Compliance issues are at the front of every manager's and fiduciary’s mind these days. It used to be that all the worry came from a creative plaintiffs’ bar calling a business's conduct into question, but those days are long gone. Public and private companies are investigated by not only the United States federal government, but also local, state, and foreign governments. Self-regulating entities also add a layer of scrutiny. Under the insulation of the attorney-client privilege, an effective internal investigation can help marshal the facts to inform corporate decisions about past or existing violations and prevent potential future violations. An internal investigation can protect management from the violation and records the company's response to an incident or violation. However, most importantly, it serves to send a clear message that the company is serious about compliance and that it sets transparency as a priority.
This webinar surveys recent compliance trends and discusses best practices regarding the attorney-client privilege, joint defense agreements, the use of experts, witness interviews, the consequences of self-disclosure and how to control the impact on the company.
This webinar is delivered in Plain English, understandable to you even if you are not a specialist. It brings you into an engaging, even sometimes humorous, conversation designed to entertain as it teaches. And, it is specifically designed to be viewed as a stand-alone webinar, meaning that you do not have to view the other webinars in the series to get a lot out of it.
Moderator:
Rafael X. Zahralddin
Rafael X. Zahralddin-Aravena is a skilled business lawyer and litigator with significant experience advising clients in corporate and commercial litigation, insolvency, distressed M&A, compliance, corporate law and entity formation, corporate governance, commercial transactions, cyber law, regulatory actions and cross-border issues.
Rafael represents clients in all aspects of bankruptcy and restructuring and has extensive experience in international commercial law issues, including cross-border insolvency, federal bankruptcy court matters, and assignments for the benefits of creditors and receiverships. Rafael’s international law experience particularly in international commercial transactions brings a unique and nuanced approach to business issues both inside and outside of distressed situations.
He has also worked for two decades with early stage companies and venture capitalists and private venture funds as both a transactional lawyer and a corporate litigator. He has assisted businesses in starting, selling, or buying a business, and dealing with employees and contracts, among other operational issues. This experience has been critical in representation of both debtors and creditors committees in chapter 11. Rafael is noted for his problem solving abilities, especially with varied constituencies on official and ad hoc committees, including trade creditors, bondholders, labor unions and other key stakeholders in insolvency matters.
He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, which is limited to less than 1% of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction, and is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Governance Fellow, the highest level of credentialing for corporate directors and corporate governance professionals. He has been recognized as a Philadelphia Inquirer Influencer of Law by an expert panel of judges who felt he shaped, changed, and transformed the legal industry, and listed among The Philadelphia Business Journal’s “Best of the Bar” and “Minority Business Leaders.”
A Six Sigma Green Belt, Rafael is an extensive writer and lecturer and has trained both in-house lawyers and outside law firms in legal project management, lean practices and Six Sigma application to value-added provision of legal services. He is also the co-editor and author of several chapters in the American Bar Association’s Reorganizing Failing Businesses, and has written an extensive number of publications for bar journals, periodicals, law reviews and trade organizations.
Prior to joining Armstrong Teasdale, Rafael was a shareholder at a regional law firm on the East Coast. While there, he served as chair of the firm’s Commercial Bankruptcy and Reorganization practice and as a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. In 2007, he founded the firm’s Wilmington, Delaware, office, and served as its first managing shareholder.
His distinguished career also includes serving as general counsel to the Hispanic National Bar Association, and as an attorney at firms of all sizes, primarily on the East Coast. Early in his career, Rafael served as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Samuel L. Bufford in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California.
He was a founding faculty member and Associate Professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. Prior to becoming a tenure track professor, Rafael was a senior writing fellow at Georgetown University Law Center.
Panel:
Marianne Ibrahim
Marianne Ibrahim leads anti-bribery and FCPA compliance efforts at Baker Hughes Incorporated involving audits of foreign subsidiaries, joint ventures and commercial sales representatives in high risk and emerging markets, FCPA risk analysis, and compliance due diligence on merger and acquisition targets. She also manages the global investigative database and conducts compliance related investigations. She assists the Chief Compliance Officer in the development, implementation and monitoring of compliance efforts including policy, controls, and communication matters. Prior to Baker Hughes, she was a commercial litigator and assisted companies in VARIOUS industries including oil and gas. She clerked for the Honorable George C. Hanks, Jr. of the First Court of Appeals and interned for the Honorable David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas.
Christina Sarchio
Christina Guerola Sarchio, a Partner at Dechert LLP in the Washington, DC office, and co-chair of the Business Litigation and Trials practice group, focuses her practice on general commercial litigation, class actions and white collar defense, with significant experience in the consumer products, financial, oil and gas, pharmaceutical, sports and transportation industries. A former prosecutor and an experienced trial lawyer, Ms. Sarchio has successfully tried several jury trials before federal and state courts. She also regularly appears before a number of agencies and regulators, including the DOJ, FDA, SEC and various U.S. Attorney offices.
Ms. Sarchio has been recognized as a leading lawyer for her work in general commercial disputes in The Legal 500 U.S. 2018 and 2017. She was also selected as a 2018 Woman Worth Watching by The Diversity Journal. She received MCCA’s 2017 Rainmaker Award and named among the Top 250 Women in Litigation in the U.S. for 2018 and 2017 by Benchmark Litigation, where she is also listed as a D.C. litigation star.
Jeanine Conley Daves
Jeanine Conley Daves, an experienced trial lawyer and shareholder at Littler Mendelson, represents a wide array of companies, both global and domestic, in employment-related disputes and workplace investigations. Daves regularly advises and counsels clients in a variety of industries, particularly the manufacturing, retail, financial services and media and entertainment industries on a wide-range of employment issues, including whistleblower and retaliation claims, trade secrets, Title VII anti-discrimination and harassment matters, the Family Medical Leave Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Through her experience as a trial lawyer, Daves is able to efficiently and effectively strategize with her clients to resolve employment disputes through the best possible means for the client by obtaining favorable settlements, dismissal of actions through summary judgment or full defense verdicts at trial. Along with her successful employment practice, Daves is extremely active in her community and is Chair of the Board of the New York Urban League.
