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French National Assembly Advances Legal Protections for In-House Counsel

Posted on July 12, 2023 by admin

PARIS – On July 10, 2023, the French Government presented an amendment to Article 19 of Rule 99 of the Rules of Procedure, making significant changes to the role and responsibilities of in-house lawyers in France. The amendment fundamentally reshapes legal advice confidentiality in the corporate sector and improves France’s attractiveness in the global market.

Under this amendment, legal advice drawn up by an in-house lawyer or, at their request and under their supervision, by a member of their legal department, which is done for the benefit of their employer, is considered confidential. In other words, French legal departments providing legal advice to their employers enjoy confidentiality rules when providing said advice.

“This amendment highlights decades of persistence,” said Jonathan Marsh, President of ECLA. “This has been at the forefront for French legal departments, and we are excited to see the French Government agree with our positions to such a large extent. The changes will bring a new era for French businesses – one in which they can globalise their unparalleled competitiveness, unhindered by the evident restrictions that the current regime imposed.”

The amendment introduces rules concerning the confidentiality of legal advice drawn up by in-house lawyers or their team members that, if appropriately labelled and identifiable, cannot be seized or required to be handed over in civil, commercial, or administrative proceedings or litigation. This confidentiality is not applicable in criminal or tax proceedings.

Two key conditions must be met for confidentiality to apply for French in-house counsel. The lawyer, or the member of their team that reports to them, must hold a master’s degree in law (or an equivalent diploma) and must provide proof of initial and continuing training in ethics.

Legal advice under confidentiality rules must be appropriately labelled – confidentiel – consultation juridique juriste d’entreprise, translated as confidential – legal consultation with in-house counsel.

Moreover, new procedures have been established for courts to challenge the alleged confidentiality of documents in case of a dispute. The company employing the in-house lawyer is required to be assisted or represented by an attorney in these proceedings. Penalties have been outlined for fraudulently affixing the confidentiality label on documents not covered by the new regime.

The reasoning behind this amendment is both practical and economical. There have been decades of discussions (and several international court proceedings highlighting the discrepancy) by which French companies have been at a disadvantage when dealing with foreign-based companies where in-house counsel do enjoy legal privilege. The French government acknowledges this “paradoxical situation”, in which French in-house lawyers must implement and uphold compliance obligations while avoiding the risk of self-incrimination by their companies. As the representatives put it: “The stakes are too high… – It’s about jobs and the attractiveness of our nation. Our aim is to encourage more companies to establish their legal departments within France and to recruit French in-house lawyers.”

Marcus M. Schmitt, General Manager of ECLA, expressed strong support for the change: “This is a great development in France, and I extend my heartfelt congratulations to our colleagues at AFJE and Cercle Montesquieu there. I am delighted to see the arguments we have been advocating for such a long time have finally been adopted. This change significantly reflects the job description that in-house lawyers have in practice. We hope more countries will soon follow in France’s footsteps, bolstering legal protections for in-house counsel.”

The French Government hopes this new amendment will help French companies meet their increasing compliance obligations in fields like governance, human rights, due diligence, data protection, ethical rules, and environmental responsibility. It is also expected to increase France’s appeal to legal departments, many of whom had been choosing to establish in countries offering such protection.

ECLA views this development as natural progress towards our ultimate goal – to have a EU-wide regime for in-house counsel (either on a national or a supranational level) that adequately reflects the work that in-house counsel do. The development of the profession has been hindered by misunderstood legal rulings that have shaped the dynamics of the role and of businesses at large for too long – it is reencouraging to see that France is the latest EU Member State that has realised the importance and value that a well-regulated legal department produces.

The amendment can be viewed in French at https://ecla.martenmannis.eu.online/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/FRANCE-LPP-Amendment.pdf

ECLA is also proud to announce that, as part of its 40^th Anniversary Celebration on 18-19 September in Frankfurt, Germany, it will hold an enhanced panel discussion to dissect and deliberate on the current confidentiality regimes in Europe and on the impact that these developments have in practical terms for businesses. For more information, please visit https://ecla.martenmannis.eu.online/events/anniversary/

Enhancing the protection of internal legal advice: A key step to bolster France’s and Europe’s global attractiveness and competitiveness

Posted on April 5, 2023 by admin

Enhancing the protection of internal legal advice: A key step to bolster France’s and Europe’s global attractiveness and competitiveness

As a leading industrialised nation, France must address its current lack of protection for in-house legal advice. This deficiency has put French companies in a challenging position, making them less effective in addressing potential corruption and, furthermore, has put French companies at a disadvantage in the face of international economic competition. It has exposed them to extraterritorial standards and has brought a risk of having their strategic information exploited during litigation, in particular where the legal departments of their international counterparts enjoy broader protection.

