Welcome back to Inside Track!

This week, I'm at the Minority Corporate Counsel Association's Creating Pathways to Diversity Conference in New York. In-house counsel shared how they've helped to create an inclusive workplace culture in one panel.

Michael Tang, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Agilent Technologies, said he has taken an approach of not asking for permission when requiring law firms to have diverse attorneys on matters.

He said oftentimes he'll hear from law firms that they hire the best candidates regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation.

"There are no objective standards for that," Tang said. "I force all of my law firms to play ball."

Tang also said since he controls his own budget, he does not consult with his CEO or chief financial officer on his own requirements for law firms.

"What I told my CEO is that intent without structure is meaningless," Tang said. "I'm starting in the legal department. My panel is diverse and the candidate pool is diverse."

Let me know at [email protected] what you think is blocking your department from developing and implementing diversity and inclusion policies.

What's Happening

Hiring Boutique Firms For Diverse Counsel

One way for in-house counsel to help foster diversity in the legal industry is to go to boutique firms.

"A lot of women and minorities are leaving [big firms] and going to smaller law firms to practice. They're able to offer a higher level of services more cost-effectively," Basha Rubin, CEO of Priori Legal, said. "They're often not managing hundreds of big cases or matters. So you're able to get the same level of experience that you would at a big law firm without getting a second-year associate doing your work."

Susannah Stroud Wright, general counsel of Credit Karma Inc., said boutique firms with diverse partners are very appealing.

"We will be happy to go to someone if they are an expert or have unique experiences in a particular regulatory area, where we can work with them in kind of an ongoing day-to-day manner," Wright said. "Sometimes smaller and more boutique firms are more open to that rather than being so focused on it having to be just one huge corporate matter or litigation matter."

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A "How To" For Internal Investigations

Internal investigations may become necessary at times for legal departments. King & Spalding partner Dixie Johnson spent much of her career guiding legal departments through the delicate process. In a Q&A, she explained what led her to create a decision tree to help in-house counsel through the process and spoke more broadly about internal investigations.

➤ Johnson said general counsel first should think about how many constituents would be impacted by the outcome of the investigation. "It's important to stay focused on the need for how to communicate effectively and appropriately with all those constituents. The general counsel is typically the one who helps the company remember all these constituents and think ahead on who needs to be briefed about what."

➤ There are times when in-house counsel should not be leading the investigation. Securities litigation in a derivative context is one instance, Johnson said. "If an independent committee of the board is established and hires independent advisers to seriously look at issues, then the court will usually defer to that independent effort."

➤ The general counsel should almost always be in charge of an internal investigation. "There is a sensible point that goes along with that, which is: If the general counsel reports up to officers whose conduct is under scrutiny, then it is important to create an independent reporting line that everyone understands, such as report directly up to the board. You never want a situation where a lawyer could be fired because she told the truth. Always be sure the general counsel is protected."

What I've Been Reading

Training is one of the most essential parts of protecting a company's data, TDCI general counsel, Tim M. Opsitnick, said in a Crain's Cleveland Business report. He said phishing has become less obvious to ground-level employees because of advances hackers have made. He said the "human firewall" is the first line of defense for a company holding sensitive data.

A whistleblower has claimed that The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is filled with internal strife, which may be due to a lack of a general counsel or a compliance officer, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The board has not had a permanent general counsel or enforcement officer for 16 months, the whistleblower said. One associate general counsel, according to the report, left the board because of how terminations were handled.

The general counsel of NBCUniversal, Kimberley Harris, reportedly helped kill early reporting on Harvey Weinstein, according to a report in Vanity Fair by a former NBC News employee. In a meeting discussing the allegations and reporters' attempts to get information on it, she defended not having an outside firm investigate Weinstein allegations and said if the press would stop discussing the allegations, they would go away.

Don't Miss

Thursday, Oct. 24 to Friday Oct. 25 – The 2019 TECHGC National Summit will be held at the New York Stock Exchange. Speakers will include Brian Brooks, chief legal officer at Coinbase; Amit Khanna, general counsel at Knotel; and Ileana Falticeni, general counsel at Good Data.

Sunday, Oct. 27 to Wednesday, Oct. 30 – The Association of Corporate Counsel will be hosting the 2019 ACC Annual Meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center. Speakers will include Darya Natesova, associate counsel at AmeriGas Propane L.P.; Steve Roth, general counsel at JTV; and Andrew Knowles, assistant general counsel at GlaxoSmithKline.

Friday, Nov. 22 – Dinsmore Legal Counsel will be hosting the 2019 In-House and General Counsel Symposium at the Columbus Bar Association in Columbus, Ohio. Topics will include corporate governance, cyber security and current trends in money laundering.

On The Move

✦ Lowell Herb Co. ✦ Stacey Hallerman has been named the first general counsel and chief administrative officer of the Los Angeles-based cannabis company. Hallerman has previously served in-house at Richemont and as a board member of MedMen.

✦ Cubic Corp. ✦ Hilary Hageman has been named the general counsel of the military tech company. She previously served as the deputy general counsel of SAIC and has held senior legal roles at CACI and the Department of Defense.

✦ Arcadia Power ✦ Max Minzner, formerly the top attorney at Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has been made the first general counsel of the renewable energy service startup. He began his new role on Monday and spent the last two years as a partner in Jenner & Block's energy practice.