The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will hold its annual Legal Issues Forum on Nuts and Bolts Business Issues from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 27, 2016, at the FHI 360 Conference Center, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC. The event is part of World Standards Week (WSW), a series of meetings and celebrations hosted annually by ANSI, coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system.
A broad range of legal experts will lead panel discussions on employment law, cybersecurity, and social media - all topics of importance to non-profit organizations in the standardization community. Each session will be structured as a 90-minute moderated discussion, with considerable opportunity for audience Q&A. ANSI members and all interested stakeholders including those from government, industry, business, consumer groups, and academia are encouraged to attend and share their perspectives on these critical issues.
For the first time, this annual event is being offered free of charge to ANSI members. Non-members have a registration fee of $249.
"At this year's Legal Issues Forum, we really want to go beyond just reaching the legal minds within the standards development community," said Patricia Griffin, ANSI vice president and general counsel. "That's why we've decided to make the event free to members - we encourage you to bring your HR, IT, and communications colleagues along, who are sure to benefit from the topics of discussion."
Also for the first time, ANSI has applied to offer Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits for this conference. CLE is professional education for attorneys following their admission to the bar. Should ANSI be approved, the Institute will put out another announcement and will advise all registrants to date, so that they may take advantage of the CLE credits as appropriate.
The draft agenda and registration details are available on the Legal Issues Forum event webpage.
The employment law panel - featuring panelists from ASHRAE, Braxton Hook, Kelley Drye, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, and Venable - is expected to address:
the latest thinking on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
best practices in discrimination law, including sexual orientation and disability discrimination
avoiding the pitfalls of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) wage and hour laws
best practices involving at-will employment, hiring, disciplining, and firing
employee-related privacy issues and records retention
writing legally sound policies, procedures, and employee handbooks
The cybersecurity panel - featuring panelists from the Internet Security Alliance, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Hogan Lovells, Cooley, and King & Spalding - will address:
how to respond to a data breach
best practices to reduce cyber risks
the role of insurance in mitigating cybersecurity risks
And the social media panel - featuring panelists from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Carter Ledyard & Milburn, Baker Hostetler, Kelley Drye, and Venable - will cover:
common legal problems of engaging consumers through social media including sweepstakes, contests, blogs, and other promotions
disclosure of confidential, copyright-protected or trademark-protected information
defamation and violating the privacy or publicity rights of others
writing a good social media policy
working with influencers
real-time marketing
World Standards Week, to be held this year from October 24-28, is an annual event where members of the standards and conformity assessment community come together in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration. For more information, including registration for other WSW events and details on all meetings and conferences, visit www.ansi.org/wsweek.
About ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is made up of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide.
The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).