This issue has been criticised, at home and abroad, for making French companies more vulnerable and subjecting them to a less favourable legal environment compared to their global competitors. Consequently, many businesses are considering relocating their legal departments to countries with stronger protections in place. Such relocations threaten the influence and attractiveness of French law, potentially leading to the displacement of legal decision-making centres and a loss of influence for the French legal community in Europe and beyond. Companies cannot fully integrate with the local legal system while knowing that relocation can become a potentially reasonable decision for the business. Similarly, it becomes harder to convince expanding businesses to choose countries like France as a potential option for opening new branches.

The French Ministry of Justice has realised the necessity of having a globally competitive system in this scope. It currently is developing a proposal supported by AFJE, Cercle Montesquieu, and Paris Place de Droit. The proposal aims to protect legal opinions by attaching the confidentiality to the document itself, rather than the author’s status. This would enable companies to maintain confidentiality, subject to judicial discretion during seizure, or opt to waive it as needed.

The proposed protection potentially brings numerous benefits, including:

Levelling the playing field for French companies against their international competitors.
Safeguarding the influence and attractiveness of the French legal community.
Enhancing corporate anti-corruption efforts, ultimately improving France’s position in international rankings.
Providing effective protection against extraterritorial investigations by foreign authorities, which often target large French companies.

ECLA has long stood for the right of protection of legal advice given by in-house lawyers – it stands as the foundation on which the Association is built and supports our core goals – to lessen the functional differences between external and internal counsel, and to bring legal clarity to Europe that would effectively increase the competitiveness of the Internal Market, especially when concerned with litigation with international counterparts. We commend AFJE Cercle Montesquieu, and Paris Place de Droit in supporting this initiative and are willing to provide any support necessary.

To download the press release, please click here.

Data-Driven Business Models: the role of legal teams in delivering success

Posted on June 15, 2022 by admin

Download the report here.

European regulation of data-driven business models provides GCs with a unique opportunity to help drive innovation within their businesses

Findings of a new European survey come ahead of a huge expansion of EU data regulation
89% of companies now offer, or plan to offer, data driven products or services
But 63% say the legal and regulatory framework around data is too complex
Compliance risks may be triggered so data strategy is needed, dovetailed with ESG policies

The European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA) has surveyed over 400 General Counsel across the continent to find out whether they are prepared for the major changes in data and digital regulation and the new opportunities they present, both for the success of their business and for their own role in fostering innovation.

The new report – ‘Data-Driven Business Models – the role of legal teams in delivering success’ – questioned GCs across the seven major business sectors of energy & utilities, retail & consumer, financial services, life sciences & healthcare, real estate & infrastructure, technology, media & communications, and transport & automotive. The report was commissioned by international law firm Osborne Clarke which was closely involved in shaping the concept and content. The report provides analysis on each sector as well as market insights, case studies and horizon scanning analysis.

Nick Johnson, head of digitalisation, Osborne Clarke, comments: “We see a growing awareness by legal teams of the need for data-related skill-sets that go beyond data privacy – and of the gathering storm of new data legislation. These can be blind-spots for a company’s board, and in-house legal teams may need to work hard to explain their concerns and demonstrate the need for action. However businesses that empower their legal teams to take a leadership role in planning and rolling out data-driven business models will reap clear rewards: legal teams are uniquely well-placed to see the bigger picture, and to help drive the changes necessary for new data initiatives to achieve their potential.”

Jonathan Marsh, President of ECLA, comments: “The disruptive nature of digitalisation across sectors has transformed the role that in-house counsel have in their respective companies, requiring them to establish a legal culture that is both ethical and efficient for the business in a growing regulatory environment. With data collection and utilisation becoming an increasing priority, legal departments have become responsible for devising processes that enable businesses to leverage insights from data, while respecting consumer laws and norms. Now, more than ever, a well-functioning legal department has become a cornerstone for ensuring long-term corporate viability.”

