Insights from the 4th Annual IICJ Conference New York

October 10, 2019

FRA Partners Drew Costello and Jerry Hansen attended the 4^th Annual 2019 International In-house Counsel Journal conference in New York, to hear about the latest strategies and solutions for senior in-house counsel looking to improve the efficiency of their legal department. Below are some of their key takeaways from the event.

Compliance

The structure of the compliance department has evolved from being solely made up of attorneys, to a well-rounded team incorporating attorneys, data analysts and forensic accountants.
The panel shared a helpful mnemonic to remember when dealing with risks: "RPM". This acronym stands for "Recognize, Prioritize and Mitigate".
A strong tone at the top is essential, and educating employees on "how" to carry out their duties rather than "what" duties they are expected to perform leads to a strong compliance culture throughout the organization.
One panelist explained the effectiveness of implementing regulations into the organization's control framework so that it is prevalent in its end-to-end processes.
A key element for one panelist was the extensive use of data analytics in compliance including numerous dashboards that combine the data from multiple global ERP systems for analysis.

Disputes

There can be significant disparity between the aim of international arbitration as a cost effective method of dispute resolution, and the reality that at times it can be just as costly as litigation.
In Australia, multiparty construction litigation is time consuming, document intensive and almost prohibitively expensive for all but the major players.
Opportunities to mitigate disputes often lie in the contract drafting phase in better defining terms and even the dispute resolution process.
Due diligence is a key element when entering into contract to raise awareness of potential risks and exposure.

Cost Management

While in-house legal departments can handle many of the disputes that arise, it is often a distraction from their regular day-to-day activities, and so outside counsel are sometimes engaged to assist on matters of significance.
The panelists also discussed using a small firm or a large firm (primarily referring to external counsel) and the comments were split on this issue. The choice was often more relationship based.
Various pricing arrangements such as fixed fee, negotiated discounts, success fees and contingency fees are used by in-house legal departments. All of these had been used by each to some extent when engaging external counsel, but no obvious preference was highlighted.