Month: November 2015

Ten Things: The First Year – An Index of Posts (November 2014 to November 2015)

As most of you know by now, I retired from Sabre Corporation in November 2014 as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer.   Shortly after that, I began the “Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel” blog, even though I had never blogged before or thought anyone would be that interested in what I had say.  My goal at the time was to write down a lot of the hard (and easy) lessons I learned over 20+ years as an in-house lawyer and share them with you.  Today, that’s still the goal and, as of November 28,  I am celebrating one year of posts – 28 in all!  My plan is to keep going until someone tells me to stop (most likely that little voice in the back of your head that says “enough is enough”).   We’re not there yet, so lots more planned for Year Two!

As always, thank you for reading the blog and for sending me your comments and ideas for future posts.  I do read them all and I have used a number of them already (and will continue to, so keep sending them).  Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to click on “follow”, regularly read the email updates I send out, and forward the blog to your friends and colleagues. I also want to thank the good folks at Westlaw, LexisNexis, and Texas Lawbook for republishing a number of the posts in their publications for in-house counsel.

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Ten Things: Preparing for When “Bad Things” Happen

Unfortunately, the world we live in can go from good to shockingly awful in a matter of hours.  There is no starker reminder of this than the horrific events in Paris on November 13, followed by the terrorist assault on a hotel in Mali just days later.  Besides terrorism, disasters arising from natural events (hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, tsunami) and man-made events (plane crash, fire, cyber-attack, workplace violence) lurk in the shadows as well.  This is true for both individuals and businesses: tragedy does not discriminate.

One of the most important tasks you have as in-house counsel is to help ensure that your company is prepared for when disaster — man-made or natural — strikes.  Protection of your fellow employees and corporate assets/shareholder value should always be top of mind.  In some companies, planning for disaster falls within the Risk Management Department, in others, it’s a mixture of different departments, including the Legal Department. Some companies simply have not gotten around to planning for disaster. Regardless of where your company sits on this continuum, Legal has a role to play in assisting the company plan for dealing with a crisis.  If not already the case, you should ensure Legal has a seat at the table for such planning. This edition of Ten Things discusses things you can do as in-house counsel to help the business plan for when bad things happen:

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