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Corporate Social Responsibility: A Fundamental Business Thought Process
Insights from Hilary Krane, Chief Legal Officer for Levi Strauss & Co.
“Any successful corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign has to be embedded in the business throughout the organization. For CSR to be most effective, an organization should take its CSR objectives and fundamentally build them into strategic planning so that everyone considers business decisions through the lens of corporate social responsibility,” explains Hilary Krane, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&CO.) Krane shares that LS&CO. is very fortunate because the company started ahead of the game: the company’s founder, Levi Strauss, was a philanthropist who cared deeply about citizenship, and the company is still owned by the founder’s direct descendents, who also embrace and value corporate citizenship as a fundamental objective. To continue reading, click here.
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If You Lead, Will They Follow? ACC’s Executive Leadership Institute Will Help to Lead the Way
If you manage attorneys, you know that being a good lawyer does not necessarily mean you have the ability to lead others. ACC’s Executive Leadership Institute (ELI) will provide you with skills, such as leadership styles, motivation, strategic planning, providing positive feedback, managing lawyer personality types, and several more. ELI covers them all and in an in-house context. To join us in San Francisco on September 15-17, apply today at www.acc.com/leadership.
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Protesting of the New FAS 5 Proposals
ACC Files Comments on New FAS 5 Proposals (Financial Disclosure Requirements)
ACC filed comments with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) protesting proposed changes to the FAS 5 financial loss contingency disclosure rules. The proposed rule, if adopted, will force companies to disclose privileged information and legal work product that could negatively impact their liability, litigation strategies and defense rights. Nearly 100 companies co-signed ACC’s letter, and to date, more than 200 comment letters protesting the proposals were filed with the FASB. Visit the ACC Privilege Protection page to read ACC's comments and a selection of comments from other organizations. Also, read ACC’s Top Ten Reasons Corporate Counsel Should be on Alert to the FAS 5 Proposals at http://www.acc.com/protected/docs/fasb-prop-amen.pdf.
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ACC Defends Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege in Former Tyco Executives Case
On August 15, by opposing an attempt by former Tyco executives to obtain attorney work product, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) filed a friend of the court brief in New York v. Kozlowski and Schwartz, in the New York Court of Appeals (NY Co. Clerk’s Indictment No. 5259/02). ACC asserted that Tyco’s former executives seek to rewrite longstanding privilege law by suggesting that – as former leaders of the company – they have rights to attorney work product from the privileged investigation the company made into their errant behaviors. For more on this developing story and to read the brief in its entirety, please visit the ACC Privilege Protection page.
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ABA House Passes Model In-House Counsel Registration Guidance for States
This month, at the American Bar Association (ABA) Annual Meeting in New York, NY the ABA House passed a new ABA model that offers a template for states interested in adopting an in-house counsel registration rule to implement any MJP rules it adopted to allow for in-house counsel, licensed and in good standing, to practice in the state without a local license. Under the provisions of ABA Model Rule section 5.5(d), in-house counsel who are licensed and in good standing in one jurisdiction are authorized to engage in “permanent” practice for their employer-clients when they move to a new job in another jurisdiction in which they are not licensed. A number of states adopting the rule have coupled it with a registration system that allows the state to keep track of these in-house lawyers and usually collect payment from them comparable to local members’ bar dues. Unfortunately, many of the registration systems adopted were complicated.
An ABA group was formed to propose a model in-house registration system to provide some level of consistency and to suggest best practices. ACC and other groups submitted several rounds of suggestions, and with further improvements suggested late in the debate by former ACC board member Paula Boggs, CLO of Starbucks, the new model was adopted by the ABA House at the ABA Annual Meeting. Read the ABA’s new guidance language (not yet posted by the ABA, and subject to final verification), and ACC’s comment letters at the ACC Multijurisdictional Practice page. • ACC's Fall 2007 comment letter to ABA
• ACC's Summer 2008 comment letter to ABA
• ABA Model In-House Counsel Registration Rules
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Balancing the Prospects of a new “McNulty Memo” with a Continued Demand for Privilege Legislation
Last month, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip was crafting new U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) guidelines that would replace the McNulty Memo and offer "real, significant proposed changes.” The DOJ’s McNulty Memo, like its predecessors, the Holder and Thompson Memos, have been criticized for including privilege waiver, amongst other inappropriate terms, in the DOJ’s list of criteria for cooperation in the event of an investigation into corporate wrongdoing. Deputy Attorney General Filip issued a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee leadership that offered an executive summary of the memo that is still to come, angering Senator Specter, who called for the DOJ to stop stalling and for the mark-up and passage of The Attorney Client Privilege Protection Act of 2008. And yet, the outlined terms of the proposed memo are moving in the right direction. As always, the proof will be in the pudding, so watch the ACC site for info on the publication of the new DOJ Memo, promised by DOJ to be offered by the end of August. To read the Deputy Attorney General’s letter and Senator Specter’s response, visit the ACC Privilege Protection page.
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ACC's 2008 Annual Meeting - Program Descriptions Now Available
Program materials for ACC’s 2008 Annual Meeting, “Informed. In-house. Indispensable.” (October 19-22; Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle, WA) are now available at http://am.acc.com. Register today for the opportunity to learn, network and explore the depth of programs and wide-range of in-house expertise at ACC’s Annual Meeting.
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ACC’s CLO Club
On Tuesday, October 21, please join us for the signature ACC CLO Club sessions during ACC’s 2008 Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center. Hosted by Brad Smith, Microsoft’s CLO, and Laura Stein, ACC’s Board Chair and CLO of The Clorox Company, this year’s ACC CLO Club sessions will focus on Pro Bono, Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility.
Open only to CLOs, ACC’s CLO Club is a sophisticated networking forum that hosts peer-to-peer discussion groups targeted to the unique executive practice, management, and benchmarking needs of chief legal officers. Session format includes executive roundtable discussions and large group information sharing. This year’s topics are:
• CLO1: Law Department Pro Bono and Diversity Strategies that Work
This session will deal with general counsel, whether their law department is large or small, being pro bono and diversity leaders: enhancing the company’s commitment to socially responsible behavior, serving the profession’s highest goals, and increasing performance and job satisfaction for corporate counsel.
• CLO2: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)- The Law Department’s Role
This session will explore how general counsel can support the company’s CSR initiatives, setting and communicating the tone-at-the-top, as well as facilitating practical implementation of CSR initiatives that benefit the company’s image and bottom line.
View additional information from ACC’s 2008 Annual Meeting program schedule and registration guide.
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