Back to the Future: Alternative Fee Structures Revisited
May 29, 2009
With the application of non'legal-industry business principles to relationships with their law firms, clients are directly affecting alternative billing structures. And innovative law firms are rising to the occasion.
What Is the Value of Your Law Firm?
May 29, 2009
This article summarizes the author's approach to law firm valuation, which has been tested in the contexts of law firm acquisitions and equity buy-outs.
e-Discovery of Structured Data
April 30, 2009
At the outset of an investigation, timelines and custodian-created information assets can all be garnered from extracts of accounting data, e-mails and documents through traditional discovery and disclosure. None of this tells you how, specifically, an event or series of events occurred. Were the alleged claims the result of system control errors, malicious employee action, fraud or simple misrepresentations by management as a means of covering up systemic losses by cooking the books to avoid audit concerns?
Some Highlights of the Recently Enacted Stimulus Bill
April 29, 2009
On Feb. 17, 2009, the newly elected President Obama signed into law the colossal $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the "Act"). This 1,000-plus-page piece of legislation contains many important tax-breaks and enhancements that can benefit law firms and their clients, as well as individual attorneys and staff members and their families. This article addresses several of these key tax provisions included in the new act that may be advantageous.
Inventory Management
April 29, 2009
Clients withholding payments directly impacts partners' bottom lines. As such, law firms are always focused on billing and collecting as much as they can in the last quarter of the year. The current crisis has trumped even the most diligent efforts of law firms to bring in cash, and it illustrates the importance of having sound inventory management practices that are followed throughout the year.
2008 Law Firm Compensation Program Survey Results
April 29, 2009
Incisive Legal Intelligence Surveys (formerly Altman Weil Publications') recently released its sixth look at the methods and philosophies of compensation in private law firms: The Survey of Compensation Programs in Law Firms. Data were collected during the last quarter of 2008. This article provides commentary on highlights from the partner compensation portion of the study.
Unitary Business Taxation Principles
April 29, 2009
For at least the last two decades, law firms have continually expanded their operations across state lines (and national boundaries as well). Thus, today's law firms have to confront the intriguing and difficult questions of the power of the several states to tax operations that extend across state lines.
Natural Orifice Surgery
April 28, 2009
Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery ' often referenced by the acronym NOTES ' is becoming increasingly popular. Here is a discussion of potential avenues of liability claims associated with the surgery.
Giving 'Til It Hurts
March 31, 2009
How can you serve your community ' and frequently, your firm ' without hurting your own firm's budget and community relations? You can say yes too often and dissipate your budget and your firm's time and energy, but how do you say no without seeming to be coldhearted and indifferent to community or charitable needs?