Summary of key findings

The transformation of businesses and markets through digital innovation (in part accelerated by the global covid-19 pandemic) has placed in-house legal teams at the heart of their organisations as enablers of growth and of change. But the increasing complexity and scope of data and digital regulation mean they will need new skills. And while the survey shows that there is the ambition to embrace new data-driven models, significant obstacles to progress remain.

67% of surveyed company lawyers across Europe say that the legal and regulatory framework around data is the biggest obstacle to implementing data-driven business models within their organisation. 63% say it is too confusing for purpose with only 11% saying it is well-structured.

Current provision of data-driven business models

61% of European businesses offer data-driven products/services
64% of European businesses are using existing internal data, which was initially not intended for the new purpose
82% of European businesses are using customer-provided data sets
42.5% of European businesses are (or are planning to) develop data-driven products/services jointly with commercial third parties.

Obstacles

The most commonly cited obstacles to implementing data-driven business models were:

Legal and regulatory challenges, cited by 67% of companies
68% of participating lawyers consider the European legal/regulatory framework to be too complex (even before the coming reforms to data and digital regulation) and 63% find it confusing
Only 11% of companies considered that their business is well prepared for the legal challenges of data-driven business models, and only 26% reported board-level expertise around such models
Cybersecurity was an obstacle for 38% of companies. This reflects the greater use of data flows including the growth of digital supply chains.

Data strategy

As data becomes an increasingly valuable asset for a business and starts to underpin significant proportions of its activity, decision-making, products and services, so a data strategy becomes all the more important.

Only 36% of responding companies have a data strategy in place
Only 47% think about the ethical and reputational angles of their use of data
Although 40% of surveyed companies have provisions in contracts that go beyond data protection compliance, only 16% believed that the legal team had implemented the data strategy (where it existed)

Data strategy and data governance are areas where a legal department can add significant value to an organisation by bringing together the various relevant stakeholders to develop these policies to sit across the whole business, rather than being considered an issue for the IT team.

With the emergence of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies, data strategy needs to be dovetailed with net-zero strategy and the greening of tech procurement processes, while new green-focused laws on the design and provision of technology need to be monitored. All of these present GCs with an opportunity to add significant value to their business as both a manager of risk and identifier of business efficiencies and market opportunities.

The report can be downloaded here.

About ECLA

The European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA) was founded in 1983 and is the umbrella organisation of 22 different national associations of in-house counsel working in companies and organisations.

For more than 39 years, ECLA has been committed to the profession of company lawyers throughout Europe and accounts for approximately 68,000 professionals in its network and represents the more than 150,000 company lawyers across Europe.

About Osborne Clarke

Osborne Clarke is a future-focused international legal practice, with 300+ partners and more than 1,080 talented lawyers working together across 26 offices around the world.

Our three-dimensional approach to client service combines legal expertise, in-depth understanding of our clients and the sectors they operate in, together with insight into the global issues that are transforming the landscape of how we live, work and do business: decarbonisation, digitalisation and urban dynamics. Looking around corners to help our clients solve legal and business challenges, big and small, and harness the opportunities of change.

Celebrating the European Day of Justice 2021 – No justice without independent lawyers

Posted on October 25, 2021 by admin

The European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA) congratulates all colleagues across Europe on today’s European Day of Justice 2021 which was initiated by the Council of Europe and the European Commission as well as the European Lawyers Day 2021, initiated by the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE).

In keeping with this year’s theme of “No justice without independent lawyers”, the ECLA is proud to reiterate that company lawyers are independent by design, as demonstrated in the 2012 ECLA White Paper “Company Lawyers: Independent by Design”. Today, more than 150,000 company lawyers across Europe are strongly committed to advancing the rule of law.

Indeed, justice cannot exist without a strong rule of law. A strong rule of law is the cornerstone of European society as well of a flourishing European economy. The independence of lawyers from governments, states, and authorities is an indispensable foundational element thereof.

Jonathan Marsh, President of the ECLA and International General Counsel at TotalEnergies, observes that:

“Much has changed over the last 20 years in the European legal community including, most encouragingly, the increasingly vital role of company lawyers, who embody an essential aspect of the rule of law in European companies, in particular with respect to compliance, digital and ESG developments.

