Our weekly podcast series features interviews with leading minds in the legal industry and will provide listeners a preview of what they’ll learn at SuperConference.

Doing More and More With Less and Less: Turning Your Law Department Into a Value Center
A talk with Martin Kelly of Emptoris

SuperConference speaker Martin Kelly shares his thoughts on how a change in the contracts process can save on legal spend and drive efficiencies in the law department.

About the presenter:
Marty Kelly has twelve years of experience in the technology sector, with a focus on internet-based applications. With Emptoris, he has led Contract Management implementations at multiple companies, including Kraft Foods, Telstra (Australia), Vodafone (United Kingdom), Allstate and UMB Bank and many others. Prior to Emptoris, Marty led development teams on a variety of internet-based start-up companies for Accenture and Diamond Management & Technology Consultants. Marty received his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Strategies for Effectively Challenging Plaintiffs’ Allegations
A talk with Kurt Hansson of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP

SuperConference speaker Kurt Hansson shares his thoughts on ways that early case assessment can help companies save money and be more effective in the litigation process.

About the presenter:
Kurt Hansson is the global vice chairman of the Paul Hastings Litigation practice and is based in the firm’s New York office. He concentrates his practice in complex civil litigation matters, with an emphasis on complex commercial, securities and tax matters. Kurt currently represents many different General Electric entities in complex civil litigation matters, including GE Commercial Finance, GE Asset Management and GE Healthcare. Other clients represented include, among others, ABC, Apple, Chubb, IBM, Schering Plough and UBS.

Kurt also has extensive knowledge and experience in various forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution matters. He has successfully handled numerous arbitrations and mediations, recovering hundreds of million of dollars for clients in those proceedings. He was instrumental in establishing GE’s Early Case Assessment program and has helped develop similar programs for other clients. The program is specifically designed to help reduce litigation costs and liability, by identifying litigation risks and potential business solutions early in the dispute process. Kurt lectures and teaches extensively on these topics.

Kurt has been recognized for several years as a Super Lawyer for commercial litigation in both New York and Connecticut. Kurt received his B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University in 1980. He received a J.D. from The American University, Washington College of Law in 1986, where he served as a Note and Comment Editor for the American University Journal of International Law and Policy.

Building a Great Ethics Program
A talk with H. Stephen Grace

A conversation with H. Stephen Grace, Jr., Ph.D. on the governance lessons corporate America can learn from organizations that lack ethical values – like drug cartels – and why “tone at the top” may be less important than transparency and accountability.

About the presenter:
H. Stephen Grace, Jr., Ph.D. is President of H.S. Grace & Company, Inc., a firm which provides specialized financial and operational advisory services to healthy and troubled companies, assists in complex commercial litigation, and advises on issues of corporate governance, oversight and control. Dr. Grace and H.S. Grace & Company served as Consultant to the Directors and Officers Insurance Carriers on the Walt Disney Shareholder Derivative litigation which concerned the hiring and termination of Michael Ovitz by Disney. He was the named Corporate Governance Expert for the Officers and Directors in the First Energy litigation. First Energy was alleged to have been responsible for the August 13, 2003 “blackout” that affected over 50 million people in the Northeast. H.S. Grace & Company served as the Independent Compliance Consultant under an SEC settlement with a mutual fund alleged to have permitted “market timing.”

Dr. Grace’s more than 35 years of Senior Management, Consultant and Academic experience includes: chief financial officer of a major holding company; national director-at-large of a Big Five firm; and university faculty member. He has authored and co-authored a substantial number of economic and financial publications, many of which focus on corporate governance.

Dr. Grace was National Chairman of Financial Executives International (“FEI”) 2003-2004, and a recipient of FEI’s Distinguished Service Award. He is an advisor to The CPA Journal Editorial Board and the New York State Society of CPAs (NYSSCPA) – Quality Enhancement Policy Committee. Dr. Grace served as a member of FORBES CFO Forum Advisory Board. He serves on the Advisory Council at Jesse H. Jones School of Business, Texas Southern University. At Lamar University, he is a Distinguished Alumnus and serves on the Board of Advisors of both the Engineering and the Business Schools.

He has a BSIE degree from Lamar University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. from Houston University.

Building Great Teams Part 2 with Janice Block
A talk with Kaplan Higher Education’s Janice Block.

A talk with Janice Block, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Compliance Officer at Kaplan Higher Education – and a columnist at InsideCounsel magazine – shares her thoughts about how to build a great legal team, even in a prolonged recession.

About the presenter:
Janice Block is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Kaplan Higher Education (KHE). She built and currently manages the legal, regulatory and compliance department and is responsible for ensuring compliance with federal and state laws and regulations. Block oversaw the formation of KHE’s own internal regulatory higher education legal practice and has enriched the student experience by identifying alternative sources of funding at the state level.

Block served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Career Education Corporation, a $2 billion publicly traded company, where she successfully led the handling of proxy battles and investigations. She was also responsible for the recreation of the corporate communications department, which managed media relations and brand marketing during a period when higher education was receiving an increased level of public interest.

As Regional Counsel for Microsoft Corporation, she directed the software piracy, corporate compliance, and government affairs initiatives and managed a staff of 60 across a 17-state district. Block also served as the company’s corporate media spokesperson and was the recipient of the 2002 “Top Sales Contributor Award.”

Building Great Teams Part 1 with Mike Evers
A talk with noted legal recruiter and InsideCounsel columnist Mike Evers

Mike Evers talks about what GCs want from their staff attorneys these days, how the recession has created opportunities for lawyers in-house, and the number one benefit cited by respondents to InsideCounsel’s 2010 Career Satisfaction Survey in the March issue (and online now).

About the presenter:
Mike Evers recruits attorneys for in-house legal departments throughout the United States. He founded Evers Legal Search in 1997 and has placed well over 100 attorneys into roles ranging from Senior Counsel to General Counsel. Mike writes the monthly career advice column for InsideCounsel’s Careers Newsletter, which can be viewed at www.insidecounsel.com. He has moderated two lively General Counsel roundtables for InsideCounsel magazine. Mike’s speaking credits include moderator and panelist roles at SuperConference, the Diversity Concepts conference, Association of Corporate Counsel, and numerous local bar associations.

Before 1997, Mike managed the Chicago office of a national legal placement firm and he was an associate with Blank Rome in Philadelphia. Mike is a graduate of Duke Law School and he received his undergraduate degree from Indiana University

Fighting the Tide: Navigating White Collar Criminal Investigations and Prosecution
A talk with noted criminal defense attorney Scott H. Greenfield

Running Time: 11:15

Scott shares his thoughts on the increased risk of federal prosecution in this post-Bernie Madoff era, the critical mistakes white collar defendants make, and the perils of dealing with an investigation or indictment in-house.

About the presenter:
For almost 25 years, Scott H. Greenfield has represented clients charged with crimes or the targets of investigations in state and federal courts across the United States. Scott has been awarded an AV rating, the highest possible, from Martindale Hubbell, and is recognized in “Who’s Who” in the world, America and American Law. He has served as a legal expert and analyst for television news shows from “60 Minutes” to “20/20”, and ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC, Court TV and Fox.

Scott’s cases have been the subject of a book, magazine articles and television shows. Scott is regarded as one of a handful of top criminal defense lawyers who excels in both trial work and appeals. His written work is considered some of the best in the nation, often writing Op-Eds, Amicus briefs and Editor Letters for Bar Associations and other well known lawyers. Scott is a lawyer’s lawyer, representing other attorneys, their family members and even judges when they find themselves in a jam.