The countdown is on. With the California Consumer Privacy Act slated to go into effect Jan. 1, the call is growing by big tech companies and industry advocates for federal data privacy legislation to preempt differing state laws. Until that occurs, additional states are sure to follow California’s lead in enacting their own laws. Read the full report.
For global businesses navigating litigation concerns, varying data protection laws are triggering potential complications in cross-border discovery. State and federal laws maintain differing levels of compliance, and new data protection laws overseas, led by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, are calling for more uniform approaches to data collection. Read the full report.
Recent cyber attacks on major U.S. businesses and government agencies are putting pressure on general counsels to help fortify internal data protocols. Beyond recent attacks against dozens of U.S. corporations and agencies, companies also face the escalating threat of financial liability. Earlier this year, former executives of a major web services provider agreed to pay $29 million to settle assertions they did not live up to their fiduciary duties in safeguarding customer data during cyber attacks between 2013 and 2016. Read the full report.
A new study finds chief legal officers under increasing pressure because of regulatory and technological change to provide greater input into corporate strategy. Surveying more than 1,600 chief legal officers in 55 countries, the findings highlight the increasingly close collaboration between legal heads and the CEOs and boards of nearly all Fortune 500 companies. The same reporting arrangement, however, characterizes only about 78 percent of the largest corporations worldwide, the study found. Read more.
In the early 1900s, writer Upton Sinclair shocked American consumers with depictions of the meatpacking industry, and food safety regulations followed. Today, customers and investors aren’t focused simply on bare-bones regulations, but on more expansive efforts that further strengthen the bottom line, protect assets, and minimize employee turnover. Health and safety concerns are evolving from mere compliance to proactive measures that enhance wellness across the supply chain and benefit recruitment and retention. Read the full report.
