Do you have a data security plan in place?

Have you taken steps to stay compliant with the Food Safety Modernization Act? Do you know what those steps are?

Are there times when you wish you had a group of confidants to discuss legal issues with?

The 2014 IWLA Legal Warehouse Practice Symposium, June 18-19, 2014 in Chicago, Ill., will provide answers to these questions and much more. The course targets the hottest legal and insurance issues affecting the warehouse logistics industry. This is one of the only events of its kind that brings nearly 20 legal, transportation, warehouse, insurance industry experts to one place for this specialty subject matter.

Doug Sampson, senior vice president of Denver, Colo.-based Acme Distribution Centers, Inc., and co-chair of the IWLA Warehouse Legal Practice Symposium Planning Committee says the group focused on issues that have not been covered in the past and the issues that have changed recently and are highly important to warehouse and transportation leaders.

Highlights from the 2014 event include:

Data security issues from both an information technology perspective in firewalls and other strategies to protect your systems from compromise. The panelists will also take a close look at insurances to protect data in the event it does become exposed. “Most of us are not insuring data protection, but the question is, should we? Data security is a real threat in the world we live in, and a third-party to a large corporate client can be viewed as a loophole for many to easily access information if we’re not keeping it protected,” Sampson says.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made two major regulatory move to protect the pharmaceutical and food supply chains as a public safety measure. Still there are many unknowns as the FDA is continuously revising these acts and rolls out guidance for compliance. In a state a flux, how can warehouses maintain protection and better yet, what should warehouse logistics operators plan for maintaining compliance in the future.

Intimate group discussions provides attendees a safe zone to open and honest sharing about personal legal experiences and how the circumstances can be avoided, best resolutions, and learning from others potential liabilities that you can be faced with.

“The best benefit from this event is knowing enough to known when to ask questions,” Sampson says. “Recognizing issues at the start empowers you to resolve them prior to incident.”

Dealing with important legal knowledge extends well beyond the traditional leadership roles to every facet of the company. “Anybody can attend from an operational standpoint, to sales and business development, human resources, owners, legal counsel, IT and insurance providers,” Sampson says. “The issues are inter-related and the smartest way to protect yourself is to open the visibility in every function of your company, where employees understand/recognize hazards and inherent liabilities and take appropriate action.”

Finally, Sampson says it’s a nice refresher and a good double-check mechanism for business owners to bring forth the issues and push those professionals they already work with to always look out for them and make sure they are covered contractually, legally and insured properly to address the evolving legal climate.

Register for the 2014 IWLA Warehouse Legal Practice Symposium, June 18 & 19, 2014, in Chicago, Ill.