Do You Comply With The FCPA?--- South Korea has recently updated its anti-corruption laws in an effort to become compliant with the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention passed last year. The new updates close loopholes that allowed public officials to accept expensive gifts without threat of criminal prosecution. (more…)
In the past an often-overlooked area of risk management was data privacy or data protection. Many companies did not even associate data privacy with risk. However, as more and more countries begin to regulate the use of data by companies, and as more and more companies are experiencing data theft or hacking, data privacy has emerged as one of the hot topics of legal risk management. More and more countries are enacting tougher regulations when it comes to personal data. South Korea is an example, as due to its credit card hacking scandal, it recently amended its data privacy protection laws to be more rigorous and comprehensive. (more…)
Controlling risk......In the legal risk management world, 2015 can either be a prosperous,stable and secure year or a year filled with litigation, investigations, claims, fines and lost profits. It primarily depends on what actions a company's management ( the BD, Upper Management, Legal,Compliance and Risk Management) takes with regards to risk. (more…)
Do You Know Your Department's Processes?
One of the major issues facing companies from a compliance and risk management standpoint is the failure of companies to adequately map out the company processes as well as the scope and duties of its employees. Over time, many employees naturally add to or change or modify their roles and responsibilities. (more…)
Gwangali Beach, Busan
EVEN IN HOUSE LAWYERS MUST MARKET THEMSELVES
ITS ABOUT MARKETING….As I look out upon Gwangali Beach in Busan, I am reminded that everyone seeks a renewal of themselves and/or their organizations for 2015. Everyone is busy preparing for a new year of meeting or exceeding sales targets. A new year of meeting or exceeding goals. Of increasing revenue. The trouble is that some divisions within a company (excluding sales and marketing of course) fail to think about their organization in terms of marketing. However, even departments, such as the legal department or compliance department, must market themselves within a company, and even sometimes outside of the company itself. (more…)
When it comes to compliance- just do it!
Recently, I read that the Securities and Exchange Commission sanctioned numerous firms for violating auditor independence rules when they prepared the financial statements of brokerage firms that were their audit clients. Specifically, the agency found that during audits, the firms relied on data from financial statements and notes that the audit firms themselves had prepared for the clients. Obviously they couldn’t do it because they were in effect auditing their own work. In another example, I recenlty read that a former paralegal of a well known pharmaceutical company, claims she was fired in retaliation for revealing a huge scheme involving kickbacks to doctors in violation of US Law. So why then, in these examples, years after the implementation of SOX and the FCPA ( which forbids these actions) did such a number of firms violate SOX and probably their own internal rules? If the former paralegal 's allegations are true, why didnt the pharmaceutical company have a FCPA process in place to pick up the kickbacks? The answer is simple: the companies in question failed to implement a proper compliance program that adequately addresses their major processes and procedures .
