Just over a week ago we crossed into the final half-year before GDPR implementation day, 25 May 2018. At Practical Law, we’re continuing to update existing resources and publish new ones to support in-house teams grappling with the GDPR compliance challenge. In recent weeks, with support from our contributors, we have published a number of resources intended to help with those efforts: Continue reading

Six months to go: new GDPR content to highlight

Ask Bruce: answers on personal development for in-house lawyers
In the first of a monthly series, Bruce Macmillan, Founder Director of The Centre for Legal Leadership, answers questions on the personal development of in-house lawyers.
What guidance would you give a junior in-house lawyer who is currently working within a large legal team at a multinational company but is now looking to move to another role in a different industry?

GDPR is changing the game: the results of Practical Law’s in-house compliance survey
Practical Law has published a report on the results of a survey of some 248 professionals, drawn from in-house legal, risk and compliance, HR and company secretarial functions. The survey sought to find out how informed businesses are about the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), how they expect it to impact them, how confident they are about achieving compliance by GDPR implementation day, 25 May 2018, and how they plan to achieve compliance. Continue reading

What’s on the agenda for in-house lawyers in December 2017?
Key items on the agenda for businesses this month include responding to the FRC’s review of the UK Corporate Governance Code, maintaining a focus on improving gender diversity at leadership level and continuing to prepare for the GDPR.

The European brand owners association, MARQUES, has issued a position paper setting out its proposals for the future of IP rights after withdrawal of the UK from the EU, slamming the UK government’s lack of engagement with this “very technical area of law”, which it says is causing grave damage to European business interests.

OECD publishes Anti-Bribery Convention enforcement data for 2016
On 14 November 2017, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published its 2016 data on the enforcement of the Anti-Bribery Convention. Those involved with or responsible for their business’ anti-bribery programme may find this information useful in both updating 2018 anti-bribery training and re-engaging the focus in this area at executive and board level.

The in-house lawyer’s role in successful crisis management
Imagine you are working late. Suddenly, your phone rings. You are told there is an ‘incident’ at one of your overseas operations. The facts are hazy. You find it hard to focus. What do you do? Continue reading

MiFID II obligations: the questions those affected should be asking and the online support training that can be found
Some may argue that organisations should be fully aware of their obligations and already well on their way to having compliant processes in place. The truth is that many are struggling with what they believe their role will be in this new world of regulation.

RSVP E&C
Perhaps the most disturbing conversation I heard this year went as follows:
Me: “So what interaction do you have with your Ethics and Compliance (E&C) team.”
Head of sales at large multinational business: “Once a year I get an email from them listing who has not done their annual Code training.”
Me: “Ok”
Ok maybe not the ‘most disturbing’ – I have two teenage children, but right up there.

Brexit: October round-up
The European Council’s conclusion that sufficient progress had not yet been achieved in Brexit negotiations on withdrawal matters to move on to discussing the framework for the future relationship and transitional arrangements was the most significant development in October.