Hello, readers of Inside Track! Welcome to the last edition of 2018. Before we get into this pre-holiday edition of your favorite newsletter on all things in-house counsel, I'm curious to know what are your resolutions for your legal department in 2019?

In between the gifts and eggnog, please take a minute to fill out this short surveyso I can better figure out what you'd like to read in this newsletter.

I can be reached anytime through my email at [email protected] or you can find me on Twitter @DanclarkALM.

It's been a pleasure writing this newsletter in the last part of 2018 and look forward to hearing from you all in 2019!

What's Happening-

Speed Dating for an Investor

Getting a group of people in the same room can be difficult. That's why The Fourth Floor was created by Breen Sullivan, a former GC at Bright Power Inc. and Schireson Associates. The group's goal is to introduce female entrepreneurs to female in-house counsel and ultimately to see those in-house lawyers land on the boards of start-up companies.

“Over the last 10 years, there was really a sense of awareness among in-house legal professionals that we are a subculture: We have a J.D. but also are business executives, risk managers,” Sullivan told Law.com reporter Kristen Rasmussen.

The Fourth Floor is an invitation-only group, which Sullivan says, seeks to match female company founders with female in-house legal leaders, speed-dating style. At best, an in-house attorney will invest money and end up on the board of the start-up. Even if an investment isn't made, Sullivan said there will be a good conversation between the lawyers and company founders.

“If it's out there and part of the dialogue, how does that not benefit all of us? At least it's an attempt to do something and create the network,” Sullivan said.

Harassment From The Client

This week, Law.com reporter Caroline Spiezio spoke to attorneys about a particularly fraught issue in the lawyer-client dynamic—sexual harassment by clients; which is something I'd honestly never thought much about.

It's easy to see why the power differential between work-givers and those seeking to land business would give rise to problems. But when Caroline contacted more than 50 law firms to see if they had a policy for handling harassment allegations against clients or other third-parties, only four said they had such a policy in place.

That shocks me. Lawyers seem to have a policy for everything under the sun, so I would think they would have one for harassment from clients. But it seems to be a a bit of a blind spot, or—to be less generous—a place where law firms have a de facto policy of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'

The consequences on women's careers can be huge and many law firm attorneys don't report client harassment, fearing they'll be forced off the matter, kept off of future career-advancing opportunities and labeled a troublemaker, Caroline writes.

Jean Lee, who's president and CEO of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, told Caroline harassment is pervasive: “I don't know any one of my female friends who have been in a law firm or even in-house who haven't seen or experienced that.”

It's a troubling subject but I strongly recommend reading the entire article.

Inside Knowledge

So you just figured out how to become compliant with the GDPR, right? Then, just when you thought you were finished, the California Consumer Privacy Act was passed and now you have until 2020, a little over a year, to get ready. Well lucky for you, this week we have advice from Harry Valetk and Brian Hengesbaugh ofBaker McKenzie to help you get started.

▶ Establish and maintain a data inventory of personal information you have of California residents. Valtek and Hengesbaugh say its important to take stock of what data you have of California residents and what you've already done. If you don't have an understanding of that you may fall into duplicating data and processes that you finished a while ago.

▶ Update privacy notices. You'll have to decide if you want to maintain one privacy policy for California residents and another policy for those in the rest of the country. Either way, you should be making sure your privacy notices disclose what personal information will be collected, which information has been collected in the past 12 months and which information will be sold or disclosed for business purposes. Remember, just because most people don't read privacy notices, I know I don't, doesn't mean that regulators will simply click that they agree to the terms and conditions. 

▶ Keep your eyes open. Valetk and Hengesbaugh said it's important to keep paying attention. There have already been a few changes to the CCPA since it passed and there are likely to be more made to it. There will also be different industry groups lobbying for legislative clarifications.

If you have any advice you think your fellow in-house counsel email me at [email protected].

Don't Miss-

The Global Leaders of Law (GLL) will be hosting two “What Keeps You Up At Night” events in January. The first will be on Jan. 23 in London at Fortnum & Mason. The Second will be in New York on Jan. 29 at Bar Boulud. GLL is an invitation-only membership group offering general counsel a global platform for in-person collaboration to exchange ideas and receive advice and guidance from peers. For more information, contact Meena Heath at [email protected].

Monday, Jan. 28 to Thursday Jan. 31 - American Lawyer Media will be hosting LegalWeek 2019 at the New York Hilton Midtown. Speakers this year will include former U.S. Attorneys General Loretta Lynch and Alberto Gonzalez.

Thursday, Jan. 31 to Saturday, Feb. 2 - The National Bar Association Commercial Law Section will be hosting the 2019 Corporate Counsel Conference. The event will be hosted at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando in Orlando, Fla. Speakers will include Bradley M. Gayton, the group vice president, CAO and general counsel of Ford Motor Company, and Wanji Walcott, senior vice president and general counsel of Paypal.

Thursday, Feb. 14 to Saturday, Feb. 16 - The American Bar Association will be hosting its 2019 Corporate Counsel CLE Seminar at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa in San Antonio, Texas. For more information email [email protected].

On the Move-

✦ Mutual Of Omaha ✦  Nancy Crawford will take over the role as the company's top lawyer in January. She previously worked as Mutual of Omaha's deputy general counsel. Crawford replaces Richard Anderl, who will remain with the company until his retirement at the end of the first quarter of 2019.

✦ Comfort Systems USA Inc. ✦  Laura F. Howell will take over as the company's senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary beginning Jan. 1. She replaces long-time GC Trent McKenna who is stepping down from his role to work in a regional operations position within the company.

✦ PDC Energy Inc. ✦  Nicole Martinet has been made the general counsel and corporate secretary of the Denver-based energy company. She will begin her new job on Jan. 1. She has worked as an associate general counsel at PDC since 2011.

✦ Lincoln Financial ✦ Leon Roday was named as the bank's executive vice president and general counsel last week. He was formerly the top lawyer at Genworth Financial Inc. He served as Genworth's top lawyer during the company's $2.8 billion IPO.

✦ Cedars-Sinai ✦  Terri Wagner Cammarano will be taking over the legal department for one of the country's highest ranked hospitals. Wagner Cammarano comes to Cedars-Sinai from healthcare firm Hooper, Lundy & Brookman where she worked as counsel and an advocate for healthcare systems. She has also worked as the CLO at MemorialCare Health System.