Sessions

Presentation & Discussion - "Corporate Participation in Elections for Federal Office - Joint Session with the HR and Operations Roundtable Groups"

Panelists

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  David Kluesner

  Regional Government Relations Manager, International Paper
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  Ricardo J. Nunez

  Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corp Secretary, HD Supply, Inc
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  Jade West

  Senior Vice President-Government Relations, NAW

As you know very important federal elections will be taking place in the fall and wholesaler-distributors and their chief legal officers and senior executives need to be aware of the limitations on a corporation’s participation in the political process. Topics discussed are limited to federal election laws and regulations applicable to corporations. Generally, the Federal Election Campaign Act prohibits corporations from using general treasury funds to make contributions to, or expenditures on behalf of, candidates for federal office or their campaign committees. Despite this broad prohibition, there are ways for a corporation and its employees to get involved in the election process. The presentation discusses these methods and provides resource information to assist senior executives in guiding the wholesaler-distributor’s activities.

Presentation & Discussion - "Contracts: Battle of the Forms"

Matthew Geekie

Sr. Vice President, Secretary & General Counsel, Graybar Electric Co

Panelists

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  Winthrop Reed

  Member, Lewis Rice & Fingersh, L.C.

This session will be lead by Matt Geekie- Senior Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel at Graybar Electric and Winthrop Reed III- Attorney at Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C.  They are going to address contracts and what is changing in contact negotiations and battle of the forms. This will be an interactive session so please bring your forms and be prepared to participate in the session.

Presentation & Discussion - "International Arbitration with a focus on Supplier Risk and Product Liability Mitigation"

John B. Pinney

Attorney, Graydon Head & Ritchey LLP

Distributors under applicable law are in most cases directly liable to their customers and frequently ultimate consumers for injuries caused by defects in the products they sell even though distributors rarely are primarily responsible for the defect causing the injury. This is true whether the product is defectively designed or manufactured, or contains contaminates. Moreover, because frequently a lawsuit brought in the U.S. claiming a product is defective is bogus, the enforceability of indemnity provisions in supply agreements, especially for class actions, is also important. Where both the distributor and supplier are located in the U.S., the court system is ordinarily adequate for a distributor to obtain effective relief against a supplier whose allegedly defective product results in a legal claim against it, which may include either the plaintiff directly suing both or the distributor suing the supplier as a third party in the plaintiff's case or filing a separate suit against the supplier. However, obtaining effective relief where a U.S.-based distributor is sued (and tagged) in a domestic lawsuit for a defective foreign-produced product is much more problematic because the foreign supplier may not be subject to jurisdiction in a U.S. court, the supplier probably won't have assets in the U.S. and the courts of the supplier's country may not be willing enforce a U.S. court judgment even if the U.S. court finds the supplier subject to jurisdiction.

John Pinney's presentation will describe how international arbitration can provide an effective means for a U.S. distributor to obtain relief from its foreign supplier for product claims. The first part of the program will cover the key attributes of international arbitration, including enforceability of awards under the New York Convention, the procedural differences between international arbitration and domestic U.S. arbitration and litigation, the costs for an international arbitration, and issues related to provisions in the supply contract like arbitration clauses and choice of a seat, administrators, applicable law and language. The second part will focus on some of the more practical aspects related to negotiating favorable indemnity and dispute resolution provisions in supply contracts, including provisions for suppliers in Asia, especially for China, and in Latin America, especially for Mexico and Chile. Lastly, the program will touch on the potential for coordination of arbitration and other dispute provisions in supplier contracts with products liability insurance underwriting.

Presentation & Discussion - "Supplier Compliance Programs and the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (and similar statutes)"

Richard Williams

Partner, Holland & Knight LLP

In this presentation Richard Williams, Partner with Holland & Knight, will address the ever changing environment in the regulatory process as it relates to your suppliers. He will be addressing the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act that became effective January 1, 2012. Dick will also bring you up to day on new issues in Human Trafficking Laws and Court Cases. As he covers these issue and others he will be advising on practical considerations and case studies that are relevant to the topics outlined above. As we all source from around the globe we need to be fully aware of the supplier regulations as well as government regulations. Dick will give us an excellent overview of both.