FOCUS on WMACCA - May 1, 2008 (Print All Articles)Case Study: Negotiating Lessons From Bringing Baseball Back to Washington
Signature Program on May 6 Will Provide a View From the Back Room
That We All Can Learn From
Negotiating the deal to bring Major League Baseball back to Washington after 33 years was complicated and lengthy and required many different players to say yes. Three of the principal negotiators for the City and the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission (DCSEC) will discuss the key financing, stadium, legal, and political issues that had to be negotiated, the different interest groups involved (MLB, Mayor, Council, DCSEC, CFO, community groups), the negotiating tactics they used, and negotiating lessons they learned (and can share) from this successful venture. Please join us for an entertaining session that will provide you with many practical take-aways. WMACCA is pleased to welcome our distinguished panelists: Bill Hall of Winston & Strawn has served as Baseball Committee Chair of the DCSEC since 1995; Mark Tuohey of Vinson & Elkins served as Chair of the DCSEC from 2003 - 2007; and Bruce Wilson of Covington & Burling handled financing issues as outside counsel to the DCSEC.
The program will be held next Tuesday, May 6, from 12 noon to 2 p.m., at the HIlton McLean Tysons Corner, 7920 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA (703-847-5000). Lunch will be
provided. The program is free of charge. 1.5 hours of Virginia Bar MCLE credit,
pending. To
register, click here.
WMACCA May Program Summary
Executive Comp; New to In-House; IT/IP and Outsourcing; International Government Subcontracting; Contracts for Non-Profits; Corporate Secretary 101, and Employment Law in a Softening Economy Here is the line-up for the month of May - all programs are now open for registration:
Details:
What Every In-House Counsel Needs to Know About Executive Compensation, presented by James F. Reda, Founder and Managing Director, James F. Reda & Associates, LLC; Roger W. Raber, Senior Advisor and Former President and CEO, National Association of Corporate Directors; Carol Bowie, leader of the Governance Institute for RiskMetrics Group's ISS Governance Services unit; and James E. Williams, VP, General Counsel & Secretary, Liquidity Services, Inc, on Wednesday, May 7, from 8 to 9 :30 a.m., at the Tysons Corner Marriott, Vienna, VA.
WMACCA Career Development Forum: Tips for Success - How New (or Somewhat New) Corporate Counsel Can Hit the Ground Running, presented by Adam P. Palmer, Law & Policy Counsel, Public Interest Registry; Andrew J. Olek, Counsel, Director, Blackboard Inc.; and Ona Alston Dosunmu, General Counsel, The Brookings Institution, on Tuesday, May 13, from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m., at the offices of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC in Tysons Corner, VA.
WMACCA IT/IP Forum: Mitigating Outsourcing Costs - Handling Disagreements and Disputes, presented by Bruce F. Metge of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC, and Michael C. Bisignano, VP and General Counsel of Online Resources Corporation, on Wednesday, May 14, from 12 noon to 2 p.m., at Maggiano's Little Italy in McLean, VA.
WMACCA Employment and Labor Forum: 2008 WMACCA Employment Conference, presented by attorneys from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, with a keynote address by Ronald S. Cooper, General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on Thursday, May 15, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Tysons Corner Marriott in Vienna, VA. Fee: $75 for WMACCA/ACC members; $100 for non-members who are in-house counsel or other non-lawyer colleagues in your organization. 3.0 hours Virginia Bar MCLE credit, pending. For all the details, please see the separate story in this e-newsletter. You can register by clicking here.
WMACCA Government Contractors and Global Issues Forums: International Government Subcontracting - Contract Terms and Origin Restrictions, presented by Alan W.H. Gourley, David C. Hammond and Robert Nichols of Crowell & Moring LLP, on Wednesday, May 21, from 12 noon to 2 p.m., at Maggiano's Little Italy in McLean, VA.
