Competing Definitions of 'Mass Layoffs' Under the WARN Act
August 25, 2008
The Retraining and Notification Act ("WARN" or The Act) creates some uncertainty for employers because it contains two potentially conflicting definitions of the term "mass layoff" ' one that looks to a 30-day period and another that aggregates layoffs over a 90-day period. This article analyzes a recent ruling that addresses the problem.
DIVERSITY DOES NOT MEAN "PREFERENCES
August 22, 2008
DIVERSITY DOES NOT MEAN "PREFERENCES": In my last post, I described a very surprising reaction from a well respected AGC about diversity meaning preference. Again, I do not believe he is racially or gendered biased. But he appears not to be receptive to the message that diversity and business development consultants deliver about the need to foster a nurturing environment that will increase female and minority retention rates. He believed that diversity initiatives involve preferences.…
I COULD LEARN A LOT FROM YOU <i>What Can Product Marketers Teach Us?</i>
August 04, 2008
It's been suggested by several readers that our orientation toward professional services marketing, as opposed to product marketing, is a prejudice. Admittedly, it's at least a bias against a pervasive academic view that the techniques of marketing a product apply equally to marketing a professional service. And indeed, the most successful professional services marketers tend to look to other professional services firms for answers and the best ideas, as well as for validation of their own ideas and processes. Still, it would be foolish to automatically preclude any idea that's been forged in a marketplace of ideas. In a rational world, we take ideas from any reasonable place, accept the good ones, and eliminate the ones that are bad or not applicable. That means that are things to be learned by professional services marketers from the Toyotas and Microsofts and Dells of the world.
New Foreign Drug Trial Rule Coming
July 31, 2008
A new U.S. Food and Drug Administration final rule governing clinical trials held in foreign countries will spark painstaking legal review of pharmaceutical companies' protocols for trials.
Your People In the World
July 31, 2008
The hazards of misunderstanding, always present in human communication, are multiplied in the intercultural environment, and manners, language and knowledge of geography are only parts of the problem. People need a framework for recognizing, collecting and applying what they will be learning throughout their careers in this new world.
Do Associates Still Care About Making Partner?
July 31, 2008
Whether the frequent gripe is true that 'associates today don't want to work hard and pay their dues like we did,' what is certainly true is that a number of forces have conspired to make equity partnership less attainable and less desirable in many firms than it used to be. As the typical law firm career path becomes more fluid, less traditional and less predictable, law firm leaders and associates alike are struggling to come to terms with what the changes mean for recruiting, retention, professional development, promotion, capitalization, individual contribution and compensation, just to name a few of the many question marks.
Law Firm Intelligence: LInkedIn: A Tool for Networking and for CI
July 31, 2008
Social networking media, so-called Web 2.0 sites, have been in the news recently for their networking and business development possibilities. Leverage them well, and your firm will uncover relationships and connections that will almost literally knock your socks off.
Do Associates Still Care About Making Partner?
July 31, 2008
Whether the frequent gripe is true that 'associates today don't want to work hard and pay their dues like we did,' what is certainly true is that a number of forces have conspired to make equity partnership less attainable and less desirable in many firms than it used to be.
Technology in Marketing: The Top 10 Law Firm Web Site SEO Best Practices
July 31, 2008
Google or other analytics reports typically show that search engines are a major source of Internet traffic to law firm Web sites (as well as law firm blogs). Therefore, a law firm seeking to increase traffic to its Web site should follow 'best practices' when it comes to search engine optimization, or SEO.
