Zoee Bradley, a pharma GC and compliance officer, provides some good advice for building your GC presence. Among her strategies are some old chestnuts, such as being your authentic self and investing in your development. But a few others are less shopworn and potentially impactful, including a smart take on the GC as “safe refuge.” “Confidentiality and privilege are the cornerstones of any lawyer’s practice, but an impactful GC does more than maintaining confidentiality and privilege,” she writes. “They act as a safe refuge for all within the company, especially their leadership team.” At the same time, it takes care and work to establish such a safe space. “By setting clear boundaries and expectations, and strictly maintaining confidence, you will position yourself as a trusted GC,” she writes. “They will know not only to call on you when the crisis happens, but when they see a crisis form.” Check out the latest edition of ACC Docket here.
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Advancing the rule of law in jurisdictions around the world.

CCBJ: Let’s talk about the rule of law and its significance to companies doing business across borders.

Judge Ann Claire Williams: It’s difficult to conduct business globally if people can’t trust that the justice system will be fair, that their cases will be heard in a reasonable time and resolve. There’s a trickledown effect: Without that trust, you may not get investment. If you don’t have investment, business can’t build. If you can’t build business, people can’t work. And without protections for laborers, the whole thing falls apart.

When people don’t have fundamental basic rights, they are vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment. They can be taken advantage of and exploited. A strong rule of law affects not just the commercial side of business, but the human side – the people working on the ground.

Ted Chung: The government doesn’t have a monopoly on justice or the truth. In a healthy rule of law environment, private parties have the ability to push back against the government with as much zeal as is called for under the circumstances, and to expect that outcomes in particular cases are not dictated by whim but
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