In a quest to maximize profitability, Am Law 200 law firms have grown their share of business tied to contingency fees, a gamble that has paid off for some firms in recent years.
While some firm leaders pointed to market factors such as economic uncertainty, most indicated that declining realization rates were a price they were happy to pay in exchange for several years of strong rate increases.
The ultimate guardian of the quality of client service is the partners' own judgement but properly utilizing AI can set expectations that will benefit the clients and the firm and end forever the "End of the Billable Hour" stories.
Having a compensation system that clearly outlines partner expectations, provides the partners with the ability to validate the results by communicating the results back to them does more to build collegiality than an opaque system that, by its design, promotes distrust and ill will among partners.
Alternative-fee arrangements help establish a link between outside counsel costs and the value provided.. Yet, adoption of AFAs remains sluggish — even as outrage over outside counsel hourly rate increases grows.
There are two major factors motivating firms to move in the direction of more risk sharing and more contingency work. The first is client-driven, the second is basic law firm economics.
Some large law firms are doubling down on billing discipline, as Big Law clients take longer to make payments and the legal industry continues to see demand declines.
Attorneys and consultants involved in the FTX bankruptcy have asked the District of Delaware bankruptcy court to approve billed hours and expenses totaling just under $37 million for the first six weeks of Chapter 11 proceedings.
With trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.
“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.
Insiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
While the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.
