue reading “Act like a leader, think like a leader”
James Ratcliffe has a curious job – one in which art, argument and puzzle-solving come together across global jurisdictions to meet at the crux of the international luxury art market. Ratcliffe, who has a background in archaeology and commercial litigation, is general counsel and director of recovery at the Art Loss Register (ALR), a London-based private company that holds the world’s largest private database of lost and stolen art. Mired in criminality, old money, loss and recovery, this is a job made for the movies. Continue reading “In-house life: James Ratcliffe, art loss register”
Since the advent of the global financial crisis back in 2008, the emphasis in Europe has been on repairing those economies worst hit. During this period, some states have felt the impact of the economic crisis worse than others and the priority for those has been initiating reforms designed to stimulate their domestic economies, while putting the single market back on the path to prosperity.
The launch of GC Magazine’s first special report publication, focused on diversity and inclusion in the UK in-house community, drew an impressive roster of attendees. The report is part of a range of initiatives undertaken by GC Magazine and The Legal 500 in regards to diversity and inclusion in the legal community globally. The UK report will be followed by a US-focused report and a Europe-focused one, as well as multiple events. The reports and the events will have a dual focus on the strategic rationales for diversity and inclusion in business and law, and the practical steps needed to successfully implement initiatives – essentially both a top-down and bottom-up approach. Continue reading “GC Diversity and Inclusion Report UK Launch”
Crisis management as a theme cuts across a number of different issues that are supremely important to today’s general counsel – and in today’s 21st century business landscape, it seems more often than not that it’s a matter of when, not if, that seemingly inevitable crisis hits.
Continue reading “The GC’s role in preparing for the (inevitable) crisis”
Working at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) wouldn’t suit every lawyer. If you yearn for walls spotted by Damien Hirst, encrusted with crackly oils of senior partners from days of yore or plastered with impassioned corporate values, you’d be disappointed. Desks groaning with gonks, or festooned with file boxes or framed pictures of you losing your lunch on the Corkscrew? Colour, of any kind? Ha, you wish. The overall effect is a little, er, Spartan.
A fundamental principle for multi-national companies is compliance with the law of all nations where they do business. But a recurrent dilemma is what to do when a corporation’s global ethical standards (‘oppose censorship’ for a global media company) collides with national law (China’s extensive state censorship). As companies globalize and nations regulate ever more, this vexatious problem is not esoteric, but recurring. Most companies make voluntary decisions to adopt ethical standards beyond what formal legal and financial rules mandate. A decision that a company’s global ethical standards conflict with national law raises a range of options: obey the law; be civilly disobedient (a very uncomfortable, often untenable, position for global companies dedicated to rule of law); try to change the law; or stop doing business in that nation. Continue reading “The conflict between a corporation’s global standards and national law”
Gregory Bopp – Managing partner, Bracewell LLP
David DeVeau – General counsel, Kinder Morgan Inc.
Jeffrey Kaplan – General counsel, LyondellBasell
Susan Lindberg – General counsel, Eni US Operating Co.
Inc. and head of the Americas Region legal department of Italian-based Eni SpA
Catherine McGregor – GC Magazine