The independence of company lawyers and the importance of a professional legal privilege is increasingly recognized, as evidenced by the evolution of the jurisprudence of national member states, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the recent recommendations of the OECD”.

The ECLA welcomes this opportunity to highlight the role of company lawyers in supporting the advancement of justice and the rule of law in Europe and remains committed to working with stakeholders across all disciplines to reinforce the contribution of company lawyers to a better and stronger Europe.

About ECLA
The European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA) was founded in 1983 and is the umbrella organization of 22 different national associations of in-house counsel working in companies and organizations. For more than 38 years, ECLA has been committed to the profession of company lawyers throughout Europe and accounts for approximately 68,000 professionals in its network and represents the more than 150,000 company lawyers across Europe.

The full press release can be downloaded here.

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ECLA & ACC joint feedback on the 2021 EU Justice Scoreboard

Posted on April 15, 2021 by admin

It should be noted that the viewpoints of in-house lawyers may have been included in past scoreboards in cases where company lawyers are full members of the bar. For example, French in-house counsel cannot join the national bar association, which entails that they have been excluded from the scoreboard figures of the past. Because of these national differences, the associations recommend adding the following research themes to the 2021 Justice Scoreboard:

a) the role of in-house counsel in promoting a culture of compliance within their companies;
b) the role of in-house counsel as officers of the court in the administration of justice,
independence of in-house counsel, and their relationship with legal privilege; and
c) the contribution in-house counsel to the efficiency of justice by resolving issues cooperatively
and effectively before they reach litigation, thus reducing pressure on the judicial system.
d) Collect data on the number of in-house counsel in each country of the European Union in order
to measure capacity to comply and promote the rule of law in the private sector.

In-house legal departments are uniquely positioned to promote an efficient administration of justice, by contributing to effective dispute resolution solutions and enforcement, while reducing recourse to judicial resources and, importantly, before the need for litigation arises. Moreover, in-house legal departments increase access to justice by lowering the hurdles of obtaining legal advice – an issue of particular relevance and key to global competition, especially for small and medium enterprises.

The full joint submission on the 2021 Justice Scoreboard can be read here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

ECLA: JONATHAN MARSH AND GIOVANNI CERUTTI RE-ELECTED AS PRESIDENT AND TREASURER, RESPECTIVELY

Posted on December 7, 2020 by admin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On 26 November 2020, the General Assembly of the European Company Lawyers Association decided to re-elect Jonathan Marsh as President and Giovanni Cerutti as Treasurer of ECLA, respectively. The unanimous decision for both individuals, with twenty member associations from ECLA’s pan-European network voting in favour for the two candidates marks their third consecutive terms as members of the ECLA Executive Board.

The unanimous re-election for Jonathan Marsh as President was strongly tied to the increased activeness that ECLA has displayed under his tenure. The association today provides an increasingly diverse set of services for the benefit of its twenty-two member associations, ranging from hosting physical and virtual events to publishing research publications, in addition to presenting opinions in landmark cases related to the core values of ECLA.

For Giovanni Cerutti, the financial security and diligence that the Association has shown towards its commitments over the years supported his re-election as Treasurer.

Jonathan Marsh currently serves as International General Counsel of the Marketing Services Division of the Total S.A. Group legal department. In this role, he manages the legal activities performed by 170 in-house legal counsel in over 100 countries and serves on the Group Legal Committee, consisting of 10 General Counsel supervising the global team of 550 lawyers in the Total Group. Furthermore, Jonathan Marsh also serves as Vice President International Affairs and on the Board of Directors of the French In-house Counsel Association (Association Française des Juristes d’Entreprises – AFJE).

Giovanni Cerutti is SVP General Counsel at the leading IT services provider NTT DATA in the EMEA region since 2012. Within the scope of his role, he is focused on legal & compliance matters, including data privacy and IP, protecting Group’s values and assets to benefit all stakeholders. A versatile and flexible legal manager, Cerutti oversees legal & compliance in numerous legal systems, all of which present challenges through different languages, cultures, and different statutory routes.

For more information, please visit https://ecla.martenmannis.eu.eu/ or contact marten.mannis@ecla.eu[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

New CMS report looks into how General Counsel view the evolution and the position of their roles

Posted on September 15, 2020 by admin

In these times, as face-to-face socialising with your peers from other industries and countries has become scarce, finding best practice online has become the go-to method for broadening your own scope about the evolution of legal teams and their leaders. Though now, six months into the new working order, there is plentitude of advice on digitisation and remote working, the shifts in the role of corporate lawyers, specifically general counsel, are scarcely mentioned.

