LLC Interests May Constitute 'Securities'
Recently, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in affirming convictions for securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud, ruled in <i>U.S. v. Leonard</i>, that interests in various limited liability companies ("LLCs") onstituted "securities" for purposes of the federal securities laws. The Leonard analysis is instructive of the process that a court will follow in considering the status of non-traditional securities, such as LLC interests, under the federal securities laws.
Reasonable Compensation for Law Firms and Attorneys
This article is intended to provide some fundamental guidance for attorneys and law firms whenever employee-owner compensation is at issue. In many instances, this focus will relate to ownership decisions regarding the overall allocation and character of enterprise profits, but the same concepts and analytical framework can be of benefit in the assessment of reasonable compensation for other purposes, such as the valuation of a non-compete agreement and in the segregation and measurement of personal/professional versus enterprise goodwill for dissolution of marriage purposes in jurisdictions where this aspect is in play.
IRS Regulations For Song Sales Tax Treatment
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued proposed and temporary regulations specifying the time and manner for electing to treat the sale or exchange of "self-created" musical compositions or copyrights as the sale or the exchange of a capital asset resulting in a potential capital gain.
Resolving the Enigma of Law Firm Leadership
When a firm finds itself in the midst of a management crisis, the place to begin to search for the source of the problem is at the top of the management hierarchy. This may not be a popular notion or an easy task. The purpose is not to find fault. The point is that an organization does not simply evolve. It must be built in an orderly manner. The values that are important to a firm have to be defined and centrally organized. The responsibility for these goals must be keyed to an organizational factor, whether this is a committee or an individual.
Financial & Practice Management Upgrades: Squire, Sanders & Dempsey Up Close
Since firm attorneys are placed strategically in key global markets, and support staff and firm leaders are spread out among the global office network, it has always been paramount to have not only reliable, but also current, technology to keep everyone connected, ensure seamless business operations and enable firm attorneys to focus on their clients.
I COULD LEARN A LOT FROM YOU <i>What Can Product Marketers Teach Us?</i>
It's been suggested by several readers that our orientation toward professional services marketing, as opposed to product marketing, is a prejudice. Admittedly, it's at least a bias against a pervasive academic view that the techniques of marketing a product apply equally to marketing a professional service. And indeed, the most successful professional services marketers tend to look to other professional services firms for answers and the best ideas, as well as for validation of their own ideas and processes. Still, it would be foolish to automatically preclude any idea that's been forged in a marketplace of ideas. In a rational world, we take ideas from any reasonable place, accept the good ones, and eliminate the ones that are bad or not applicable. That means that are things to be learned by professional services marketers from the Toyotas and Microsofts and Dells of the world.
Health Care Account Choices for Law Firms
With the rising care of health costs, many law firms are finding it economically difficult to provide their employees with health insurance. One of the ways law firms are mitigating this issue is by offering health insurance plans with greater employee out-of-pocket expenses. Congress offers several types of tax-favored accounts that a law firm can provide to its employees that can be used to pay for these additional medical expenses. Each type of account comes with advantages and disadvantages, which are explored in this article.
Partnering Requires Careful Balancing
Law partnerships are fragile, volatile enterprises that can easily become unglued, regardless of how careful the partners were at the outset or how financially successful they become.