WMACCA Non-Profits and Associations Forum: Yikes! You Want That Contract Reviewed and Signed by When?,
presented by Jefferson C. Glassie and Audra J. Heagney of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, on Thursday, May 22, from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.,
at the offices of Pillsbury WInthrop Shaw Pittman in Washington D.C., and by Web seminar technology. In-house counsel for associations and nonprofit organizations are required to review all kinds of contracts, and often on an "ASAP" basis. Using sample contracts, this program will show you how to focus on the key elements when you are under the gun, and will demonstrate how to understand the unique features of typical contracts entered into by nonprofit organizations. Free of charge - a light lunch will be provided. The program will be held LIVE at the offices of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, 2300 N Street NW (main floor), Washington, D.C. (202-663-8000) and will be available by Web seminar technology from your desk. 1.0 hours Virginia Bar MCLE credit, pending. To register, click here. Not Just A Scrivener: The Role of the Corporate Secretary in Governance Today, presented by Michael Beverly of LandAmerica Financial Group; Luther "Luke" Kissam of Albemarle Corporation, Mollie Roy of Freddie Mac, and Dave Meyers of Troutman Sanders LLP, and moderated by George Massih of Corporation Service Company, on Thursday, May 22, from 5 to 8 p.m. (see schedule details in description, below), at the offices of Troutman Sanders LLP in Richmond, VA, and by Web seminar technology. A reprise of the very successful program we held in February: In the post-SOX world, the Corporate Secretary of an organization is more important than ever, with responsibility for helping to ensure that the management team and the Board prudently exercise their fiduciary duties in managing the affairs of the organization. Corporate Secretaries are often at the center of the most important issues confronting the organization and may also be privy to its most difficult challenges. It is therefore critically important that an organization's directors, management, and employees in the office of Corporate Secretary clearly understand the role and functions of the Secretary and have good procedures in place. Whether you are a director, a corporate secretary, General Counsel, or otherwise interested in good governance, our panelists will offer multiple perspectives (from large public companies, a large private company, and a non-profit organization) on the important roles that the Corporate Secretary plays in the boardroom. For directors, these perspectives may suggest alternatives that would be beneficial to your companies and boards about how to most effectively use your corporate secretary. For those in the office of the Corporate Secretary, we will provide an essential "101" on this important role, and many good resource materials to help you do the job better. We also will discuss the very significant issue of how the Corporate Secretary and the Legal Department should interact - and what the implications are when in-house lawyers do double-duty as Corporate Secretary. Members of the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals are invited to join us. SCHEDULE: Registration/arrival - 5 to 5:30 p.m.; Program - 5:30 to 7 p.m., Informal networking reception (on-site) - 7 to 8 p.m. Free of charge. 1.5 hours of Virginia Bar MCLE credit, pending. The program will be held at the offices of Troutman Sanders LLP, 1001 Haxall Point, Richmond, VA (804-697-1200) and will be available by Web seminar technology. To register, click here.
Navigating Employment Law in a Softening Economy, presented by Ira M. Shepard, Paul M. Heylman and Anessa Abrams of Saul Ewing LLP, on Thursday, May 29, from 8 to 9:30 a.m., at the Tysons Corner Marriott, Vienna, VA.
2008 WMACCA Employment Law Conference Coming on May 15
Annual round-up will feature keynote by Ronald Cooper, GC of the EEOC
Registration is now open for WMACCA's annual Employment Conference on May 15. This annual conference provides an insightful survey of major issues in the employment and labor law arena. This year's conference, presented by Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, will feature a keynote address by Ronald S. Cooper, General Counsel of the EEOC. The Conference will feature four sessions. The content and level of the Conference will be appropriate for in-house generalists and employment specialists, as well as your human resources or operations colleagues. This year's sessions are:
We are very pleased to have Ronald S. Cooper, General Counsel of the EEOC, join us as the keynote speaker at the lunch that follows these sessions. Mr. Cooper was sworn in as General Counsel in August 2006. He came to the EEOC from private practice with Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he specialized in employment litigation for more than 30 years. Breakfast and registration open at 8 a.m., with the four 45-minute sessions starting at 8:30 a.m. Lunch will begin at 12 noon and the conference will conclude at 1:30 p.m. The Conference will be held at the Tysons Corner Marriott, 8028 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA The Conference costs $75 for WMACCA/ACC members and $100 for non-members. Your colleagues in human resources, operations, etc. are welcome to attend. 3.0 hours of Virginia Bar MCLE credit, pending. Please click here to register.
