THE FIRM

WHAT WE DO | Make Compliance and Legal Strategic

Jaffe Counsel adds strategic strength and depth for leaders facing critical challenges and opportunities in compliance, improving legal and compliance organizations, and corporate governance. David Jaffe has a clear focus on the points where legal and compliance can help the bottom line and advance key goals. His unique perspective bridges global legal and compliance expertise with practical business and organizational experience.

He can build or improve a compliance or legal function and provide strategic counsel to business leaders, general counsel and compliance officers. David also advises on international joint ventures.

In business, there are no legal issues; only business issues with legal characteristics.

SPECIAL SITUATIONS

Compliance and Ethics — Practical and Cost-Effective

Assess, develop, and implement compliance and ethics  programs and activities to mitigate and manage risks while managing cost.
Audit the implementation and effectiveness of existing compliance and ethics programs.
Tailored solutions for companies or operations that are growing in scope and complexity, but not large enough for a “gold-plated” approach.
In Mexico, Jaffe Counsel collaborates with EC Rubio, a leading national law firm,  to provide fully localized counsel on compliance and ethics.
  • Compliance and Ethics Risk Assessment
    • High-level or Detailed
    • Pragmatic and focused on the drivers of good and bad conduct
  • Audit and enhance implementation of global programs in local operations
  • Compliance Program Health Check
    • High-level or Detailed
    • Pragmatic and focused on the drivers of good and bad conduct
  • Design and Build a Right-Sized Compliance and Ethics Program
Designing, creating, implementing, and operating programs
  • We build in many yers of experience inside companies
  • Assist and/or advise in the actual implementation
  • Build implementation plan for the program
  • After risk assessment, develop a program that meets the business’s needs and fits its risks.
    • Avoid “check-the-box” activities that don’t really mitigate or manage the business’s actual compliance risks.
  • Compliance and Ethics Training for Boards and Senior Management
    • Introduction to compliance and ethics, including risks for your particular business.
    • Training on making an existing compliance and ethics program more effective.
    • Training on the Board’s oversight and leadership role in compliance and ethics.
    • Training on specific compliance and ethics topics
      • Topics can include anti-corruption, conflict of interest, non-retaliation, and others.
      • Focus on the actual conduct and leadership that business leaders need.
  • Training on Specific Compliance Topics for employees
    • Topics can include harassment, anti-corruption, third party vetting, conflicts of interest and others

Developing Compliance and Legal Capabilities

Jaffe Counsel can apply David Jaffe’s experience to creating or enhancing a compliance or legal department. The firm can assess the organization’s needs, support and train team members and, if needed, assist recruitment, selection, and training of new personnel.

Governance for Private Companies and Non-Profits

  • Assess, design and implement private company and nonprofit governance processes and practices to build effective governance and to achieve business or mission objectives

  • Advise boards and management on governance issues and best practices

  • Reduced rates for qualifying non-profit organizations

Joint Ventures

  • Strategic counsel for a new JV or assessment of an existing JV

  • JV Health Check – Assess issues, risks, and opportunities in an existing JV

Board Service

Effective Board Leadership, Stewardship, and Oversight

David brings his experience in international business, in strategy, in governance and succession, and compliance and ethics to service on boards of directors and advisory boards.

OTHER AREAS OF SERVICE

HOW WE DO IT | Expertise Empowered by Experience

“A trusted global business partner.”
-- Jonathan DeGaynor, President and CEO, Methode Electronics, Inc.

David helps organizations solve problems, avoid unrewarding risks, and enhance profit in areas that are normally considered cost centers. He has the technical knowledge and skill to provide sound analysis.

“Anyone in business knows that there’s rarely reward without risk – ‘no guts, no glory.’ But not all risks offer the opportunity for reward. Would you take one step out of your way to pick up a dollar? Sure, unless that step was off the edge of a thousand foot cliff. The real question is whether you’re observant enough, and discerning enough, to see and identify the cliff.”

"I work to avoid getting stuck in a single mode of analysis. For example, Wells Fargo’s board found that the company had analyzed the business model that led its employees to create fake accounts, and kept it in place because the problem “only” affected a small number of customers and involved small amounts in fees, compared with the overall size of the bank. Executives – and lawyers – decided that the variances weren’t material to the validity of the bank’s overall financial statements, and reasoned that the stealing from customers therefore wasn’t material at all. Of course, the customers, regulators, and prosecutors saw it differently, to the tune of billions of dollars and lost careers for executives and directors. The illegality was known, and the risk was out in the open."

Been There, Done That.

From a clerkship at the U.S. Supreme Court, to building compliance and ethics programs then implementing and operating them — to living and working overseas, to the boardrooms of public and private multinationals, small businesses, and nonprofits, David’s experience has prepared him to provide counsel that drives sound decisions. He now brings his decades of large and small deals, challenging governance and ownership transitions, and building a profit driven legal function to bear on counseling compliance and legal leaders in the challenging field of compliance and governance.

Focus on the Main Chance

Time spent focused on side issues or trivial risks is destructive. David gets to the heart of the most important questions. He doesn’t get lost in blizzards of considerations and potential problems that aren’t important enough to affect the outcome. This enables him to make decisions with incomplete information – and to judge whether the incomplete information is or is not sufficient.

Follow the Money

David says that it’s essential to “find money in paper.” He’s served on numerous Finance Committees, including as Chair, because of his skill in identifying the critical financial questions in a situation and his insistence on rigor in financial analysis.

Forest and Trees

Many compliance programs focus mainly on detailed rules, checklist, and audits. All of these can be helpful, but expensive compliance failures usually arise from problems in culture, incentives, and management engagement. David has the technical skill to analyze the particular, and the experience and business acumen to find overarching, systemic problems.

Success in Compliance and Profitability

David believes that a successful compliance program brings rewards beyond avoiding government penalties and the cost of investigations. A sound compliance program will help build a culture of critical thinking, asking good questions, problem solving, and mutual respect that will help business operations and the bottom line.

Courage

David is used to making decisions and giving advice under pressure. He has the discipline to not rush to judgment and the courage to act on his judgment. This has sometimes meant being willing to take risks to get a great result, and David has a well-established track record of success in risky situations. It has also sometimes meant saying clearly to CEOs and other leaders that a proposed course of action is too risky, or criminal, or just plain wrong.

To make good decisions about risk, an organization needs a clear-eyed view of the facts. David also has the courage to ask questions that are uncomfortable, or even impertinent, if they are essential to the problem or decision at hand.

If you’re looking for a “yes man,” you are not in the right place. Come to Jaffe Counsel for disciplined, tough-minded assessment, sound judgment, and wise counsel.

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