Law Firm Management

Competition for business is intense, time is short, and there's no time like the present to hone your business development skills and develop your personal book of business.

Although pension plans are thought of primarily as a source of cash income for the elderly, they typically serve other functions as well. For example, they usually contain early retirement features and often provide pensions to workers who lose their jobs because of disability. The high proportion of pension plans with disability retirement features is dramatized in data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual survey -- none of these programs had provisions to make up employee contributions and employer matches where the employee becomes disabled during their employment years.

This article is the ninth installment in an ongoing series focusing on accounting and financial matters for corporate counsel.

For all the chatter, studies, and disheartening stats we read on where Women in the Law rank in the legal services sector, I say "phooey." Yes, the numbers stink; yes, there are real barriers, discrimination, disappointing treatment from law firm leadership, but hey, we are women "with a capitol W" as the phrase goes.

At Bradford & Barthel, LLP, we're leveraging Big Hand, Net Documents, and Tableau in concert with our existing systems toward a 5:1 cost savings ratio for the firm over the next three years. Our strategy is to position ourselves to compete in the most stringent pricing comparisons available within our practice area. How?

In today's competitive practice environment, client origination looms large in its significance to the success of a firm's future. Hence, strong incentives should be provided to partners for "bringing new business from potential and existing clients through the door." Below, several kinds of Origination Credit are examined.

Some 84 million Americans work for companies that maintain ERISA-covered retirement plans that are divisible by Qualified Domestic Relations Orders (QDROs), which guarantee the non-worker spouse (the non-owner) a share of the pension. Or the couple can opt for a buyout (sometimes called an immediate offset), by which one spouse trades away pension rights for another asset.

The ACA is not the only health care challenge facing employers. Recent medical disease reclassifications are affecting a large portion of America's workforce, and the long-term impact is proving difficult to predict. These changes may result in an increased number of workers' compensation and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) discrimination claims, but hopefully, they will also result in a greater emphasis placed upon prevention and treatment.