The American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Business Law and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) early next month will conduct their General Counsel Forum: Surveying the Changing Corporate Landscape, an ABA Presidential Showcase Program.
The event will take place on Thursday and Friday, June 3 and 4 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC. Activities will run from 7 to 10 p.m. on the first day and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the second day.
The conference will begin on Thursday evening with a reception and dinner at the Ritz-Carlton featuring an address by keynote speaker Giovanni P. Prezioso, general counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Friday, the program will offer a full day of discussion on substantive issues relevant to general counsel.
Welcoming remarks will be delivered by Harrold S. Barron, McDermott, Will & Emery and former chair of the ABA Section of Business Law, and James R. Jenkins senior vice president and general counsel, Deere & Company and vice chair of ACC. Mr. Barron also is co-chair of the conference planning committee.
The opening presentation is by Charles E. Cook Jr., editor and publisher of The Cook Political Report and widely regarded as one of the most astute, impartial analysts of the Washington political scene and one of the nation's leading authorities on U.S. elections, who will offer his insight on today's political and legislative environment.
Following Mr. Cook, the conference will feature a panel discussion titled What Today's Boards expect From the General Counsel. The moderator will be James H. Cheek, Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC and former chair of the ABA Task Force on Corporate Responsibility. Other panelists will be J. Michael Cook, former chairman and CEO, Deloitte & Touche; Charles R. Morgan, executive vice president and general counsel, BellSouth Corporation, and Roger W. Raber, president and CEO, National Association of Corporate Directors.
The Friday morning agenda also will include a panel discussion titled The New World of Insurance for Directors, Officers and General Counsel. Serving as moderator is A. Gilchrist Sparks III, Morris Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell. Other speakers will include Greg Flood, executive vice president and COO, National Union Fire Insurance Company; Carolyn H. Rosenberg, Sachnoff & Weaver, and Laurie J. Sablak, assistant vice president and product manager, Chubb Specialty.
The Friday luncheon speaker will be Herbert M. Allison, chairman, president and chief executive officer, TIAA-CREF.
The opening afternoon segment will be a panel discussion titled The New Focus on Internal Controls, with Stanley Keller, Palmer & Dodge, as moderator. He is former chair of the ABA Section of Business Law Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities. Panelists will include Ryan Burdeno, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Daniel L. Goelzer, member, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board; Dixie L. Johnson, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and chair of the ABA Section of Business Law Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities; Richard H. Rowe, Proskauer Rose LLP, and Russell B. Stevenson, senior vice president and general counsel, CIENA Corporation.
The final panel discussion of the day is titled What You Need to Know About Executive Compensation. The moderator is Neil Hennessy, president, Fiduciary Counselors Inc. Other speakers will be Jamie Heard, vice chairman, Institutional Shareholder Services; Andrew C. Liazos, McDermott, Will & Emery; Sarah Teslik, executive director, Council of Institutional Investors, and Paula Todd, principal, Towers & Perrin.
Concluding remarks for the conference will be offered by Frederick J. Krebs, president of ACC and co-chair of the conference's planning committee.
For information on invitations to the conference, call Marcia Yarbrough at the ABA Section of Business Law at (312) 988-5653.
