Our goal in publishing Metropolitan Corporate Counsel and its various digital offshoots is to provide readers, most of them senior legal executives at major companies, with news and information that holds special appeal for them. That may be because it shines a light on legal and business issues facing their organizations, or because it helps them advance their careers, or because it holds up a mirror to the very special communities within which they work. We hope you’ll find some of all of that – and more – in this month’s issue.
First, we are adding more of your voices to MCC. That begins with Damien Atkins, general counsel of Panasonic Corporation of North America, who talks about his career and the culture of change he has been fostering in his frst year with Panasonic, and Mark Nielsen, general counsel of Frontier Communications Corporation, who shares the playbook from its $10.5 billion acquisition of Verizon’s operating subsidiaries in California, Texas and Florida. I encourage you to contact me if you’d like to join the conversation. You can be sure I’ll be contacting you.
Second, we are pleased to announce a new online publication, In-House Tech, which is designed to keep in-house legal executives and operations professionals abreast of cutting-edge risk, compliance and other issues related to technology and the management of sensitive data. Please have your IT professionals and legal operations leaders email [email protected] for their free subscriptions.
In this issue, don’t miss our special section on life sciences. Even if your company is not in the pharma or medical device businesses, there is plenty to learn from their intensive engagement with IP issues and strategies. Our popular In-House Ops section offers an array of terrifc contributions, including Lloyd M. Johnson’s “Tackling the Human Element of Transformation”
and Altman Weil’s Rees Morrison on how analysis of a law department’s email activity can yield crucial information on both productivity and value. In a signature MCC interview, Friso van der Oord, who heads strategy for the National Association of Corporate Directors, talks about an issue much on the minds of corporate board members: shareholder activism. Marks Paneth’s Erik J. Barr discusses the impact of proper valuations in pass-through entities, S corps and LLCs.
Finally, in the wake of the unsettling disclosures in the Panama Papers matter, we are delighted to feature Kelli Moll of Akin Gump on the evolving regulatory climate for hedge funds, and Hayden Isbister and Simon Dickson of Mourant Ozannes on the governance and litigation landscape in the Caymans and other offshore fnancial centers. I continue to look for new opportunities to connect with readers and contributors. Please email me at [email protected] with your suggestions for new topics, publications or events we can host in your area.
Published May 12, 2016.