An Alternative Fee <i>Meal</i>odrama
July 01, 2004
A witty, punny tale with a moral ' partners and general counsel are after the same thing: Quality legal work at lower cost, with profitability (and a good meal).
FMLA Exceeding Intentions Of Congress
July 01, 2004
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), signed into law by President Clinton in 1993, was designed to balance the demands of the workplace with the personal and economic needs of families and to promote the national interest by preserving the stability of families. <br>However, in the 11 years since the FMLA was enacted, evolving results from U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations, court decisions, fluid medical guidelines and a changing workplace have created impediments to an employer's ability to operate its business reasonably-in ways that Congress did not intend.
Plan Now, Or Pay Later
July 01, 2004
Week after week, month after month, warnings flood e-commerce, and brick-and-mortar enterprises, about the technology we all have come to depend on at home and at work. New threats from viruses, hackers or just bug-filled software make the cliche, "Can't live with it, can't live without it" an increasingly accurate descriptor of our high-tech world. <br>But could we really live for long without our computers? Instead, long before anyone worried about the virus of the day, businesses planned against disaster to avoid any type of disruption to the many devices we rely on.
Rogue Online Drugstores
June 29, 2004
Widespread use of the Internet is barely a decade old, and already its use and abuse have increased dramatically. While the Web provides companies with new outlets for their products, it also provides a larger outlet for rogue entities to harm the consumer and damage manufacturers' reputations. Indeed, the Internet has created an opportunity for a whole new class of fraudulent activity, with rampant identity theft the best known. In the context of drug outlets, if a purchaser buys his or her prescription from a "rogue" pharmaceutical site, that consumer may be buying expired, substandard, contaminated, counterfeited and, in some cases, unsafe products. The lack of medical oversight, which can result in administration of incorrect dosages, wrong or contra-indicated drugs, or medication without adequate directions for use are among the concerns to be addressed as we enter this new world of Internet pharmacies. Part One of a Two-Part Article.
What Constitutes a 'Security'?
June 22, 2004
The definition of what constitutes a "security" has broadened and changed dramatically over the years under both case and statutory law. Attorneys concentrating in securities law (whether by virtue of litigation or transactional work), as well as governmental and self-regulatory organizations, ranging from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) to various exchanges, have been dealing with the increasingly complex question of what constitutes a "security." This question is often posed to resolve particular claims in specialized venues, testing the acumen of even the most sophisticated securities practitioners and industry members. This two-part article describes the transfer process and offers sample forms as examples.
Law Firm Performance Metrics: Broadening Our Discussion
June 01, 2004
Last month's medley of views on law firm ranking metrics, while diverse, by no means exhausted what <i>A&FP</i> Board members and other contributors have to say about this important subject. The following two mini articles continue to address ranking-related problems, but will also help us broaden the scope of our discussion.
'Pay First' Provisions and the Insolvent Policyholder
June 01, 2004
When an insured entity becomes a debtor in bankruptcy, the interests of liability insurers collide with fundamental principles of the Bankruptcy Code. Most liability insurance policies require the policyholder to pay a deductible or self-insured retention ("SIR") before the insurer is obliged to pay anything. And many insurance policies require the policyholder to pay the entire claim first and to seek reimbursement from the insurer afterward. Almost by definition, however, insolvent policyholders are unable to make these upfront payments. Indeed, in many cases, the policyholder's inability to do so in the face of a deluge of litigation was the principal cause of the insolvency in the first place.
NJ Upholds Non-Competition Agreement
June 01, 2004
As previously reported in <i>LFPBR</i>, several states have upheld the forfeiture of non-qualified retirement benefits otherwise payable to a partner choosing to compete with the firm. In <i>Borteck v. Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland, and Perretti, LLP</i> (A-31-03) (April 5, 2004), the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously concluded that the retirement provisions of a law firm's partnership agreement did not violate N.J. Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) 5.6, and held the competing partner to lose his retirement benefits. The case provides further guidance for firms in designing, drafting and defending enforceable forfeiture-for-competition agreements.
Health Benefit Increases Spare No One
June 01, 2004
After years of foot-dragging, large U.S. law firms have embraced the mainstream business practice of countering rising health care costs by steering employees and partners into managed care plans. A recent comprehensive survey of large law firms' employee benefit practices conducted by The Segal Company shows, among other findings, that less than one in five firms offers a traditional indemnity health plan today. The survey also found that health plans at law firms continue to reflect the special needs of these professional service organizations as a whole ' as well as those of the individual firms that participated.
