Summary of Current Benefits:
National Conference
ACLA’s 2-day annual National Conference provides a forum for state-of-the-art presentations on “black letter” law, practice management and motivational and inspirational topics. At the Conference Dinner, ACLA recognises excellence in the provision of legal services through its prestigious annual Awards to deserving individuals and teams
CPD/CLE Seminars
ACLA provides regular, informative, educational seminars. Many are free to members. Most ACLA Divisions also host a Corporate Counsel Day where required CLE/CPD points can be earned. As well, members may access LexisNexis’ seminars at reduced rates
Networking Events
ACLA provides many opportunities to meet fellow in-house lawyers at its regular networking events held in all States/Territories. Many are free or discounted for members.
Graduate Diploma
In a joint initiative with ACLA, the College of Law has designed the online Graduate Diploma of In-house Legal Practice specifically to meet the needs of in-house lawyers.
The Australian Corporate Lawyer Journal
The Association's journal, The Australian Corporate Lawyer, is published quarterly. It contains articles which are in-depth, timely and directly relevant to the in-house legal profession. Members receive this journal free as part of their membership benefits. You can access the latest issue online in the members' Reading Room (you must have your member login details ready).
Member Directory
ACLA members have unrestricted access to a Member Directory in the secured members only area of the web site, that lists the name, title, organisation and contact details of every member of the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association.
ACLA In-house Lawyers Practice Manual
This is a 39 chapter publication produced by Middletons and available on-line through ACLA’s website to members only. The Manual covers both substantive law issues as well as legal practice management matters that directly affect in-house practitioners.
Ethics for In-House Counsel Handbook
In conjunction with the St. James Ethics Centre, an Ethics for In-House Counsel handbook has been published by ACLA and is available free of charge to all members in either hard copy or through ACLA's website. .
Website
Members are provided with a username and password to enable them to access the members only area of ACLA's website at www.acla.com.au.
ACLA National Mentoring Program
A National Mentoring Program for full ACLA members. The program aims to develop both mentors and mentees within the in-house legal profession - providing an opportunity for mentors to give back and gain fresh perspectives; and for mentees to raise fresh ideas in a safe space, gain independent and objective perspectives and enhance their skills and confidence.
Lawlex Legislation Alert Service
Lawlex provides to members a co-branded, email-based legislation alert service to ACLA members in the areas of law selected by them. Members are allowed a one month free trial period, a substantially reduced subscription rate for both "single member" and "enterprise wide" versions of the service and 15 months subscription for the price of 12 months in the first year.
Professional Indemnity Cover for In-house Lawyers
Resource Underwriting Pacific Pty Limited has agreed to offer a special Professional Indemnity cover for Australia’s in-house lawyers with the following features:
• a uniform policy limit of $1,000,000 per policy
• an automatic reinstatement of the limit for all insureds
• pro bono work cover applicable to all policies
• a sub-limit for legal costs of $250,000 in all cases
• a single excess (deductible) of $2,500
The new policy covers practice in Australia and New Zealand and can be taken up at any time but the policies have a uniform expiry date of 30 June each year. The premium payable depends in each case on the income of the insured but ACLA members are entitled to a discount of 20% on the quoted premiums at all levels.
See: Specimen Policy , Proposal Form and Premium Table
ACLA Linex Legal - Tailored Current Awareness
Linex Legal’s new tailored current awareness service provides ACLA members with instant access to legal updates and reviews published each day by all the major law firms and regulatory bodies in over 60 jurisdictions. The service is free to all ACLA members.
There are 4 elements to the service:
1. “Best of the week” email alerts covering legal updates and reviews published each week by law firms in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Each email alert contains links to a selection of the most relevant legal articles and reviews for in-house counsel published in the previous week.
2. Sector Alerts and Hot Topic Alerts - an online service providing access to the latest articles grouped by practice area and hot topics. Find out what each law firm is writing about in your area of interest.
3. Legal search – search a database over 40,000 legal updates and reviews from all the major law firms and regulatory bodies around the world.
4. RSS Feed Directory – access to over 200 popular RSS feeds covering law firm news and legal current awareness from the major online publishers.
To access the service, please login to the ACLA website and click on the ACLA Linex Legal Alerter link in the members area. For further information please visit www.linexlegal.com or email support@linexlegal.com.
ACLA_LINK Program
ACLA_LINK is a marketing program that allows selected suppliers to introduce and promote their products and services more readily to the in-house legal profession. Substantial discounts are available to members who purchase these products or services.
LexisNexis Discounts
As a major sponsor of ACLA, legal publisher LexisNexis offers the following discounts to members:
- Legal Profiles (free)
- LexisNexis books published in Australia (17.5%)
- LexisNexis Professional Education seminars (20%)
- All LexisNexis newsletters (10%)
- ASX Rules Publications (10%)
- New subscriptions to LexisNexis (10% - first year only)*
* Individual member not corporation
Lawyers Weekly Magazine
ALB (Australasian Legal Business) Magazine
ACLA has reached a special agreement with the publishers of ALB (Australasian Legal Business) magazine whereby all full ACLA members can receive the magazine every month free-of- charge. If you are a full member click on the subscribe link and fill out your contact details.
ACLA Newsstand by Lexology
ACLA Newsstand – a daily email newsfeed is designed and developed exclusively free for ACLA members, powered by Lexology. The newsfeed content is customised according to members needs and business interests, members will stay fully briefed on legal developments, both domestic and international, which affects the businesses they represent.
Legal Jobs Centre
ACLA's job board is provided by Legal Jobs Centre, the leading online recruitment portal exclusively for legal professionals.
Employers using Legal Jobs Centre can recruit from a qualified and talented pool of legal professionals, create a company profile page for job seekers, and see live stats to maximise responses to job postings.
Job seekers can easily browse legal jobs by location, sector, PQE and salary expectation. When new job posts arrive matching the nominated criteria of the job searcher, a complimentary job alert e-mail provides the opportunity to be first in line to apply.
ACC Online
ACLA has negotiated with the Association of Corporate Counsel (formerly the American Corporate Counsel Association) a licence which permits full members to access ACC Online (including ACC's on-line Virtual Library) without the need to be a financial member of ACC. Full members pay less than half the price of full ACC membership to access ACC's on-line resources. Click here for a application form and to read more about the ACC click here.
Alliances with Overseas In-House Lawyer Associations
ACLA has forged solid strategic alliances with similar overseas associations including the Corporate Lawyers Association of New Zealand (CLANZ), the Association of Corporate Counsel - America (ACC), the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA), the Hong Kong Corporate Counsel Association (HKCCA), the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association, the European Company Lawyers Association, the Corporate Lawyers Association of South Africa and the Corporate Counsel Forum of the International Bar Association. ACLA has entered into a formal Co-operation Agreement with CLANZ, CCCA and HKCCA, which includes the exchange of materials of interest to members. All of these associations can be accessed through ACLA's website.
ACLA is also a member of the International Roundtable of Associations of Corporate Counsel - one of the objectives of which is to connect up in-house lawyers around the world electronically allowing direct member-to-member contact from their desktop computers.
Member Representation
ACLA maintains close ties with Australian law societies and institutes, the Law Council of Australia and peak professional and industry groups. Submissions are made on behalf of members regarding issues relevant to in-house lawyers and their employers.
Member Enquiries
ACLA has set up a 1300 telephone number (1300 558 550) at its National Office, at Suite 2, Level 1, 620 Bourke Street, Melbourne to assist members with any enquiries. Alternatively, members can email the Association at membership@acla.com.au