Practical LawConferences

• Examining the changing European landscape

• What does best practice look like?
• What are the pros and cons of recruiting a CEO internally versus externally?
• What is the role of the Company Secretary in guiding Directors in the recruitment process?
• What are organisations doing to create a good talent pool of candidates?
• The role of Nomination Committees

• This session will examine the steps you should have taken to implement it and how it is working 3 months on:
• Are Restricted Persons lists taking the place of Permanent Insider Lists?
• Wider listing rules update
• How do you streamline it to make it more manageable?
• Controlling and recording inside information
• Are companies adopting a share dealing code?
• Special considerations for employee share plans

Delegates have the choice of 4 breakout sessions to choose from:

• What is the role of the Company Secretary when acquiring or disposing in terms of strategic clarity?
• What are some of the non-financial aspects of acquisitions that are commonly overlooked and how can Company secretaries ensure that these do not get missed out?
• What are the important aspects to consider about the people affected by the process?
• Planning for M&A – buy and sell side issues
• Governance – the importance of managing the process

This session will offer practical ramifications of the UK Bribery Act as well as tips on what to do and not to do.

• Examining trends – has there been an increase or decrease in investigations?
• Strategies deployed to ensure procedures are put into practice
• Deploying effective compliance and training systems
• How do you manage a bribery issue with the Board?

• What is culture and why is it important?
• Does it affect long term value?
• How far is culture attributable to the board?
• What tools are available to measure it and monitor it?
• What happens when you discover your company’s culture is not what you thought it was?
• How can you embed values and behaviour across all levels of the organisation?

This session will cover the role of the audit committee in corporate governance, the revised FRC guidance on audit committees, including reporting to shareholders and the key features of the EU audit reform for auditors set out in revised ethical standards. It will also cover:

• The role of the Company Secretary in Gender Pay Gap reporting, Prompt Payment reporting, Modern Slavery Act and Tax transparency

Delegates have a further 4 breakout sessions to choose from:

• What makes a good Company Secretary?
• How did I end up being in a top job?
• Understanding what your Chair needs from you
• Examining the role of the Company Secretary in the Boardroom

• What the network society shareholder expects
• Removing paper from purchase through to sale and everything in-between
• The five potential stages to the general meeting of the future
• Does employee engagement differ from shareholder engagement?
• Security considerations
• Opt in or opt out?

• How have things changed since the 2015 AGM season?
• Where are we now? Is pay for performance an outdated concept?
• What do the Investment Association’s (IA) proposals mean for policy development in 2017?

• Managing a crisis and how to get back on the front foot
  • When to involve the Board
• Ensuring key crisis response roles have been identified and practiced their crisis’ responses

Delegates have the choice to attend 4 breakout sessions:

• How do you want the team to be perceived internally and externally. How do you build high performing teams?
• What do you want in a good company Secretarial team?
• How you get more aligned across the business?

• Understanding the importance of investing in privacy and making regulation work for you
• Dealing with the differences in legislation across the organisation by consolidating multiple policies
• What practical measures do you need to put in place for the EU Data Protection Regulation?

• The approach to bringing your annual report together
• Cutting the clutter and understanding jargon
• What are the new requirements for the 2017 annual report?
• How to tackle Brexit disclosures
• The current status and practice for the separate CSR reports, such as modern slavery and gender pay reporting

• How do you have oversight of how your subsidiaries or JVs are behaving?
• Do you just say it’s up to them in that jurisdiction or will that mean it will feed into the group?

Delegates have the choice of 2 sessions to attend:

• How do you manage the risk?
• What do you need to do to minimise your risk from cyber attacks?

• What worked and what didn’t?
• Are there frameworks developing?
• How should the Company Secretary be assessing the impact of the risk management process?
• The future of risk reporting and viability statements
• An investor’s perspective: What are they looking for?

• Examining the new climate  in light of the recent Commons committee inquiry
• What are the likely changes?

The page will be updated with further details on the agenda once they are confirmed.