Despite the popularity of law-focused television shows and films, not all lawyers live for the opportunity to argue a case before a judge and jury. In fact, most lawyers, especially those of us employed in-house, work hard to keep our clients — our organizations, including company executives — out of the courtroom and the headlines. We spend many hours keeping up with the often-changing global regulatory environment and making sure our policies and procedures are compliant and meet industry best practices. That said, and despite our best intentions, litigation happens. It’s a good thing you’re a member of ACC, and it’s even better that you happen to be reading this issue of the Docket.
According to the ACC Chief Legal Officers 2018 Survey, the average number of litigation matters handled last year was 45.15, with larger departments handling the highest number. While litigation volume obviously varies across industries and jurisdictions, managing disputes that make their way to litigation will likely become a part of our jobs one day — even if we didn’t go to law school to yell “I object!” in a courtroom.
ACC is here to help. Focused on Litigation Management, this issue’s cover story offers solutions for putting in place a management process to address cross-border disputes that are becoming increasingly common. Another article offers tips on working as a virtual team during litigation — which is often required when managing international disputes — and highlights the potential benefits and challenges of hiring a virtual law firm as outside counsel. Other authors aim to help us avoid a common area of litigation — employment disputes. Keeping up with changes to employment law across jurisdictions can be challenging, so the authors created a guide to avoid potential pitfalls in this area. Lastly, we turn to technology. In this issue, we look at fintech and how to implement a payment service within your company’s social networking platform. Another article discusses finding the right expertise to manage your eDiscovery work, whether that expertise is internal or from an outside firm, in a world where electronic communications and document production obligations are increasingly onerous.
As always, ACC offers additional resources in the area of litigation management and beyond. I’m sure you’ve checked out ACC’s many practice area focused networks, and if you haven’t I encourage you to head over to www.acc.com/networks for a full listing of the networks available for you to share with and learn from. Networks offer the ability to access the relevant, industry specific resources you need, as well as connections to peers available to answer questions and more, not to mention online education events. In terms of resources created by your peers related to managing litigation, the Litigation Network recently developed “Top 10 Operational Tips: Preparing for Regulatory Investigations.”
Litigation is always a possibility. The best we can do as advisors to our organizations — charged with keeping everyone out of the courtroom — is to prepare for the inevitable. Lucky for us, we’re members of ACC, which means there’s a network of 45,000 lawyers to help us along the way. Whether through articles authored for this publication, or network-created resources, your fellow ACC members have your back.
I hope you find this issue interesting and useful to your in-house practice. Drop me a line at
chair@acc.com if you have any feedback you would like to share.