When Duty Calls - Helping Veterans File Disability Claims
Registration for this Pro Bono activity is now open; Training on 5/16, Clinic on 5/20
The Greater Washington, D.C. area serves over 400,000 veterans, many of whom have suffered combat-related injuries or other service-connected disabilities, and are in need of legal assistance in submitting veteran disability claims. Our friends at Womble Carlyle have developed When Duty Calls for the purpose of beginning to meet this need by providing a Washington, D.C.- area resource dedicated exclusively to assisting veterans who wish to file or re-file initial disability claims. WMACCA is pleased to partner with Womble Carlyle on this very important project to provide support for area military veterans. This is the inaugural project of our pro bono initiative in 2008. The project will begin on Friday, May 16, from 9 a.m. until 12 noon, with a three-hour training session, conducted by select attorney experts in this area, through the Womble Carlyle law firm. You can attend the training at the offices of Womble Carlyle in either Washington, D.C, or Northern Virginia, or participate by web seminar.
Then, on Tuesday, May 20, Womble Carlyle will conduct a free clinic for veterans seeking help. Volunteers will have one-hour meetings with each of two clients to help them through the initial stages of disability claims filed with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The clinic will be conducted at Womble Carlyle's Washington, D.C. office, located at 1401 Eye Street NW, Washington, D.C. The clinic hours will be between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (with exact hours to be determined based on how many veterans request assistance). Registration for this activity is now open. Please cick here to access the online registration. For more information, contact Bob Gans, WMACCA VP - External Relations and Chair of the Community Service and Pro Bono Initiative by clicking here. (If the link does not work, you can e-mail Bob directly at rgans@csc.com)
Mary Kennard to be Honored by the Women's Bar Association
CLO of American University, and Former WMACCA President, will receive Woman Lawyer of the Year award at WBA's annual dinner on May
15
WMACCA congratulates Mary E. Kennard, Vice President and General Counsel of the American University, on her selection as the Woman Lawyer of the year by the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia and the Women's Bar Association Foundation.
As CLO at American, Mary advises the university in a wide variety of areas -- employment, security, constitutional rights, intellectual property, gifts and estates, funding, taxation, litigation, general contracts and torts, and many others. She also teaches higher education law in American University’s Washington College of Law and has lectured on that topic at national conferences.
As we in WMACCA know, Mary has contributed her time extensively to volunteer and Bar activity. She just completed a one-year term as the President of WMACCA. She has also been the First Vice President of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. Opportunities for Well-Deserved Recognition
WMACCA urges members to apply for awards
You have seen a myriad of lists of the "best" lawyers - but how often are in-house counsel on those lists? And don't we belong there? As part of WMACCA's efforts to increase the visibility of the in-house bar, we are amassing a database of awards/honors that will publicize to our members. We urge you to follow up on these opportunities to get recognition for individual lawyers or your entire department. If you need guidance on how to apply for such awards, please contact Ilene Reid by clicking here.
Coming up in the next several weeks: The Bar Association of the District of Columbia Constance L. Belfior Eleventh Annual Quality of Life Award - Nominations due May 2.
Legal Times - Leading Lawyers in Government Affairs - Nominations due May 27. National Asian Pacific American Bar Association - Best Lawyers Under 40 Award - Nominations Open on June 1 The purpose of NAPABA’s “Best Lawyers Under 40” award is to recognize talented individuals within the Asian Pacific American legal community under the age of 40 who have achieved prominence and distinction in their fields of endeavor—be it the practice of law, academia, business, civic and charitable affairs, the judiciary, or politics—and have demonstrated a strong commitment to civic or community affairs. For more information on the award, please click here. 2008 Directory Update
We hope you have received your copy of the WMACCA 2008 Directory. If you have not, please e-mail Ilene Reid by clicking here and she will send you a copy. Unfortunately, when we compiled the data for the Directory, there was a production error that led to the omission of many of our members from the alphabetical listings in the book (although their names appear in the listings by organization at the back of the Directory). You should have recently received a supplement that includes those members whose individual listings were omitted from the main directory. We regret the error. You can download the April update of the 2008 Directory by clicking here. (A May update will be produced by the middle of the month.) We strongly recommend that you print out these updates and save them in the pocket at the back of your directory. If you have a correction or update to your listing, please send it to Ilene Reid by clicking here.
