A Luncheon Seminar conducted by Stuart H. Deming Deming PLLC Washington, D.C. Friday, April 22, 2005 12:00 Noon - 2:00 p.m. Light Lunch between  11:30 a.m. and 12:00 Noon. 29th Floor Executive Office World Trade Center of New Orleans (Free validated parking in the WTC Garage)

2 CLE credits for attorneys

An outgrowth of the Watergate era, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was principally adopted to prohibit the offer or payment of bribes to foreign officials to obtain or retain business.  This seemingly simple statute can prove to be terribly complex and confusing when one is confronted with the practical realities associated with conducting business in unfamiliar settings and in many parts of the world. Over time the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has increasingly had a dramatic impact on how business is conducted all over the world.  Its other component, the accounting and recording-keeping provisions, directly impacts all aspects of the operations of publicly-held companies.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

FCPA’s Prohibition on Payments to Foreign Officials

• What sort of payments are prohibited
• What sort of payments are permitted
• What sort of activities can lead a firm or individual to be held liable for the acts of others like employees, agents, consultants or representatives

Accounting and Record-Keeping Requirements

• Most critical and overlooked part of the FCPA
• How insignificant amounts can trigger severe penalties
• Part of Sarbanes-Oxley‘s core requirements

New International Norms

• Update on dramatic international developments that are leveling the “playing field” for U.S. business and leading to an increase in investigations

What a Company Can Do to Avoid a Violation

• How due diligence can be used to be helpful
• How a compliance program can be designed to be helpful
• How agreements can be structured to be helpful

Stuart H. Deming is a principal with the law firm of Deming PLLC. He practices in its offices in Washington, D.C. and in his hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Mr. Deming represents entities and individuals in a wide range of foreign business and investigatory matters. He provides advice on international transactions, develops and assists in the implementation of compliance programs, conducts internal investigations, and represents clients before federal and state agencies.

Mr. Deming began his legal career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Michigan where he managed an extensive grand jury investigation of kickbacks by a German multinational corporation and litigated a landmark case requiring the production of foreign records by a large German bank. He later joined the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. where he managed the investigation of major corporations for violations of U.S. securities laws, including the successful investigation of a Fortune 500 for accounting fraud. Before going into private practice, Mr. Deming prosecuted public figures, foreign nationals, and executives of large corporations at the Tax Division of the Department of Justice.

After joining the Washington, D.C. law firm of Steptoe & Johnson in 1987, Mr. Deming was directly involved in the representation of a major defense contractor. He later served for a brief period with the Bush administration first with 1990 Economic Summit in Houston and later with the Department of Defense. In 1992 Mr. Deming was asked to return to the Department of Justice to serve as one of the special prosecutors in a highly sensitive and complex investigation involving many members of Congress of the United States and their use of the banking facility at the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1996 he was one of the founding partners of Inman Deming LLP where he practiced in Washington and in Michigan until 2003.

Mr. Deming has written and spoken extensively in the United States and abroad on foreign corrupt practices issues. He has recently completed a major book for the ABA that will be published in early 2005: International Practitioner’s Deskbook Series: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the New International Norms. He has repeatedly Co-Chaired the ABA's National Institutes on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; he was until recently the Co-Chair of the ABA's Task Force on International Standards for Corrupt Practices, and he is a member of the Board of Editorial Advisors to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Reporter. For several years he has taught a course on foreign corrupt practice issues as an adjunct professor at the John Marshall Law School Center for International Business and Trade Law in Chicago.

Mr. Deming has served in various capacities as an officer and member of the Council the ABA’s Section of International Law and Practice and as the Chair of the International Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. He has served as an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s Responsibilities in Tax Practice Committee and as the U.S. representative on the Transparency Committee of the Pacific Basin Economic Council. Mr. Deming received his B.A., M.B.A. and J.D. from the University of Michigan, and he is also licensed as a Certified Public Accountant.