Companies are constantly looking for ways to recruit, retain and reward valued employees. The Department of the Treasury issued final regulations addressing deferred compensation and safe harbor planning utilizing §§409A(d)(1), 457(e)11 and 31.3121(v)(2). These regulations set forth how plan sponsors can provide death benefits on a permissibly selective basis.
Over the last few years, the legal operation managers' role has flourished, growing from a profession in its infancy into an unruly teenager, far more mature but with substantial areas poised for development. Now, more than ever, law departments are focused on implementing programs and structures to improve their financial management and deliver value.
How to Avoid the Tax Pitfalls of 26 U.S.C. §956 when Negotiating Lending Transactions for Clients with Foreign Country Operations
A popular conduit for operating in a foreign country is a controlled foreign corporation (CFC). In 2012, U.S.-controlled foreign corporation earnings topped $793 billion as the world economy became increasingly interconnected. See, IRS, Statistics of Income. How does the aforementioned trend impact the legal profession?
The top performing law firms continued to pull away from the rest of the Am Law 200 last year, according to a report released on January 23 by Wells Fargo Private Bank's Legal Specialty Group. Meanwhile certain regions, including the mid-Atlantic states, struggled to achieve even modest revenue growth.
Most firms are building pricing groups as the place to start addressing this pain. This is certainly a good starting point, but if your firm is pricing and not monitoring, you've actually got a problem.
The attorney-client relationship is not one that always ends well. The client is able to discharge the attorney at any time, but outstanding legal fees must be addressed. If the client either ignores the correspondence or refuses to pay the fees, the attorney may determine to commence an action seeking the legal fees. What follows is a long, unhappy, expensive experience for each party.
Law departments are not being asked to do more with less? Instead, they are being asked to do more with more (though sometimes their budget increases are not keeping up with their new responsibilities).
Realization has hit an all-time low of 83%, plunging from 93% just a decade ago. Most firms are building pricing groups as the place to start addressing this pain. This is certainly a good starting point, but if your firm is pricing and not monitoring, you've actually got a problem.
In an era when demand for legal services is softening, the country's largest firms are increasingly going to court and arbitration against their former clients to collect fees in what consultants say is the "new normal."
Firms place a lot of weight on lateral hiring, but many of them aren't very good at it.
