Is a sales person closing deals worth ‘ten million’ doing a good job? At first glance, it’s impossible to tell. The first thing you need to find out is: what currency? A ten million deal in pounds sterling is better than a ten million deal in US dollars, but the latter is still a decent size. Continue reading “Best practice or not best practice? That is the question”
GC: Obviously the Snowden story was a huge scoop for The Guardian. How did you first hear about it, and what were your initial thoughts?
Gill Phillips (GP): I was actually in Australia as we were in the process of opening our office there. I got a cryptic phone call from Alan Rusbridger [then unieditor-in-chief] one night saying, ‘I can’t really talk about this as using the phone might be unreliable. Could you put me in touch with a US national security lawyer?’ I began to think, ‘Ok, something is going on,’ but I gave him a few names.
Continue reading “The legal pathway to the story of the century”
A cyber attacker could be anyone. A disgruntled employee with access to data, a ‘hacktivist’ with a social or political axe to grind, an organised criminal seeking profit, or a nation state with a cyber army primed for sophisticated cyberespionage missions. They could be anywhere, silently gathering data before slipping out undetected, or hiding in a gap in the supply chain, waiting to shut down the organisation’s service. Terminology such as ‘phishing’, ‘social engineering’ and ‘advanced persistent threat’ has invaded the lexicon of the modern corporation.
Switzerland’s longstanding neutrality and geographical position in central Europe have given it the political stability and platform to become one of the world’s wealthiest (and most high-cost) countries. It has reaped the benefits of its rich combination of exports and inflow of skilled workers from neighbouring countries. Andreas Bohrer, group general counsel at biotech company Lonza, advises GCs considering a move to the country to understand its uniqueness: ‘Get to understand the people that are working here in the Swiss market and also the consumers. It’s important to understand that Switzerland, even though it is in the middle of Europe, has some aspects and features that are fundamentally different.’
There are many talented assistant, associate and deputy general counsel. With limited general counsel or CLO roles, what is the secret to advancing to the top? While the answer is partly ‘it depends’ (we are lawyers, after all), there are common attributes of successful GCs. By deconstructing these qualities, we discern a framework that aspiring C-suite lawyers can leverage to position themselves more strategically to obtain the top role, and excel once there. Tomorrow’s general counsel are proactively preparing themselves for success today. Continue reading “Moving from counsel to general counsel”
Tom Sager began his career with DuPont as an attorney in the labour, benefits and corporate security group and spent more than a decade as chief litigation counsel, before being named senior vice president and general counsel in 2008. During his tenure, he oversaw significant litigation involving governmental investigations, product liability, environmental, toxic tort, labour and employment, securities, antitrust, and tax. Continue reading “The inside counsel redefined”
Within a generation, Ireland has experienced two extremes of economic fortune. ‘The Celtic Tiger’ (a term referring to unprecedented and uninterrupted growth from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s) sickened before 2008, when Ireland faced a deep economic crisis after the property bubble – which the growth was predicated on – burst and consumer spending collapsed.
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.