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Section Sponsored Events
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Message from the Chair, Charles E. McCallum
On May 29-30 we will convene in Frankfurt, Germany, the first of a planned
annual series of Global Business Law Conferences. I hope you will attend,
and will encourage your colleagues and friends to attend as well. If you
are in a firm or company with European offices, please forward this
information to the lawyers in those offices and invite them to attend.
This Conference is tangible evidence of the reality that, in our modern
world, virtually all business law is global business law, involving
transnational transactions and relationships among geographically and
culturally diverse lawyers and clients. As the Conference program
illustrates, global business law is an arena in which the Section of
Business Law has enormous strength.
One of our goals in holding these conferences outside of the United States
is to enrich the Section by bringing into our family a greatly increased
number of non-U.S. lawyers. We have profited in recent years from
heightened involvement in the Section by a number of outstanding Canadian
lawyers, many of whom are now Section leaders. We seek to expand that trend
to business lawyers everywhere, whether in private practice or in-house,
and whether permanent residents or temporary expatriates in other countries
throughout the world.
Take a look at the program schedule, accessible in convenient
pdf version
and on the
Conference Web site. I think you will be impressed by the
quality of the programs.
But please register soon! Early
registration discount ends
May 1, and the Conference rate at the Westin
Grand is available only until May 7.
There are twenty-one programs scheduled, sponsored by the following Section
Committees:
Business and Corporate Litigation
Business Financing
Commercial Finance
Corporate Compliance
Corporate Counsel
Corporate General Counsel
Corporate Governance
Cyberspace Law
Derivatives and Futures Law
Dispute Resolution
Federal Regulation of Securities
International Business Law
International Coordinating
Legal Opinions
Law and Accounting
LLCs, Partnerships and Unincorporated Entities
Negotiated Acquisitions
Professional Responsibility
Taxation
Uniform Commercial Code
I hope to see you at the Section Welcome Reception on Thursday evening, May
29. Sign up now!
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Charles E. McCallum
Chair, Section of Business Law
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This month in eSource, we are highlighting our Committee Newsletters,
which provide members of the Section's substantive committees with timely
and informative articles on a variety of topics. You can receive any of
the newsletters published by the Section's Committees by joining the
Committees in which you have an interest. Archived issues are also
available through the Section Web site.
Next month, we will feature program materials and select audio from the
Section's very successful Spring Meeting in Dallas, Texas. Look for the
May issue of eSource.
In October 2007, the SEC approved Rule 2290 in order to provide public
shareholders with additional information about the potential conflicts of
interest between fairness opinion providers and recipient companies. The
article traces the origins and development of the new rule, its
requirements, and the impact it is expected to have on public
companies.
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The value of a company's intellectual property may have nothing to do with
its patent budget, its IP attorney, or its IP portfolio, but may have
everything to do with how employees document their work and inventions.
Smart and strategic documentation of potentially patentable subject matter
can mean the difference between a strong patent or patent family and patent
protection riddled with hidden traps for the unsuspecting company.
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Selling a bankruptcy claim can be a smart way to receive a substantial
payment and to bow out of a bankruptcy case much earlier than the selling
creditor might otherwise be able to. However, these seductively simply
transactions are laden with traps for the unwary business person, who may
be taking on risks she didn't anticipate and obligations she didn't
understand. This article examines the risks and opportunities for selling
creditors and warns about what to look for before signing on the dotted
line.
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A great deal of attention has focused recently on investments by sovereign
wealth funds (SWFs) in the United States, particularly in banks and
investment firms. It is apparent that SWF involvement in the U.S. economy
evokes concern as well as relief among American policy-makers, business
people and academics. This article provides an overview of SWFs and the
issues that their recent investments have raised, focusing on investments
in U.S. banking organizations.
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This article summarizes an active dialogue among Committee members in
response to a question asking for input on common terms and structure of
lending facilities extended to venture capital and private equity funds to
bridge some or all of their funding obligations at the closing of an
investment or acquisition and pending receipt of capital calls from limited
partners.
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The most recent installment of this series discussed conflicts of interest
with current clients. The most important rule with respect to current clients
is that a lawyer may not be directly adverse to a current client even though
the adverse matter bears no relationship to matters the lawyer handles for
that client.
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Committee Spotlight
To learn more about or join the committees that contributed to this month's practice points, just click on the committee name below.
Section members are eligible to join the Section's committees at no
additional cost. Become involved or simply stay in the information
flow. It's FREE!
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The Committee on Consumer Financial Services has relaunched its financial
literacy Web site. The site, a project of the Committee's Pro Bono
subcommittee, is designed to help consumers understand financial products
and services, from mortgages to credit cards to student loans. ABA
President Bill Neukom, in announcing the availability of the new site, said
"The American Bar Association is launching www.SafeBorrowing.com, an
online resource offering free information relating to automobile lending,
student loans, home finance and credit card products and providers.
Consumer credit touches most Americans' lives every day, and this site
provides the tools needed to make wise financial decisions. This online
resource is valuable not just to individuals and their families, but to
lawyers too, by giving them an important counseling tool. As lawyers know
from experience, often the best service we can offer is to help people stay
out of trouble—before they get into it."
The goal of the Business Law Fellows, Ambassadors and Diplomat Programs is to increase the
participation of young lawyers, lawyers of color and lawyers with disabilities in Section
activities. The Section is committed to investing dollars in these individuals who are
expected to participate actively in the substantive work of the Section and to grow into
future leadership positions within the Section. The Program is designed not only to develop
future leaders of the Section but also to enhance the image of the Section among members of
the Young Lawyers Division, national bars of color, and national organizations of disabilities
in order to attract these individuals into Section membership. The Section will select five
Fellows, five Ambassadors and one Diplomat and will fund their expenses to participate in Section
activities for two years. Applications are due July 7, 2008. For more information about the program,
click here.
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