Addressing Tax Issues Throughout the Year: There Is No Better Time to Start Than Now
December 27, 2007
Even though 2007 has come and gone, it is not too late ' it is never too late ' to think about tax planning and tax issues affecting your law firm. What still can be addressed now in 2008 that can impact your tax return for 2007? What tax issues can be addressed that can impact 2008? This article provides a list of items to review internally with your financial team and externally with your tax adviser.
Note from the Editor: Looking Forward to 2008
December 21, 2007
By the time all of you will be reading this, we will be in a new year and a new year brings new projects and new challenges, all of which are exciting and fulfilling. Here's what we have planned for this promising new year...
Ancillary Businesses Losing Appeal
November 30, 2007
Law firms once dreamed of owning separate businesses to bring in new streams of revenue, and while some achieved that goal, the industry is now largely backing away from a strategy that provided little economic benefit.
Guiding Expenditures on Law Firm Videos
November 30, 2007
Videos are popping up increasingly on firm Web sites, but at least one analyst warns that law firms might be paying too much for too little.
Accepting the OMP Role: Financial and Practice Impacts
November 30, 2007
If gratitude is measured in dollars, office managing partners ('OMPs') are a bit taken for granted. In an informal Recorder survey of San Francisco Bay Area office managing partners, 70% say they work more than when they practiced law exclusively. But only 22% say they are earning more than before they took the post.
FIN 48: Accounting for Uncertain Income Tax Positions
November 29, 2007
This article provides a brief overview of the two-step, benefit-recognition approach implemented by FIN 48, a summary of the disclosures required by FIN 48, and a discussion of issues associated with protecting FIN 48 compliance documentation from disclosure to taxing authorities.
Update on Lawyer Retirement Perspectives
November 29, 2007
In the newly released Altman Weil Flash Survey on Lawyer Retirement, only 38% of lawyers agreed with the enforcement of mandatory retirement provisions in law firms. However, 50% of respondents reported that their firms currently have mandatory retirement policies. These findings may encourage more discussion and possibly policy changes in U.S. law firms.
Recognition Under Chapter 15
November 27, 2007
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York recently held in two related cases under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code involving failed hedge funds that the mere presence of a registered office in the Cayman Islands, without 'pertinent' nontransitory economic activity in the Cayman Islands, was insufficient to recognize Cayman liquidation proceedings as 'main' or 'nonmain' and therefore the court denied relief under Chapter 15. This article offers commentary and practice points relating to Chapter 15 and these cases.
Cyberinsurance for Data Security Risks
November 26, 2007
The harms that can result from computer security breaches are largely uncovered by the types of insurance policies most law firms maintain, and that makes those firms subject to unnecessary risk for theft of client data. Combined with the inadequate security most law firms provide for client data anyway, the resulting exposure risk may well violate legal professional ethics.
When Legal Spam Isn't Spam
November 26, 2007
Demands for consumer 'extra effort' from Web merchants or service providers could become very common after a mid-2007 federal court ruling ' <i>Douglas v. Talk America, Inc.</i> In that case, a federal appeals court considered what it labeled an 'issue ' of some significance, (which) potentially affects the relationship of numerous service providers with millions of customers: ' whether to enforce a modified contract with a customer where the customer claims that the only notice of the changed terms consisted of posting the revised contract on the provider's Web site.'
