Managing a company's legal department. Corporate lawyer

Programme

Day 1

The legal service and legal units in the company

• Legal support: role, functions and how it is organised in the company
• Functions and tasks of the legal unit
• Interaction of the legal unit with other company services. Conflicts
• Interaction of the head of the legal unit with the executive body and the participants/shareholders
• Practical aspects of organising the representation of the company's interests by employees
• Approaches to organising the legal review of documents in the company. Verifying the authenticity of documents and authority
• Specifics of documenting decisions in the company's activities in particular cases

Day 2

Corporate governance: legal and organisational issues

• Concept, goals and objectives of corporate governance. The need for corporate governance in general and in particular cases
• Organising the work and relationships of owners and managers. Conflict of interest and its levels. Delegating functions. The agency conflict
• Historically established international models of corporate governance. Specifics of corporate governance and its models in Kazakhstan
• Main legal acts in the field of corporate governance. Requirements for and the system of the company's internal corporate documents
• Governing bodies of JSCs, LLPs, etc. — hierarchy, competences, protection of minority shareholders' rights, etc.
• The board of directors in a JSC. Specifics of the work of independent board members in organisations with state participation
• Executive bodies of JSCs and LLPs — sole and collegial, their rights, duties and liability
• The supervisory board and the board of directors. How they relate
• Separation of powers and responsibilities of governing bodies
• Issues of changes in the composition of owners (transfer of shares/participatory interests, purchase and sale, reorganisation, spin-off, inheritance, etc.), of governing bodies and of the management structure in general and in particular cases
• Subsidiaries and affiliates. Interested-party transactions. General provisions on groups of companies, dominant and monopoly position. General provisions on securities
• Current problems of law enforcement practice and of regulating corporate governance issues

Solving problems and practical cases

Day 3

Contract law: transactions and contracts, particular aspects

• The concept of a transaction. Void and voidable transactions. Invalid transactions
• The principle of freedom of contract and its limits. Innominate types of contracts. Mandatory and default rules
• Conditional transactions (fixing a condition precedent or subsequent, linking the terms of the transaction to changes in circumstances, offer and acceptance, etc.)
• Practical recommendations on drawing up contracts and organising a system for recording and analysing them in future. Typical mistakes and problems in drawing up contracts (contract details, preamble, dating problems, the seal, etc.)
• Mechanisms for recording the process and result of concluding a contract (signature, facsimile, digital signature, etc.). Mechanisms for verifying authenticity, possible abuses, etc.
• Technological aspects of countering unlawful actions by unscrupulous counterparties and protecting the contract from falsification (necessary clauses, specifics of laying out the contract text, initialling, binding, etc.)
• Essential terms of the contract. Particular cases: interpretation and practice of application
• Establishing business relations and verifying the authority of persons in the process of concluding a contract
• Specifics of and need for drawing up powers of attorney. Revocation and cancellation of powers of attorney. The relationship between an order and a power of attorney
• Exceeding authority and the consequences
• Legal status of the head of a structural unit and the possibility of concluding contracts
• Evasion of concluding a contract. Issues of proving that a contract was concluded
• Concluding contracts by exchanging documents and electronic messages. Specifics
• The essence of protocols of disagreement and their role in concluding a contract. Problem points (determining the moment of conclusion of the contract, cases of performance of obligations before the final agreement of the contract terms, etc.)
• The framework contract. The supplementary agreement
• Issues of documenting the performance of obligations under the contract (waybills, acceptance certificates, certificates of completion, etc.). Performance to an unauthorised person
• Time for performance of obligations in the contract (start, end, interruptions)
• Place and moment of performance of obligations in the contract
• Currency clauses and other ways of hedging risks
• Current issues and problems in using means of securing obligations (standard and non-standard types, combinations, innominate)
• Termination of obligations under the contract (conditions, cases, procedure, force majeure and impossibility of performance, etc.). Consequences
• Repudiation of the contract. Consequences in particular cases

Analysis of law enforcement practice, practical sessions

Day 4

Pre-trial settlement and action proceedings

• Current changes in legislation
• Pre-trial settlement — necessity, procedure, specifics
• Defining the subject matter and scope of the claims, determining the risks of counterclaims, determining whether initiating court proceedings is expedient
• Grounds and tactics for filing a counterclaim
• Interim measures — specifics of application, consequences
• Consequences of changing the grounds or subject matter of the claim, withdrawing the claim, admitting the claim and a settlement agreement
• Persons participating in the case and the scope of their procedural rights. Parties making and not making independent claims
• Evidence and proof in civil proceedings. Relevance, admissibility and reliability. Specifics in certain cases. Burden of proof
• Examining and assessing individual types of evidence
• Witness testimony, written evidence (including electronic messages/letters), expert and specialist opinions
• Trial. Stages and procedures. Appealing judicial acts, review on newly discovered circumstances
• Appeal, specifics of appealing certain types of judicial acts, content and procedure for filing an appeal, submitting a response to the appeal, restrictions on submitting additional evidence in the court of appeal
• Appealing judicial acts that have entered into legal force
• Review of judicial acts on newly discovered circumstances, conditions and procedure for review
• Alternative dispute resolution methods. Mediation, etc.

Analysis of law enforcement practice, practical sessions