The Business Law Section offers its members endless opportunities for personal and professional growth, regardless of their involvement level with any particular Committee of the Section. These opportunities include free access to topical webinars – including the In The Know CLE web series and the Section’s newest offering, Business Law Basics web-based CLE programs – and practice-specific Committee newsletters.
Business Law Basics CLE Web Series
Business Law Basics is a new program featuring monthly web-based CLE programs presented by various Committees within the Business Law Section that are designed to cover the key fundamentals of substantive practice areas. As with In The Know webinars, Business Law Section members earn free business law CLE by attending Business Law Basics webinars. The Business Law Basics Subcommittee (of the Membership Committee), chaired by James C. Schulwolf, coordinates the Business Law Basics programs.
The inaugural Business Law Basics webinar is:
Online Privacy & Data Security Soup to Nuts: A Primer and Update on Important Developments for the Business Lawyer
Date: May 28, 2015, 1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m. Eastern
Presented by: Cyberspace Law Committee
This program will provide an overview of the most important U.S. federal privacy and data security laws and regulations, discuss similar laws and regulations in various states and outside the United States (principally, the EU privacy directive and related laws and regulations), and suggest best practices that will serve as a basic framework for addressing client data security and privacy protection issues. The panelists on this program are Jonathan Rubens (Moderator), Javid Rubens LLP, San Francisco, CA; Lisa Lifschitz, Torkin Manes LLP, Toronto, ON; Theodore F. Claypoole, Womble Carlyle, Charlotte, NC; and Richard Balough, Balough Law Offices LLC, Chicago, IL.
Register for the free May Business Law Basics webinar here.
In The Know CLE Web Series
In The Know is a series of monthly web-based CLE programs presented by various Committees within the Business Law Section that explore timely issues and feature industry experts from across the country. The In The Know Subcommittee (of the Membership Committee), chaired by Therese G. Franzen, coordinates the In The Know programs.
Upcoming In The Know Program
How is the Supreme Court Messing Around with Third-Party Legal Opinions?
Date: June 18, 2015, 1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m. Eastern
Presented by: Legal Opinions Committee
The speakers for this program will be Steve Weise and Don Glazer.
Registration for this program will be open (and more details about the program will be available) soon at the In The Know website.
Previous In The Know Programs
The materials and audio for each of the past In The Know webinars are available through the Section’s In The Know archive website. These programs continue to qualify for CLE treatment in jurisdictions in which self-study is permitted.
The In The Know webinars offered thus far in 2015 are described briefly below.
May 2015: When Law Enforcement Comes Knocking: Legal and Practical Considerations, presented by the White Collar Crime Committee. This webinar is moderated by David M. Rosenfield, with speakers Anthony J. Bosco, Joseph Paul Dooley, Sabina Clorfeine, and Shevon L. Scarafile. (This program was presented on May 21, 2015, and the materials and audio will be posted soon on the In The Know website.)
April 2015: Captive Insurance Best Practices and the Defense of IRS Attacks, presented by the Captive Insurance Committee, moderated by David Slenn, and featuring panelists Jay D. Adkisson, Charles J. Lavelle, and Steven T. Miller.
March 2015: Corporate Governance: Hot Button Issues for Board Advisors, presented by the Corporate Governance Committee and moderated by Gregory A. Markel. Panelists include H. Rodgin Cohen, Holly J. Gregory, David A. Katz, and Lynn A. Stout.
March 2015: Meet the Regulators, presented by the Consumer Financial Services Committee and moderated by Julie Caggiano. Panelists representing various U.S. federal regulators include Chuck Cross, Reilly Dolan, Ducie Le, Donna Murphy, and Christopher J. Young.
February 2015: Facing the Challenges of Social Media Compliance in Corporations, presented by the Corporate Compliance Committee, and moderated by Agnes Bundy Scanlon. The speakers include Jonathan P. Fowler, Barbara Johnson, Hope Mehlman, Grady B. Murdock, Jr., and Peter Ohr.
Recent Committee Newsletters
Several Committees have recently published newsletters. Some highlights from a few of the newsletters, and a link to each, are described below.
