The General Counsel, The CEO and The Board

Ropes & Gray and ACCA New England hosted a program entitled The General Counsel, The CEO and The Board, this program focused on the evolving role of General Counsel and how best to manage the ever increasing and sometimes conflicting roles that general, deputy and other senior corporate counsel are required to play.

Areas of discussion included:

• what counsel have been required to do in the past and the enhanced standards of good corporate governance required now 
• the nuts and bolts including corporate counsel's role in minute preparation, preparation of board agendas and other materials, interaction with senior managers and board committee chairs and dealing with the outside auditor
• the conflicting roles and responsibilities of corporate counsel — are you a legal counselor, advocate, law department manager, business partner, compliance cop or all of the above?
• lessons learned from recent corporate scandals including the allegations brought against the Tyco General Counsel, Mark Belknap

Panelists included:

• Jack A. VanWoerkom, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Staples, Inc.
• William A. Wise, Jr., Corporate Counsel, Analog Devices
• Danette Wineberg, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, The Timberland Company
• Paul T. Dacier, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, EMC Corp.
• Paul Duncan, Director, Reebok International and Enterasys Networks, Inc.
• Ivor Cary Armistead III, Partner, Ropes & Gray
• David A. Fine, Partner, Ropes & Gray
• David B. Walek, Partner, Ropes & Gray