In House... In the Community - Upcoming Opportunities to Participate with Team WMACCA
Answer the Call of Duty; Run or Walk in the Lawyers Have Heart; Small Business Brief Advice Clinic (DC Bar pro bono); Habitat for Humanity; Street Law
Here is a quick summary of some community service and pro bono activities that WMACCA thinks you might want to participate in: Please see the separate article in this e-newsletter for information on the When Duty Calls pro bono project - training on May 16, and clinic on May 20. Or click here to register to participate.
WMACCA is again pleased to sponsor and participate in the American
Heart Association Lawyers Have Heart 10k and Fun Walk, on Saturday,
June 14.This annual event raises funds for research and the
community education programs of the Greater Washington Region affiliate
of the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association. The Run starts at 8 a.m. and the fun walk
begins at 8:05 a.m. The event begins at the Washington Harbour at
Georgetown, located at 3000 K Street, NW, Washington, DC. For more information on the event, please see the event Web site by clicking here. Online
registration is open now and costs $30 per participant. Click here for online registration.
Online registration closes on June 10. When you register online, you
should register as a member of a team and select "Team WMACCA" from the
pull-down list. Our team leader is Stephen Dwyer, WMACCA VP -
Programming. For more information, you can contact Stephen by clicking here (if the link does not work, please e-mail him directly at
sdwyer@americanstaffing.net). The DC Bar Pro Bono Program is looking for volunteer attorneys to staff the Small Business Brief Advice Legal Clinic on three upcoming dates - May 21; June 19; and July 17 - when the Community Economic Development Project will sponsor four walk-in legal clinics to community-based entrepreneurs with general legal questions about their aspiring and existing small businesses. This is a brief advice and referral clinic. Volunteers are not expected to provide ongoing representation. For more details or to sign up, please click here for the program flier. This summer, we will also be working with Habitat for Humanity to gather a group of 20+ volunteers to help with a new build in the Northern Virginia area. T-shirts, Hard hats and immense satisfaction will be provided. More information to come. "News of Note" - Raising the Profile of the In-House Bar
WMACCA PR Initiative is creating opportunities for in-house counsel to get recognition for accomplishments, expertise
Each day, in-house counsel are on the front lines in managing and handling the issues and deals that are of the highest priority to the companies and organizations that employ them. Sometimes, the matters that they handle are sensitive, and the goal is to avoid public scrutiny and media attention. However, oftentimes the work they are doing is deserving of recognition and kudos - but we never hear about it. WMACCA wants to change that state of affairs. And we need your assistance. We will act as a conduit to get information about developments of note to the local media (including The Legal Times, the Washington Business Journal, the Washington Post business section, Bisnow on Business, Metropolitan Corporate Counsel magazine, the Washington Lawyer, and others). Each month, we will gather the submissions we receive (on or before the 15th of the month), and submit them to those media outlets. The topics we are looking for include:
We will send the write-ups we prepare to you for review and approval prior to submitting them to the news organizations. Please submit the information to Ilene G. Reid, WMACCA Executive Director, by clicking here.
Are you a good writer? We also are looking to develop a pool of writers who would be willing to develop articles – on a substantive area of law, on a practice-management technique that has been particularly valuable, or any other subject that you want to share with your colleagues. This is yet another way to demonstrate the expertise that in-house counsel have. WMACCA members are encouraged to write for American Lawyer Media’s “Law.com” in-house counsel site and for the Legal Times’ monthly Corporate Counsel section. We can help you find a co-author, discuss topics, and provide other support. If you are interested, please contact Adam Palmer, Law & Policy Counsel at Public Interest Registry, who is co-chairing the WMACCA public relations initiative: 703-464-7005 ext. 110 or by e-mail, or Ilene Reid, WMACCA Executive Director, at 301-881-3018 or by e-mail. There also are several wonderful opportunities to share your insights via ACC resources. The ACC Docket – the Association of Corporate Counsel’s top-notch journal – is always looking for contributors. In addition, there are many opportunities to develop InfoPaks for your colleagues or submit forms for the Virtual Library. Thank you, in advance, for your assistance with this important initiative.
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