Features
<i>Professional Development</i>: Training Effectiveness
The best training programs produce desired behavior change in lawyers. If they were not comfortable with asking for new work before, now they are. If they never created a business development plan and followed it, now most of them will.
Features
Changing the Law Firm Business Model
Lawyers must understand the process by which they deliver a legal solution. That means they understand every task in the process and who should be performing those tasks, whether it is a partner, an associate, a paralegal, or another professional.
Features
Cost Savings As a Risk Management Strategy
Since the active use of the term <i>risk management</i>, perhaps sometime in the 1980s, I have thought of the confluence of <i>risk</i> and <i>management</i> as an oxymoron.
Features
Using IRA Funds to Purchase Life Insurance
Many individuals desire to acquire insurance on their lives using funds held in a qualified retirement plan. The acquisition of insurance using funds within an IRA is beneficial since the Plan uses tax deductible dollars to acquire the insurance. Furthermore, the Plan Funds are not otherwise being directly used by qualified plan participant (Participant) for the Participant.
Columns & Departments
At the Intersection: Plugging Profitability Leaks
We've long known that vague, incomplete or misunderstood instructions from partners to associates is a prime source of profitability leaks ' revenue lost because of all the time spent on reinventing the wheel. We've also long known that an amazingly simple delegation improvement technique can help reduce write-downs of time by up to 18%.
Features
Sales Speak: Dancing with the Stars -- Client Retention
When you're working with clients, it is important to keep them happy and to remember to continue selling throughout the engagement. Here's why.
Features
Law 2023: A Look Ahead
The future of the legal industry isn't what it used to be. Or so says a recent report issued by Law2023.org, a group of industry insiders ' including the author' who spent a year studying the trajectory of the legal marketplace.
Features
Valuation of a Law Firm and a Law Practice
Lawyers leaving a law practice have an economic interest in monetizing their career-long investment in building a client portfolio and a referral network. How each lawyer has accomplished this depends on his or her particular practice, market and style. But while the means may vary, the results are the same ' access to clients who have legal needs. And this is the value the acquirers wish to capture.
Columns & Departments
Case Notes
Discussion of a case in which a Texas law firm filed a defamation lawsuit over an ex-client's negative Yelp review.
Features
Communicating in the Moment: Managing Expectations Is The Key to Great Client Service!
The stature and credibility of any marketing and business development team in the country is based on the experiences that internal clients have with the team. The challenge occurs when a ball gets dropped; no matter how significant or insignificant, "marketing" dropped the ball.
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- Abandoned and Unused Cables: A Hidden Liability Under the 2002 National Electric CodeIn an effort to minimize the release of toxic gasses from cables in the event of fire, the 2002 version of the National Electric Code ("NEC"), promulgated by the National Fire Protection Association, sets forth new guidelines requiring that abandoned cables must be removed from buildings unless they are located in metal raceways or tagged "For Future Use." While the NEC is not, in itself, binding law, most jurisdictions in the United States adopt the NEC by reference in their state or local building and fire codes. Thus, noncompliance with the recent NEC guidelines will likely mean that a building is in violation of a building or fire code. If so, the building owner may also be in breach of agreements with tenants and lenders and may be jeopardizing its fire insurance coverage. Even in jurisdictions where the 2002 NEC has not been adopted, it may be argued that the guidelines represent the standard of reasonable care and could result in tort liability for the landlord if toxic gasses from abandoned cables are emitted in a fire. With these potential liabilities in mind, this article discusses: 1) how to address the abandoned wires and cables currently located within the risers, ceilings and other areas of properties, and 2) additional considerations in the placement and removal of telecommunications cables going forward.Read More ›
- Guidance on Distributions As 'Disbursements' and U.S. Trustee FeesIn a recent case from the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, In re Paragon Offshore PLC, the bankruptcy court provided guidance on whether a post-plan effective date litigation trust's distributions constituted disbursements subject to the U.S. Trustee fee "tax."Read More ›