The law firm of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis announced that it has added an International Human Rights Compliance component to its White Collar Defense & Corporate Compliance Group.

The addition springs from the increased need for multinational companies to assess market entry or ongoing business operations through a human rights impact assessment as a matter of corporate due diligence. Such assessments have largely been done by companies in the mining or oil exploration (extractive) industries when they were entering a host country that was economically underdeveloped or conflict ridden and, as a result, had few human rights safeguards.

Companies in all industries face far more subtle, but serious intersections with human rights issues, like censorship and local government laws and customs. Firms coming into the U.S. or another economically developed country to do business need to employ a human rights impact assessment. For example, the connections of even one multinational company executive with a questionable or sanctioned government or practice may be perceived as transgressing human rights standards and may stop a deal or a market entry.

The International Human Rights Compliance Group counsels multinationals, both foreign and domestic, in a number of areas: assessments, governance, transactions and dispute resolution or litigation. The corporate and litigation attorneys in this Group have the capability to draw from any of the firm’s comprehensive menu of legal practice areas to meet a client’s requirements for efficiency and cost management.

It can assist clients in the following areas:

• Performing risk assessments, audits, internal investigations;
• Implementing prevention programs, including creating codes of conduct, internal policies, training and complaint procedures;
• Assisting clients with public responses and inquiries from media, government personnel and nongovernmental organizations;
• Drafting of memoranda and agreements with third parties and government agencies;
• Advising clients on due diligence and risk mitigation;
• Representing parties on human rights risks in M&A and other transactions;
• Defending clients in disputes and litigation in state and federal courts, before administrative agencies and the UN;
• Identifying and supervising counsel in foreign jurisdictions; and
• Educating clients about the extent to which they may have legal “exposure” based on the conduct of companies with which they “partner.”

Effective immediately, Eisner LLP, and Amper, Politziner & Mattia, LLP are combining to form EisnerAmper LLP. This combination aims to enhance the accounting firm’s service capabilities by bringing in more experts and resources to EisnerAmper clients.

This combination also expands the firm’s exposure throughout the Northeast, serving clients from eleven locations in the regions of New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Penn., and in the Cayman Islands. EisnerAmper will have approximately 1,200 employees, including 170 partners, making the firm the fourteenth largest overall in the United States.

In addition, the firm will have even stronger international capabilities through its membership in PKF International, its international network, giving EisnerAmper access to both national and global resources and partners.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters announced a series of strategies designed to accelerate its global expansion by offering multinational corporations (MNCs) and the global accounting firms that serve them the most comprehensive and integrated solutions for their tax, accounting and financial reporting compliance lifecycle needs.

Key to the company’s strategy is its Web-based ONESOURCE global tax workstation, which will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2010. Building off the existing successful ONESOURCE platform for U.S. corporate tax departments and large accounting firms, the new ONESOURCE product line will automate and integrate a series of global tax compliance workflows with local tax compliance tools in countries around the world, thus providing MNCs and their advisors a “one-stop” workflow solution. The ONESOURCE global tax workstation will integrate all of a company’s tax planning, transfer pricing, provisions, indirect tax and local tax compliance software solutions into one platform, all powered by the ONESOURCE Workflow Manager solution.

In tandem, the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters will launch a series of additional new products in 2010 and 2011, which will integrate with the ONESOURCE global tax workstation, including Checkpoint World and Checkpoint Learning. These web-based research and certification platforms are designed to serve the global market. The company will also release API (application programming interface) kits for third party developers early next year, allowing other software providers to integrate their products directly with Thomson Reuters’ platforms and data-sets. Later this year, the company will also announce enhancements to its Paisley GRC (governance, risk and compliance) platform.

As part of its strategy, the Tax & Accounting business has now been reorganized into two new global businesses. Workflow & Services Solutions (W&SS), led by Brian Peccarelli, provides tax compliance, accounting and practice management solutions to corporate tax departments and accounting firms. Business Compliance & Knowledge Solutions (BC&KS), led by Mark Schlageter, offers research, guidance, online media, certification and financial compliance solutions. Starting in the second half of 2010, these businesses will be expanding their international sales, technical support and implementation staff in order to serve customers locally in major world markets, with a new office in Singapore opening on Sept. 1.

