From Your Editor: Happy New Year, 2018!
January 01, 2018
Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Rice shares some thoughts on the direction of legal services in the U.S., and the role as strategically-minded legal marketing executives who strive to help shape the success of their lawyer clients to think outside their comfort zones of hourly billing and high compensation packages.
Quarterly State Compliance Review
January 01, 2018
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect from Oct.1, 2017 to Jan. 1, 2018. It also looks at recent decisions of interest from Delaware.
2018: What Last Year's Trends Can Mean for Big Law
January 01, 2018
With the new year upon us, law firms have just been through the typical year-end crush of collections, budgeting, compensation decisions and more. The authors recently took a look at 2017's hottest trends, and explored what we could expect from them in 2018.
To Train or Not to Train? That Is the Question
January 01, 2018
Before starting a training program, conduct a needs assessment when performance is inappropriate or inadequate. This means when one or more attorneys or staff are not doing what they should be doing, or they are doing something they should not be doing. Here's how to proceed.
2017 Roundup: Equity vs. Non-Equity Membership
January 01, 2018
<b><i>Last Year Saw a Number of Interesting Decisions Concerning the Identity, Rights and Obligations of Non-Equity Owners, Including Partners and Shareholders</b></i><p>2017 saw a number of interesting decisions concerning the identity, rights and obligations of non-equity owners, including partners and shareholders. As more firms utilize non-equity members to play vital roles within their firms, it will become more important for them to take note of these decisions and the guidance they provide.
FATCA Revamp
January 01, 2018
<b><i>Will Your Company Be Prepared?</b></i><p>FATCA is an effort by the United States to curb tax evasion and incentivize Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) to report the overseas assets of U.S. persons. The U.S. encourages compliance by imposing a 30% withholding penalty on all U.S. source income and sale proceeds of non-compliant foreign financial institutions.
Lack of Gender-Diverse Partnership: Is It the Woman or the Firm?
December 01, 2017
<b><i>Data-Driven Research by ALM Intelligence Suggests Three Reasons Why Gender-Diverse Partnership Fails</b></i><p>It is now common knowledge that female headcount within the ranks of Big Law partnership, both equity and non-equity, has held steady for the past few years at around 20%. The obvious question is, why?
Read This Before You Set Your 2018 Billing Rates
December 01, 2017
Failure to increase senior billing rates differentially, and thus to rebalance the source of margin from junior to senior lawyer time, will result in a calamitous decline in profitability. It can be avoided if firms start now to gradually change their billing rate structures.
