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Risk Management Review: A CFO's Approach

James W. Davidson

Set aside some quiet time every year to think through your insurance and risk management programs with someone knowledgeable in the field. Law firm administrators are mostly not insurance experts, and unless there is some crisis, tend not to give this area the attention it needs. Crisis time may be too late.

Features

Improving Law Firm Profitability

Joel A. Rose

<b><i>Without Working Longer Hours or Raising Rates</b></i><p>In today's competitive environment, the profitability challenge to law firms is to increase profits while reducing clients' legal fees. This two-part article provides dozens of specific, workable ideas for enhancing profitability, leaving aside the played-out (and problematic) methods of working longer hours and raising hourly rates. This month's article offers ideas in the following categories, which together offer the greatest opportunities for profitability enhancement.

Features

Book ReviewLegal Fees: An Incisive New Guide for Lawyers and Clients

Joe Danowsky

J.W. Toothman and W.G. Ross, <i>Legal Fees: Law and Management</i>. Carolina Academic Press, April 2003, 350 pp. plus appendix, cloth, ISBN 0-89089-068-4, $85.00.

Features

Law Firm SurveysPart One: The Major Surveys Compared

Don Williams, Pete Peterson, Bill Bachman & Mike Short

This three-part article will summarize that discussion. Part One is a general overview and comparison of the major surveys currently available for U.S. law firms. Part Two will advise further on how to select a survey, and Part Three will explain how to get the most out of survey participation.

Features

Partner Capital: Why Firms Need More in 2003

Howard L. Mudrick

Most law firm partners react skeptically to the suggestion that their capital contributions should go up in 2003. After all, with the cost of borrowing at its lowest level in over 40 years, why should partners invest more capital in the firm, thereby delaying or reducing personal cash flow? Nevertheless, even well managed firms are now likely to need more partner-contributed capital than they did just a few years ago.

Features

Tax Cuts for Law Firms

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters

With the compromise-laden Federal tax cut now law, what if any are the implications for law firms? Members of this newsletter's Editorial Board and several other recent contributors were asked to address that question.

The Bankruptcy Hotline

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters

Recent rulings of importance to your practice.

Foreign Debtors in Chapter 11

Mark van Ophem & Marc Bennett

Last month's article concluded with 'Surviving a Motion to Dismiss or Suspend,' which discussed the exact boundaries of international comity, and explained that these boundaries are not clear. Therefore, a court's decision on a motion to dismiss or suspend a non-U.S. debtor's bankruptcy case under section 305(a)(2) (which invokes the 304(c) factors) will depend heavily on the case's specific facts.

Features

Test Your Expertise ' DIP Financing

William Barnett

For the reader who has been involved in more debtor-in-possession(DIP) financings than he or she can remember, please treat this article as the opportunity to impress yourself with just how much you know about it. Check off each category if you can truthfully say 'I knew that!' A sum of eight or more checks makes you a big dipper.

Features

In the Courts

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters

Analyses of the latest rulings of importance to your practice.

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    When a company declares bankruptcy, avoidance actions under Chapter 5 of the Bankruptcy Code can assist in securing extra cash for the debtor's dwindling estate. When a debtor-in-possession does not pursue these claims, creditors' committees often seek the bankruptcy court's authorization to pursue them on behalf of the estate. Once granted such authorization through a “standing order,” a creditors' committee is said to “stand in the debtor's shoes” because it has permission to litigate certain claims belonging to the debtor that arose before bankruptcy. However, for parties whose cases advance to discovery, such a standing order may cause issues by leaving undecided the allocation of attorney-client privilege and work product protection between the debtor and committee.
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