Weaver, an independent certified public accounting firm, announced its merger with consulting firm Elms Faris & Company, effective June 1. This marks the first expansion of Weaver into the Midland/Odessa, Ill., market.

Elms Faris provides assurance, tax, estate planning, information technology consulting, business valuation, management consulting and transaction advisory services. Industries for which the firm provides these services include oil and gas, construction, manufacturing, wholesale-distribution, not-for-profit, health care and state and local government.

Larry Edgerton, a managing partner who has led Elms Faris since 1999, has been named the Midland / Odessa executive partner. All of the firm’s 53 employees, including 39 accountants and consultants and 6 partners, will join the combined firm which will use the Weaver name. The combined merged firm will remain in its current offices in Midland and Odessa, Ill.

Mazars, an international group specializing in audit and advisory services, and Weiser, an audit and advisory firm with a strong presence in the Northeast region of the United States, have announced plans to combine.

Partners from both entities have voted to incorporate 74 Weiser partners into Mazars’ international integrated partnership. Reflecting this new arrangement, Weiser will become a Mazars member firm and be renamed WeiserMazars LLP. The deal marks a new stage in the Mazars’ international development, and means that it will have member firm offices in 56 countries, served by 12,500 professionals, including over 680 partners.

Mazars and Weiser, which employs more than 650 professionals and has annual revenues of $135 million, have maintained a close and fruitful relationship for the last ten years via a joint venture agreement. “This combination is the result of our excellent relationship, our shared values and commitment to offering high-quality services to our clients,” said Patrick de Cambourg, Chairman and CEO of Mazars. “This enhanced relationship is a natural development based on our mutual trust.”

“Serving our clients means helping them on a global level, beyond borders. This is why we made the choice to develop an international joint venture with Mazars in 2000,” said Douglas Phillips, Weiser chairman. “[W]e are happy to develop our relationship with Mazars by fully joining the Mazars international integrated partnership, as we know that when like-minded professionals work together, they obtain excellent results.”

International law firm Steptoe & Johnson has announced the new opening of its Beijing, China office.

Steptoe advises companies doing business in and from China on a wide range of matters, including international trade, market access, export control, antitrust, and compliance with U.S. and European environmental, product safety, and other regulations. The Beijing office will help Steptoe expand its work in these areas and better serve its clients, the company said.

The firm’s International Trade and Investment practice helps companies seeking to enter and expand their business in the Chinese market. The firm currently advises the Government of China on matters before the World Trade Organization. Led by Edward Krauland, the firm’s International Regulation and Compliance practice advises clients on sensitive regulatory issues, including U.S. and European export control rules.

Steptoe also maintains an internationally recognized anti-corruption practice under the direction of Lucinda Low and Patrick Norton, who counsel clients subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and various anti-corruption laws around the world including throughout Asia. The practice also represents clients in internal investigations, enforcement actions, and collateral proceedings, including before the World Bank and other institutions.

Serving as managing partner of the Beijing office is Eric Emerson, a partner in Steptoe’s International Trade and Investment practice. Emerson has been with Steptoe for 18 years and advises companies on all types of international trade issues, including U.S. trade litigation and access to U.S. markets.

Joining Emerson in the China practice is Susan Munro, a new partner who recently joined Steptoe from the Shanghai office of a major international law firm. Munro has spent more than ten years advising financial institutions, multinational companies, and investment funds on business and investment issues. Her experience includes advising clients on market entry and exit strategies, acquisitions, and regulatory matters. She also has conducted numerous FCPA and earnings management investigations and represented clients in arbitrations and cross-border litigation. Munro is a solicitor qualified in England & Wales and is a non-practicing barrister called to the Bar of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.

Another key member of the firm’s China practice is Ying Huang, who has spent seven years as a Foreign Legal Consultant in Steptoe’s Washington, D.C. office, and has played an important role in the firm’s market access initiatives.

Wolters Kluwer, through its Financial & Compliance Services division, has announced the creation of a new business unit, ARC Logics, to help organizations across multiple industries address increasingly complex audit, risk, and compliance challenges.

