Upcoming Program for South Carolina Chapter of ACC

One of the things that has taken up some of my time over the last few months is preparing a Continuing Legal Education ("CLE") program that my firm is presenting to members of the South Carolina Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel.  This is a great group of attorneys who serve in-house with companies across South Carolina.

The evolution of this program was quite a "process."  I began by just soliciting the thoughts of my colleagues.  However, the more I looked at other CLE programs, the more I wanted ours to have a global theme within which the various topics would "fit."  So...I took the topics we batted around here in the firm and tried to come up with a common thread.  The result? 

MANAGING YOUR RISKS: A 2012 PERSPECTIVE ON

BUSINESS, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND LITIGATION RISKS

The hyperlink above provides more information, but the nutshell is that we are doing a three-hour CLE presentation in which the first hour focuses on general risk management and coverage principles, risk management in employment law and social media, and finally a panel discussion of managing litigation risk.  I am presenting during the first hour on general business risk management, including some "war stories" from my practice and observations over the years.  My colleagues Christian Boesl and Charles Appleby are handling the employment piece, and the panel discussion arose from a conversation I had with Jon Ozmint at our law firm.  Jon used to be the head of the South Carolina Department of Corrections.  In this capacity, he was often named as a defendant in section 1983 lawsuits, and he has a unique perspective on litigation risk management. 

I am excited about this litigation risk management panel.  In addition to Jon, I have enlisted a litigation consultant to serve on the panel, as well as in-house representatives from Piggly Wiggly - South Carolina and South Carolina Electric and Gas.  My hope is to have a variety of perspectives from different types of entities that face a wide range of litigation exposure.  We will discuss how litigation risk management varies depending on the industry and company size, as well as develop some common tools for all businesses in litigation.

None of the above is "products" specific per se, although some of my presentation will incorporate some products liability case examples.  However, I like to keep my readers up on what I have been doing, so the above is the "latest."