American Conference Institute's 21st National Conference on Consumer Finance Class Actions & Litigation

The American Conference Institute has developed its 21st National Conference on Consumer Finance Class Actions & Litigation. We have assembled an unparalleled faulty of federal and state regulatory and enforcement officials, senior in-house counsel, renowned federal and state judges, and leading outside counsel who will provide you with expert advice, critical insights, and comprehensive updates.

Rob Mowrey will be moderating a panel on Thursday, January 29 at 9:15 a.m. titled "How Corporate Counsel are Managing Consumer Finance Claims/Class Actions, Compliance Challenges, and Enforcement Actions, Selecting and Working with Outside Counsel to Enhance the Client-Attorney Relationship, and Achieving Efficiencies with Reduced Budgets and Smaller Staffs." The panelists will discuss the following topics:

• Assessing the chief concerns of corporate counsel
• Considerations when selecting outside counsel: Insights on banks’ selection process for the panel of defense counsel
• Perspectives on the trend of pairing down the number of law firms with which a company engages
• How in-house counsel are working to enhance their relationships with outside counsel
• In-house counsel expectations of outside counsel
• Advising outside counsel on how to better support in-house counsel
• Top 5 issues that in-house counsel wants their outside counsel to be thinking about
• How are their corporate law departments organized and what issues are unique to their companies?
• How these unique issues affect the litigation that they face and their case management strategies
• In-house and outside counsel perspectives on best practices after receiving a letter threatening litigation: Minimizing the costs and managing the logistics of document retention in this situation; How long potentially relevant documentation should be held on to; What do other corporate and outside counsel suggest/do in these situations?
• Strategies corporate counsel use to manage litigation
• How does managing and defending a large-scale case or class action differ from managing and defending a smaller case?
• Lessons learned from past litigation: Minimizing your exposure to future litigation and better managing future litigation
• Escalated complaints: Managing escalated complaints so as to avoid litigation
• How financial institutions are adapting to new and emerging regulations and case law: What changes have been implemented and with what success?
• What does corporate counsel find to be the most challenging aspects of revamping compliance procedures and policies in the wake of Dodd-Frank?
• Managing and responding to government enforcement actions, investigations, and demands: What have corporate counsel experienced so far?; Lessons learned, pitfalls to avoid, and best practices going forward
• Top 5 concerns of in-house counsel now and in the near-term
• Management of third-party relationships and vendor oversight: Impact of the CFPB
• Assessing creative and effective ways for corporate counsel to manage the fees defense counsel charge for class action work
• The rise of the alternative fee arrangement: is it succeeding or fizzling out?
• Corporate counsel insights into innovative billing arrangements that law firms have implemented: Successes and failures of such arrangements
• How corporate counsel are responding to internal budgetary pressures
• How capital requirements have impacted legal budgets
• Internal and external cost-cutting: What has worked and what has not
• In-house staffing solutions for stretched legal departments

Please visit the ACI web site for more information.