ARC Logics offers a broad suite of software and services that enable organizations to rapidly address evolving risk issues, and brings together Wolters Kluwer’s audit, risk, and compliance brands including:

• CCH TeamMate, which provides an integrated, paperless system for improving every aspect of the audit process, including risk assessment, scheduling, planning, execution, review, report generation, trend analysis, committee reporting, and storage;
• Sword, which enables organizations to measure, monitor, and manage compliance and risk across their business; and
• Axentis, which helps organizations in highly regulated industries minimize exposure to compliance and risk, and to optimize business performance.

ARC Logics’ suite-based approach combines the advantages of solution-specific software platforms and enterprise integration. ARC Logics can help specific departments within an organization—legal, compliance, risk, finance, and audit areas—meet their unique needs with a suite offering while concurrently building a holistic, enterprise-wide program. This enables organizations to quickly fulfill their immediate objectives in a targeted and cost-effective manner, while building for the future on a common platform.

As a Wolters Kluwer business, ARC Logics also leverages deep, global domain expertise and proprietary content from the organization to help customers across multiple industries understand, manage, and control risk.

Leading this new unit is Ian Rhind, president of ARC Logics. Rhind previously served as president and CEO of CCH Canadian, a Wolters Kluwer business.

Business Propulsion Systems and Resolver announced that they have merged to form BPS Resolver, effective as of Jan. 1. The merged company will be based in Toronto, Canada.

This merger brings together two governance, risk, and compliance software product offerings. The new company’s combined offering will provide a complete product suite of planning, execution, and refinement solutions for GRC and sustainability best practices. Together, they will focus on rapid delivery of software-as-a-service compliance solutions, as well as large-scale more customized enterprise licensed solutions, to utilities, financial institutions, and healthcare markets worldwide. The merged company’s increased scale and combined expertise aims to enhance, accelerate, and strengthen its responsiveness to client software requirements and service needs.

EMC Corporation, a global provider of information infrastructure solutions, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Archer Technologies, a privately-held provider of governance, risk, and compliance software.

The combination of Archer with EMC’s RSA Security Division will significantly extend EMC’s powerful solutions portfolio for visualizing and managing risk, enabling customers to automate GRC visibility and policy enforcement across both physical and virtualized IT environments.

“Traditional security management focuses primarily on addressing technology issues, but our customers are telling us that their real challenges are in the areas of policy management, audit and compliance,” said Art Coviello, President of EMC’s RSA Security Division. “The Archer solution not only offers the visibility into risk and compliance that customers need, it brings stronger policy management capabilities to the RSA portfolio. The end result is customers are able to better manage their security programs and prove compliance across both physical and virtual infrastructures, and effectively communicate to the business.”

Archer’s technology, coupled with RSA’s solutions for data loss prevention and security information and event management (SIEM), will provide customers with a broader set of IT-GRC solutions, ranging from policy orchestration and powerful security controls through real-time security event management and remediation. Archer’s technology will also benefit from complementary solutions such as EMC Ionix, helping customers automate IT configuration change and compliance across server, network, and storage environments—both physical and virtual.

Archer will provide EMC with a flexible platform of broad enterprise GRC capabilities that will augment the security and GRC capabilities of EMC Consulting, a line of business of EMC Global Services. These capabilities will be leveraged by Archer and EMC’s extensive partner ecosystems and be expanded over time.

“Operating in a cost-reduced environment amid a tough marketplace, with heightened governmental oversight and a promise of more regulations in 2010, poses significant challenges for today’s boards and management, who also face rising expectations from stakeholders,” said Greg Bell, principal and global services leader for KPMG’s information protection practice. “The announcement by EMC and Archer indicates a continuing trend of service organizations joining to leverage their unique capabilities in a way that will help companies meet the challenges of today’s market.”

EMC’s acquisition of Archer is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions. Archer will remain in Overland Park, Kan., upon completion of the acquisition and operate as a part of The Security Division of EMC.

Social networking site Twitter announced that it has recently acquired geolocation services provider Mixer Labs to allow Twitter users to tag the location of where a message was written.

Mixer Labs, a start-up company founded by two former Google employees, developed a location-tracking tool called GeoAPI. Developers will be able to harness the GeoAPI engine to add relevant location information to Twitter messages.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a blog: “When current location is added to tweets, new and valuable services emerge—everything from breaking news to finding friends or local businesses can be dramatically enhanced.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.