After years of headline-grabbing settlements and large, industry-wide investigations of U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") violations, 2011 marked a slowdown in the pace of the U.S. enforcment actions. However, 2011 did have the most FCPA trials in the statute's hsitory, and several resulted in key judgments, especially those relating to the definition of a "foreign official," that will impact future enforcement of the statue. A review prepared by The International Law Firm of Fulbright & Jaworski can be found here.

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Barbara D'Aquila and Patrick Gallagher of Fulbright & Jaworski discussed the fundamentals and best practices to protect the company's greatest asset — intellectual property — when dealing with employees and independent contractors. The panel reviewed the basics including default ownership rules when there is no agreement key points to contemplate when drafting employment contracts and independent contractor agreements governing intellectual property, such as: consideration, governing law, pre-invention assignment clauses, and other important concepts. This Forum provided a review of best practices at the beginning, during, and end...

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Data protection law is about to undergo the most fundamental change in 15 years. The EU’s Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, announced in January a proposal for reform of the EU data protection regime. If passed into law, the proposed changes would require businesses to make some significant changes to how they currently process and use personal data. The new rules will represent nothing less than a complete overhaul of the current data protection regime. Assuming the proposed reforms are adopted,...

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Ireland remains a strong destination for international investment, including North America, exceeding comparable investments in Brazil, Russia, India and China combined for 2011.  Ireland offers numerous competitive advantages to international investors including: access to EU markets a competitive, corporate tax regime, including the 12.5% mainstream Corporation Tax rate and other important initiatives a Double Tax Treaty network increased competitiveness in the cost of  doing business a highly-qualified, experienced and educated workforce As a stable western democracy, Ireland’s business structures and regulatory framework are particularly suited to...

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