In the light of this, CMS in partnership with ECLA, has produced an extensive 101-question-interview-series with 18 high-level general counsel based in various sectors in Europe, titled ‘Creating Connections, Bridging Gaps’. The report specifically focuses on how general counsel of today conduct themselves, with the discussions ranging from business relations to team-building to value- and brand-building within the business and beyond.

The report is an excellent read for in-house lawyers regardless of position, as it illustrates well the evolving role and the challenges that today’s general counsel are faced with. Getting such insight from a number of high-level decision makers certainly can demonstrate the future evolution of the role as well, giving a better understanding of where the profession is heading.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Legal Departments Expect More Than 40% of Their Work to Involve Legal Technology in Next 5 Years

Posted on April 21, 2020 by admin

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text]The digital transformation of legal departments is at an intriguing stage. The Legal Departments in a Digital Era Survey from Wolters Kluwer and ECLA found that a considerable proportion of legal departments across Europe acknowledge the need to improve multiple aspects of organization, processes and management of legal departments. However, when assessing maturity levels and determining urgent needs for improvement, it becomes evident that although legal departments in Europe have started embracing the digital transformation journey, more needs to be done before the function is truly transformed.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text]“As legal departments historically function from a “never change a running system” perspective, we are still at the early stages with introducing new-age approaches in-house. However, as shown by this survey, enthusiasm is high across Europe, with corporate lawyers expecting considerable changes in how legal work can be done” says Jonathan Marsh, President of the European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA) and Vice President, International General Counsel, Total Marketing & Services.

The Legal Departments in a Digital Era Survey included quantitative interviews with approximately 400 company lawyers from across five European countries: Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain and Belgium to examine how legal departments have progressed in terms of their digital transformation and what the main hurdles are which they are currently facing. The Survey focused on positioning of legal departments in their organization, priorities in legal departments, digital strategies, organization & budget and practical experience with legal technology.

Detailed findings are available in the study report, which can be downloaded here

Key findings of the study include:

Positioning: 76% of legal departments across Europe are integrated closely within the organization, whereas 24% act as external law firms within their respective organizations.
Current priorities: Collaboration tools have already been improved by 47% of European legal departments, followed by document management at 35% and demonstrating departmental value at 34%. Process structuring and information management are planned to be improved by almost half of legal departments.
Digital strategies: 47% of legal departments in Europe have already established a digital strategy, with an additional 20% currently considering it. However, only 33% of digital strategies have specific goals and a timeline for achieving milestones.
Digital budgets: Even though 67% of legal departments are working with digital strategies, only 33% of those strategies have an established budget. Budgets vary significantly, but the majority of those legal departments that have an established budget currently operate with budgets up to € 100,000.
Legal technology in use: 60% of legal departments have already improved their shared data repositories. Data privacy management tools are currently implemented in 33% of legal departments across Europe. Legal technology solutions such as contract lifecycle management, data privacy management, legal matter management, e-signature and legal spend management are expected to experience an accelerated adoption in the next 5 years.

“The Survey indicates the necessity of having a clear digital strategy and implementation plan for your legal department. Selecting, introducing, and successfully using technology highly depends on understanding the optimal way to run legal activities in one’s specific organization. Only when the digital strategy is aligned with the overall strategy and driven by the priorities of the legal department, can the value of the output be maximized,” says Giulietta Lemmi, Managing Director Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory Global Legal Software Unit.

Strong support for the lawyer of tomorrow, including accelerated adoption of legal technology

The Legal Departments in a Digital Era Survey also examined where support for a digital strategy within the organization came from. From C-level executives to legal department members of all levels to the IT departments – support for the transformation of the legal department exists throughout the company. There are high expectations: 63% of the surveyed participants anticipate that between 40% and 80% of their daily work will involve legal technology in the next five years.

