Client Attrition Analytics
December 22, 2006
While the managers of professional services firms often view market pressures as the driving force that determines whether clients remain loyal or choose to shop elsewhere for added services, a new study by the Redwood Think Tank indicates that firms have tremendous sway over which clients become long-term business partners.
Automotive Insolvencies
December 22, 2006
The unique environment of the automotive industry has resulted in the insolvencies of tier-one and tier-two suppliers developing distinct characteristics. Unlike many industries, automotive suppliers typically have only a handful of customers, without whom they have no business to reorganize or sell in an effort maximize values for creditors. This gives customers significant control in the options a debtor has when faced with severe financial distress. However, because of Original Equipment Manufacturers' (OEM) just-in-time methods of production ' unlike customers in many businesses that can simply decide not to do business with an insolvent entity ' OEMs and large tier-one suppliers cannot purchase automotive parts or assemblies elsewhere.
Alternative Routes To U.S. Markets Impact Reporting Requirements For Chinese Companies
November 30, 2006
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Web site, there are currently 144 domestic Chinese companies registered with the Commission. This number is deceiving, however, since more and more Chinese companies are entering the U.S. through business combinations with U.S. domestic listed companies or through off-shore holding companies, utilizing the wholly-owned foreign enterprise (WOFE) structure. While the end result is the same ' a listing on a U.S. exchange ' the decision to 'domesticate' in the United States or remain a 'foreign private issuer' can have significant ramifications for the company's ongoing regulatory compliance obligations. Foreign private issuers continue to enjoy certain levels of relief from the U.S. compliance regime by virtue of the fact that they are also required to comply with their local, or 'home country', reporting requirements.
China's World Trade Compliance
November 30, 2006
Board of Editors member, Prof. Usha Haley, spoke at the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on China's World Trade Compliance. In Part One, she addressed subsidies, their forms and complications. In Part Two, she covers how profitable and available those subsidies are and how profitable companies are that serve the China market.
<b>Sales & Service Strategies:</b> Nine Ways to Provide Superior Client Service
November 30, 2006
Improving client service is especially important, as general counsels of large companies have revealed to BTI Consulting that more than two-thirds would not recommend their primary law firm, 50% plan to try a new law firm for a substantive matter this year and they plan to cut nearly 40% of their outside firms by 2008. With decreasing client loyalty, firms need to spend more time improving client service as well as building barriers to entries to other outside law firms.
Are We Approaching a Profitability Plateau?
November 29, 2006
As we turn the calendar to 2007, law firm leaders will once again be able to tell their partners that their firm hit ' or exceeded ' budget and that their income will increase. That's the good news. <br>The bad news is that, as firms have grown more profitable and pushed harder on the drivers of their firms' economics, it is becoming difficult to identify ways to ensure that the double-digit increases in profitability will continue. After all, the economic model of law firms has only a handful of levers (rates, realization, leverage, utilization, expenses). Once firms pull as hard as possible on each lever, there is not much more they can do. For law firm leaders, managing the expectations of their partners will become a more difficult challenge, particularly since a good portion of those partners have come to expect double-digit increases in profitability each year.
ERISA Amendments Effective Dec. 31
November 29, 2006
On Sept. 26, the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the Department of Labor (department) issued proposed regulations implementing amendments to ' 404(c) of the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA).(The proposed regulations are at 29 CFR ' 550.404c-5.) These amendments were made by ' 624 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (the act) and provide relief to fiduciaries of participant-directed individual account plans where, in the absence of investment directions from a participant, the plan invests such participant's assets in a 'qualified default investment alternative.'
Stock Option Backdating
November 28, 2006
Just as the business community began making headway with Congress to reduce Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) obligations, a new type of corporate wrongdoing has been revealed ' backdated stock options used by the executives at many companies and some directors to convert their options at the most opportune times and at the expense of other shareholders and investors. What is troubling is how the boards of directors at so many companies could have approved the backdating or not known about it after SOX and the recent wave of high-profile corporate fraud investigations and prosecutions.
Using Business Plans in Recruiting Lateral Partners
November 28, 2006
Practice group structures, marketing departments, Chief Information Officers, even off-site operations centers ' each of these now commonplace elements of big law firm life is a manifestation of the business focus these firms have adopted. We all see it, with varying degrees of approval. Global law firms now develop and follow business strategies. Slowly, these firms are bringing a similar business focus to their lateral partner recruiting. For partners who think they might switch firms at some point, and for firms doing battle for talent in the lateral market, bringing a business perspective to your analysis can save a lot of time and energy. A properly prepared business plan will prevent the loss of countless (otherwise billable) hours and, more important, help avoid making the wrong move.
