Involuntary Bankruptcy: A Useful Tool for Lessors and Creditors
February 28, 2006
Bankruptcy." To many creditors this term is understood to mean a lost cause, a write-off and the end of the collection process. To other creditors, including those that appropriately use the filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition, bankruptcy can mean the beginning of a successful strategy. Many of the benefits leasing creditors and others derived from the filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition against a delinquent customer under the former Bankruptcy Code are preserved in the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 ("BAPCPA"), with some favorable additions. Used intelligently, and in the right situation, the filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition can still be a useful tool.
Oh, Canada!
February 28, 2006
In some quarters, there is the misperception that Canadian law firms lag behind their American counterparts when it comes to marketing practices, but in fact Canadian firms are no less sophisticated at marketing. They simply operate in an environment that is vastly different. Based on conversations with various Managing Partners, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Marketing Officers and other legal industry insiders it is clear that the marketing of Canadian law firms suffers more from the structure of the Canadian sector than from any specific approach to marketing.
Increasing Equipment Reliability
February 28, 2006
While we used to copy millions of pages a month and send out hundreds of overnight mail packages a day, current copying rates have dropped to a few hundred thousand pages, replaced by thousands of e-mails per day and "scan to PDF and print" jobs totaling millions of pages. With these advances in technology have come heightened client expectations to complete work in minutes or hours, rather than days. This means our equipment has to be very reliable and easy to use, allowing the attorneys to spend their available time focused on legal work, not on mechanical problems with scanners, copiers and printers.
Lessons from the First Vioxx Verdict
February 28, 2006
What do you get when you cross Court TV with the Food Channel? One answer: a recipe for a multi-million dollar jury verdict! Drug giant Merck will not see such blended TV programming, but it may have seen stars after getting hit with a $253 million jury award on Aug. 19, 2005. The first product liability trial against its Cox-2 inhibitor drug Vioxx in Angleton, TX, in August, 2005 produced a quarter-billion dollar award, $229 million of which was for punitive damages. Merck plans a vigorous appeal on multiple grounds. (Reportedly, grounds for appeal include: 1) letting in testimony from unqualified experts; 2) letting in testimony not based on reliable scientific evidence; 3) allowing irrelevant but prejudicial evidence in against Merck; and 4) letting in an undisclosed "surprise" witness against Merck.) Even pro-plaintiff observers concede that the award will likely drop to "only" $26 million due to recent Texas tort reform caps on punitive damages. (Merck fared better in its second and third Vioxx trials, which ended with a defense verdict and hung jury, respectively. Three Vioxx cases down -- only about 5998 to go!)
Planning For The Inevitable
February 28, 2006
People who negotiate tech deals and draft contracts for legal or other services ' such as partnerships and the instruments that monitor them and give them teeth ' must remember one constant in today's ever-changing world: The technology we depend on every day often does not work. <br>As a result, the traditional wisdom, "failing to plan is planning to fail," has been transformed into a rule of thumb for the tech sector: "plan for failure." Firms that do not explicitly anticipate systems failure run the risk of being unprepared for a catastrophe
Compensation Decision Aids: How Better Guidance Evolved
February 27, 2006
When I began consulting 18 years ago, compensation advisory services focused primarily on benchmarking. We would look at market data, find comparables, refine study data to adjust for timing differences, and determine appropriate compensation ranges. This latter focus was partly due to the nationwide run-up in associate starting salaries and law firms' attempts to deal with those market forces and the system-wide compression they created.
Reducing Client Costs For Investigative Services
February 27, 2006
In a perfect world, firms could employ private investigators who are as skilled as pseudo-bumbling television police detective Columbo, Dallas lawyer William Brewer III says. <br>That's rarely the case when Brewer contracts with private investigation companies to help with litigation at 35-lawyer Bickel & Brewer, so the firm launched its own investigative unit in January. It's staffed by three former agents and a former training instructor with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Pay Parity Across Legal Markets: Multiple Perspectives
February 27, 2006
As firms across the country lift associate salaries, some are opting to pay the same in all U.S. offices outside New York, while others still pay less in secondary markets like Philadelphia, Atlanta or Miami.
Avoiding Boilerplate Traps in Commercial Leases
February 27, 2006
Boilerplate in a commercial lease ' notably in the Miscellaneous section ' is not nearly as uniform and standard as one might think. Boilerplate provisions therefore merit careful review by each party to the lease, and sometimes vigorous negotiation. Law firms are often tenants but sometimes also landlords; the authors provide advice for protecting both interests.