In addition to the Survey findings, the Legal Departments in a Digital Era study report also includes insights from legal industry experts from the five surveyed European regions.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_single_image image=”6735″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”6734″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Legal Disruption is Back in 2020

Posted on March 3, 2020 by admin

Images of the event can be seen below or by clicking here.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][vc_column_text]The first Legal Disruption of 2020 took place in Dublin at The Gibson Hotel. On Wednesday evening on 26 February, in-house lawyers gathered to hear Jane Challoner of CMS give input on possibilities on how to innovate within corporate legal departments and how the role of in-house counsel might be changing. The practical information on where corporate legal departments currently are at served as an excellent introduction to the discussions the following day.

The first session on Thursday 27 February touched privacy matters. The previous decade saw privacy and data handling become one of the most discussed legal themes. Denis Kelleher of LinkedIn gave a detailed overview of the evolution of the European privacy regime, how GDPR has influenced it and what have been the landmark judgments by the CJEU, whilst also giving input on what the future might entail. Linda Thielova of OneTrust built upon Mr. Kelleher’s speech and highlighted other privacy regimes around the world, namely the CCPA. Given that a considerable proportion of companies that today operate globally, a harmonised program lowers costs and greatly reduces challenges for the legal departments of such companies.

Session number two focused on tech utilisation in corporate legal departments. Julienne Jameson of Ewopharma showcased how legal technology could facilitate smaller legal departments, enabling her to handle multiple jurisdictions amongst offices across Europe. This was followed by Nicola Palmer of the Bank of Ireland, who gave an overview of how utilising BusyLamp and their legal spend management tool has changed their operations. The final speaker of the session was Jean-Philippe Doho of Ubisoft who showcased what the legal innovation team in Ubisoft have been doing. The presentation included topics such as legal design to demonstrating a video on how to inform about privacy rules.

The third session focused on contemporary legal departments in general. Monica Mahay of Intel sat down with Mark Cockerill, Vice-President of ECLA, to discuss flexible working practices in high-ranking positions and how she has accomplished a quality work-life balance throughout her distinguished career. Cian Farrell of Huawei Ireland gave some input into how digitalisation and legal technology is being utilised in such large and global companies and the legal departments within. Michelle Feely of Ribbon Communications gave advice on how to ensure a smooth transition in a merger and that the processes in place and technologies in use operate properly afterwards.

The final session saw two speakers looking into the future of corporate lawyers. Colm O’Connor of SCOR Ireland shared some personal experiences in how he has seen the role of general counsel change over the years and how technology has influenced the change. William Irwin of Glassdoor complimented the speech with providing his own input and remarked how far in-house lawyers have come already.

Participants were engaged throughout the day, asking a wide array of questions from the speakers. We hope that everybody that attended left with a positive can-do attitude, motivated to disrupt their own legal departments.

We would like to extent our deepest gratitude to our esteemed speakers and we hope that we will see you again soon. We would also like to thank our sponsors, without whom the event would not have become a reality – CMS, OneTrust, and BusyLamp. We hope that this fruitful relationship continues throughout the year and many more to come.

To those, who missed out on attending in Dublin, do not fret, our next legal disruption will take place in summer in Berlin!

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The European Company Lawyers Association becomes partner of Respect Zone to prevent cyber bullying

Posted on December 20, 2019 by admin

Respect Zone is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting positive communication both in public and online. The core values of the organisation rest on defending the freedom of expression, of thinking, and of criticism, and upholding them as fundamental rights. The goals are achieved through online tools and trainings via legal tools which were initiated by company lawyers. Respect Zone is an NGO established in various countries including France, Belgium, USA and Switzerland, it enables company lawyers and outside counsels to team up in order in particular to provide legal aid on a pro bono basis to the benefit of victims of cyberviolences.

Philippe Coen, founder of Respect Zone and former ECLA President and Honorary President emphasises: “I am thrilled to have ECLA join Respect Zone. During my time as President of ECLA, I saw much of the values Respect Zone propagates enshrined both within ECLA and within ECLA member associations. Restricting and preventing online harassment and violence is an issue that must be tackled worldwide. With ECLA’s membership, our mission statement can reach over 65,000 company lawyers across Europe, further increasing our goals.”

About Respect Zone

Respect Zone is a French NGO for the protection of young people and the prevention of bullying. Since 2014, it has been offering, as an associative Civic Tech, positive tools for non-violent online communication, digital education and respect and co-existence. It is an independent, non-political and non-community based association. Founded on a charter of commitment to respect, it works with its volunteers to defend responsible freedom of expression.

Information: www.respectzone.org

Contact: info@respectzone.org,

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