Cyberspace Law Committee – The April 2015 issue of the Committee’s newsletter highlights the Committee’s CLE programs, business meetings, and social events at the Section Spring Meeting last month (including a planned hike in the redwoods in Marin County and dinner in Sausalito for Committee members who arrived the day before the Spring Meeting began). The newsletter also announces the Committee’s search for authors to write segments for the annual “Survey of the Law of Cyberspace,” which appears each year in The Business Lawyer, the Section’s law review publication. The Survey’s editor, John Rothchild, welcomes both new and returning authors and invites them to view the list of potential topics on the Committee’s website.
The newsletter notes that the Committee’s Identity Management Legal Task Force is co-sponsoring a public meeting with the U.S. Department of State and the Georgetown University Law Center on Transnational Business and the Law on the subject of identity management and related trust services. The meeting will take place from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. ET on May 29, 2015, at the Georgetown University Law Center. Those wishing to attend the meeting must email PIL@state.gov and provide their full name, affiliation, and e-mail address to register for the meeting.
In addition, this issue of the newsletter includes an article by David Satola discussing the social and economic impacts of the net neutrality discussion.
The Cyberspace Law Committee’s newsletter can be found here.
Director and Officer Liability Committee – In addition to highlighting programs and meetings at the Section Spring Meeting, the Director and Officer Liability Committee’s April 2015 newsletter includes a number of articles. Bradley J. Bondi wrote “What Directors Need to Know: SEC Broadening D&O Liability for Securities Fraud,” in which he explores the ramifications for directors and officers who may have reviewed or assisted in the preparation of the disclosure at issue in SEC fraud allegations but were not the “makers” of the disclosure. In an article titled “Crowdfunding and the JOBS Act – It Seemed So Simple!,” Daniel R. Formeller writes that the predictions that the act would simplify the process of getting from start-up to an initial public offering have not become a reality. Finally, Kevin LaCroix writes in “The Top Ten D&O Stories of 2014” about the significant changes in the D&O liability environment that occurred last year and their implications for 2015 and beyond.
The Director and Officer Liability Committee’s newsletter can be found here.
Diversity and Inclusion Committee – The April 2015 issue of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s newsletter congratulates the law students who will serve in diversity clerkships this year. In its seventh year, the Diversity Clerkship Program places nine outstanding diverse law students with business court judges across the country to participate in an eight-week program. Participants for the 2015 program are:
- Anita Alexander, Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law, Carlisle, PA
- Kwesi Atta-Krah, The University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa City, IA
- Alton Bradley, University of Illinois College of Law, Urbana, IL
- Jeffrey Dorough-Lewis, Barry University–Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law, Orlando, FL
- Daniel Knudsen, University of Montana School of Law, Polson, MT
- Amanda Reasoner, University of South Carolina School of Law, Columbia, SC
- Waleed Ahmed, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
- Samantha Hsieh, The George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC
- Peggy Liu, DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, IL
The newsletter also highlights the activities sponsored by the Committee at the Section Spring Meeting, including the inaugural showing of the video “Kicking Glass: Two Decades Later,” produced by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association. The video includes interviews of older APA women attorneys (who were first interviewed by that association in 1995) and younger APA women attorneys, discussing the hurdles each has faced, the successes they have achieved, the challenges that remain for APA women attorneys, and real-world solutions to meet those challenges.
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s newsletter features an article by Jason Goitia, Chair of the Committee’s Lawyers with Disabilities Involvement Subcommittee, titled “Using Respectful Language When Talking About Disability,” in which he offers a few guidelines to use when discussing disability. Jason encourages us to focus on the person, not their disability, provides the preferred terminology for different types of disabilities, and reminds us that the creative and innovative strategies people with disabilities use to accomplish their goals are the same strategies that many lawyers without disabilities use to maximize their own performance.
In addition, the newsletter includes an interview with Anat Maytal, one of the Section’s Diplomats, who describes the challenges of having a hearing disability and her experiences as an undergraduate at Harvard, a law student at Boston University School of Law, and a litigator. The Business Law Section Diplomats program, administered by the Leadership Diversity Outreach Committee, provides a springboard for lawyers with disabilities into the leadership of the Business Law Section. For information about applying to become a Business Law Section Diplomat, click here.