Nominations Now Open for Corporate Counsel's Best Legal Departments 2021!
It is that time of year! We are excited to again begin the process of honoring legal departments and legal department leaders for our Best Legal Departments issue.
February 01, 2021 at 01:25 PM
7 minute read
It is that time of year! We are excited to again begin the process of honoring legal departments and legal department leaders for our Best Legal Departments issue.
As in previous years, in order to be considered you have to first complete this nomination form. It consists of several questions about your company and its law department and a brief (no more than 1,000 words) essay about why you should be considered.
The deadline for submissions is April 6, 2021.
Our staff will select the honorees on the basis of these submissions, along with our own research.
Articles featuring the honorees will be featured in our September/October 2021 issue and celebrated at the prestigious American Lawyer Industry Awards at the end of the year.
Below please find the categories and submission requirements. Please feel free to reach out to Pearl Wu at [email protected] with any questions.
ALM reserves the right to consider and award organizations, regardless of whether they have submitted nominations. We also reserve the right to take notice of external information that would impact the submission. For all categories, please include the appropriate contact information in case we require more information. An organization can only submit up to two entries per category.
Award: Best Legal Departments
There is one survey for all subcategories. You only need to fill out the survey for the category or categories in which you are submitting a nomination.
Subcategories:
- U.S. Legal Department of the Year (for U.S. companies)
Who Should Apply: Legal department leader/GC, in-house attorney or in-house staff member.
Award Description: This prestigious award goes to the legal department that surmounted extreme challenges the past year, was innovative in its thinking and achieved measurable successes in 2020.
Materials required: A brief description (no more than 1,000 words) of your most significant activities in the last year, including litigation achievements (you can include arbitrations and settlements) and any strategies that you put into play to achieve measurable success. Items can include but are not limited to:
- Describe any unique strategies for multiple litigation matters, such as suits involving the same product.
- Describe any out-of-the-ordinary nonlitigation matters in the last year, such as working on a major M&A transaction or responding to a government investigation.
- Describe any unique strategies for routine nonlitigation matters, such as patent applications or employment contracts.
- In describing all matters, please provide specific details about what your in-house lawyers did in each case. Please limit yourself to accomplishments that occurred during the past year (though you can describe work done in prior years that contributed to the accomplishment).
Finalists Announced: September
Winner Announced: At the American Lawyer Industry Awards in December 2021
- Compliance Department of the Year (in-house compliance departments)
Who Should Apply: Legal department leader/GC, in-house attorney or in-house staff member.
Award Description: An award recognizing an in-house team that has developed or implemented creative innovative compliance plans to achieve success.
Materials required: A brief description (no more than 1,000 words) describing:
- Any innovative compliance programs that your legal department put into place in the last year.
- How have you creatively communicated compliance information to all employees to ensure that they understand and adhere to company policy?
- How have you used technology to help manage your compliance program?
Please include any key performance indicators used by their program.
Winner Announced: September
- Startup Solo GC of the Year
Who Should Apply: General Counsel of a startup company
Award Description: An award recognizing the challenges a startup GC has and acknowledges the achievement of successfully overcoming those obstacles by innovation and determination.
Materials required: A brief description (no more than 1,000 words) of how a startup solo from scratch achieved success and growth by innovation and determination.
Winner Announced: September
- Best Use of Technology
Who Should Apply: General Counsel or in-house counsel team
Award Description: This award recognizes the legal department that showed innovative uses of technology to solve issues and enhance productivity.
Materials required: Please submit a short essay (no more than 1,000) describing:
- Any innovative uses of technology that your legal department put into place in during the last year. We're specifically interested in how people use technology, and how it's made work in the department easier and more efficient.
- A problem you used technology to solve. Give specifics.
Winner Announced: September
- General Counsel of the Year
Who Should Apply: General Counsel
Award Description: This award is focused on the significant positive impact a GC has had on their business and broader industry over the past year.
Materials required: A brief description (no more than 1,000) of what significant positive impact the GC has had on their business and/or industry in the past year. Please give specific examples.
Finalists Announced: September
Winner Announced: At the American Lawyer Industry Awards in December 2021
- Best Deputy or Associate GC
Who Should Apply: Associate or Deputy General Counsel
Award Description: As the role of the GC shifts more to business strategist, this award is to recognize the work of an Associate or Deputy GC in helping a GC with their new responsibilities.
Materials required: A brief description (no more than 1,000) of what the Associate or Deputy GC is doing to help lead the legal department, and help the department be cost effective and efficient. Please give specific examples.
Winner Announced: September
- Champion of Diversity Award
Who Should Apply: General Counsel
Award Description: This award is focused on the work a GC has done to move the needle for underrepresented groups in the legal industry.
Materials required: A brief description (no more than 1,000) of what significant positive impact this person has had on diversity issues. Please give specific examples.
Winner Announced: September
- Best Legal Ops Team
Who Should Apply: Legal Ops professionals
Award Description: This award is focused on legal ops teams that through their efforts have had a significant impact in helping to create a more effective and efficient department.
Materials required: A brief description (no more than 1,000) of what the team had successfully done to create an efficient and effective team. Please give specific examples.
Winner Announced: September
- Outstanding Community Service Award
Who Should Apply: General Counsel and team
Award Description: This award is focused on the work by a GC or legal department team outside of their day job that truly has an impact in their community.
Materials required: A brief description (no more than 1,000) of what pro bono or charity work a legal leader or team has done and the impact on the community. Please give specific examples.
Winner Announced: September
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllClimate Disputes, International Arbitration, and State Court Limitations for Global Issues
Tiered Clauses in Dispute Resolution: The Role of Adjudication as an Influence on Mediated Settlements
5 minute readTrending Stories
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250