InsideCounsel - June 2012

Shannon Couffer, walgreens; e. alan arnold, delta airlines

Social Scoop

social media

The “Social Media Governance” breakout session at SuperConference offered insight into the social media policies at three different companies—Go Daddy Operating Co., Delta Air Lines, Inc. and Walgreen Co.—and provided general pointers for in-house counsel looking to craft a policy of their own.

Kimberly Cilke, deputy general counsel of GoDaddy, said her company’s employees are tech-savvy and interested in social media, and the legal department quickly realized that it needed to take advantage of the new medium. So it created a dedicated social media team, each member of which is trained on how to post on behalf of GoDaddy.

Delta’s approach, according to Assistant General Counsel E. Alan Arnold, relies heavily on interacting with customers. It uses social media to get real-time feedback from passengers on many of its flights and engages them to offer assistance.

Walgreens was stuck in traditional marketing at first, said Shannon Couffer, senior litigation and regulatory attorney. But the company broke out of its box and managed to launch a successful campaign through Foursquare, which offered free flu shots in exchange for check-ins at its stores.

Other advice the experts offered was to include a general disclaimer in social media policies that workers’ Section 7 rights are not infringed, and to consider separate policies for general use and for employees who are posting on behalf of the company.

Visit InsideCounsel.com to watch a video interview with Frank Orzo of LT Online, who moderated the session, and has more helpful tips for managing social media.

—JULIE;BECK

insidecounsel.com

Online Extras

For all of the inside information on SuperConference that we couldn’t squeeze into the magazine, head to InsideCounsel. com/tag/superconference-2012, where you’ll find:

•;Slideshows;with;photos;from
each day of the conference
•;Detailed;synopses;of;breakout
sessions, with additional quotes
from experts on everything
from e-discovery to arbitration
•;A;video;interview;with;Ron
Schwartz from deloitte
Financial advisory Services,
who gives sound advice on how
to spot and prevent corporate
fraud
•;A;video;interview;with;Frank
orzo of lT online, who offers
pointers for crafting corporate
social media policies

SuperConference attendees learned ways to
spot and discourage corporate bribery and
fraud during the breakout session titled “Top
10 Financial Shenanigans.”
Ron Schwartz, a partner at Deloitte
Financial Advisory Services, moderated the
panel, which featured Dawn Trimmel, internal
audit director at McDonalds Corp., and Kristin
Coleman, vice president, general counsel and
corporate secretary of Brunswick Corp.

The panelists discussed common examples of corruption that companies frequently face on a global level, as well as ways that in-house counsel and their auditing colleagues thwart such wrongdoing.

Much of the discussion focused on mis-
appropriation of assets, which is the no. 1
fraud scheme that affects organizations,
with the median loss for each scheme
amounting to $135,000. Panelists empha-
sized that the more detached a company’s
business unit is from the corporate office,
and the more autocratic the leader is that
guides that unit, the more likely it is to be
involved in some type of illegal activity.

Trimmel said training is an effective way to discourage violations of corporate ethics and compliance policies, particularly in areas of the world where employee turnover is high, such as China.

“If the ethics policy isn’t communicated verbally, it just doesn’t sink in,” she said.

Foiling Fraud coRpoRate cRime

Coleman said that the most effective fraud-reporting tool at Brunswick is an anonymous hotline that employees can use to report suspicious activity. Half of all financial fraud allegations the company receives are substantiated, she said. Still, “training, policies and controls aren’t enough to damper the urge to steal,” Coleman said, so lawyers must routinely communicate with their companies’ third-party vendors, assess their business relationships and pinpoint the risks their companies face around the world.