Weekly Report 16-27 : Duitch Consulting Group

LOS ANGELES EMPLOYER SURPRISE: A new Ordinance (passed June 2 and effective July 1, 2016) now provides employees who work at least two hours weekly to accrue up to 48 hours paid sick leave per year – for personal illness or to provide care for “any individual related by blood or ‘affinity’ whose associate is the equivalent of a family relationship.” Check your HR policies asap since penalties are $120 per employee per day of violation.

“LAW FIRMS ARE INCREASINGLY VIEWED AS A TARGET FOR HACKERS” and certainly must focus on maintaining secure, reliable content management processes. However, according to last year’s ABA Legal Technology Survey, 95% of law firms use an ‘email attachments’ document sharing platform (HighQ) which provides “essentially insecure online storage.” Other surveys have found 27% of New York attorneys “rarely or ever address Shadow It security risks” and 77% of European attorneys “openly use 3^rd-party cloud applications, despite most knowing that Shadow IT risks break company policy.” Dropbox and similar collaboration tools appear to be best current solution, although IT Managers, dependent on uncontracted and uncontrolled server companies, don’t even know where data is located. The problem is compounded by reality that attorneys “will always go towards the easiest solution… not interested in breaking up the rhythm of their day” (stopping what they’re doing, logging into a system, finding & updating a record, etc) which, combined with human error, accounts for substantial data loss. It’s a major challenge for legal firms and far from resolved. [LEGAL TECH NEWS – June 16]

THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM WHICH FACILITATES MONEY EXCHANGE, via “tens of millions of messages a day between thousands of financial institutions – the invisible causeway on which global commerce hums – is in doubt.” After a billion dollars was recently nearly stolen by cybercriminals, concern is high that breach of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communication), could lead to entire system failure, halting transfer of personal moneys or settling securities & derivatives transactions. “‘Industry insiders and cyber experts at the biggest U.S. banks are now backing efforts to build a new system of global financial communication that employs ‘blockchain’ technology… where trust is established through direct relationships, mass collaboration and code, rather than through a centralized routing authority” (the Bitcoin model). [TIME – June 13, 16]

COMPANY BOARDS OF DIRECTORS AND/OR ADVISORS ARE OFTEN ALOOF from critical factors in Risk Management – most notably (1) ensuring that members skills & experience are aligned with strategy, having perspective to “ask the right questions, challenge management when needed, and provide necessary guidance”; or (2) preparing for the unexpected: identifying risk categories and developing realistic protection & mitigation strategies for business disruptions like cybercrime, weather-related issues, even terrorism. ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail.’ DCG can help. [NACD DIRECTROSHIP MAGAZINE – May/Jun 16]

“RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS ARE NOT DETERRED BY GUN CONTROL LAWS… To suggest otherwise provides a dangerous sense of false security… Law-abiding gun owners are tired of being blamed for the acts of madmen and terrorists. Semiautomatics are the most popular firearms sold in America for sport-shooting, hunting and self-defense. Congress banned their manufacture for 10 years and mandated an independent study which proved the ban had no impact… Repeating the same thing but expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.” [USA TODAY – June 14, 16]

TEXTING IMPACTS BREATHING since “you tend to round your shoulders and drop your head which results in breathing less deeply.” According to Korean scientists, people using their cellphones more than four hours daily had nearly a third lower level of “peak expiratory flow, a measure of lung function.” [MENS HEALTH MAGAZINE – Jul/Aug 16]

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to change it every 6 months.” – Oscar Wilde

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