Neiman Marcus 2003 Annual Report Download - page 336

The Company is committed to compliance with the ADA.
As noted in the discussion of equal employment opportunities, and consistent with the ADA, the Company prohibits
discrimination on the basis of an applicant's or employee's qualified disability. In addition, the Company is obligated to ensure the
accessibility of its stores to individuals with qualified disabilities under the ADA.
CONTRACTING WITH OTHER PARTIES
ENTERING AGREEMENTS
Employees are not to sign any agreements on behalf of the Company or any of its subsidiaries without the approval of the
Legal Department, except where the agreement is an unmodified Company form that the Legal Department has approved in advance;
or where the agreement is on a commonly printed form and related to commercial travel, car rental, shipment of goods, magazine
subscriptions or any other purely routine matter that common sense dictates may be transacted without legal review. The reason for
this broad requirement is that even an agreement involving relatively minor amounts of money may contain inappropriate
indemnification obligations or other contractual burdens, or raise troublesome antitrust issues or other legal concerns.
The term "agreement" refers to letters of intent, offer letters, and exchanges of correspondence involving the express or
implied acceptance of an offer, as well as to formal contracts. It is the Company's policy to formalize all agreements in writing; exceptions to
this rule may be made under certain circumstances, but only with the Legal Department's prior approval. Every new agreement must be
approved by the Legal Department unless an identical form agreement has been previously approved.
Unless it is inappropriate under the circumstances, the Company, and not the other contracting party, should take the
initiative in preparing agreements. To this end, the Legal Department should be conferred with at the earliest opportunity, even at the
earliest stages of negotiation, so that it may function in a timely manner to anticipate legal problems and to work constructively with
management personnel rather than having to react later under unnecessary time constraints.
TERMINATING AGREEMENTS
Periodically, the Company may wish to terminate an agreement before it is due to expire. Sometimes the Company has the
right to take this action unilaterally; at other times, termination must be by consent of both parties. In either event, because it can give
rise to certain liabilities that may not be readily apparent, termination of an agreement is as critical as execution of an agreement.
Therefore, no agreement shall be terminated (before the agreement would normally expire by its terms) by anyone on behalf of the
Company or any of its subsidiaries without the Legal Department's prior approval.
PRODUCT SAFETY
The Company is committed to complying with all applicable product safety laws and regulations. Although the
Company's vendors or ultimately responsible for ensuring the safety and usability of their products, the Company must take
steps to ensure that their products indeed satisfy applicable legal requirements. Such steps protect the Company's reputation
and customer relationships, and limit the risk of potential legal liability.
While not an exhaustive list, some of the most pertinent requirements to ensure product