Punk Rock and The Sale of Your e-Business
December 28, 2006
'Should I stay or should I go?'<br>That was the question that those classic '80s punk rockers The Clash asked in a song by the same title about a romance gone awry. That's just a song, though.<br>But, interestingly enough, that hard-driving ditty is applicable to the world of e-business: The entrepreneur contemplating the future of his or her business ' a love built of the same good times and bad, and with the same blood, sweat and tears as a real-life romance ' confronts the same dilemma when it's time to make that decision: Should he stay or should he go? How could a person not expect such perseveration? When an entrepreneur reads about the rapid rise of YouTube from startup to $1.65 billion buyout, he or she can easily forget about the many new firms that fail, and instead imagine being the personification of ' or fantasize about ' having a company that becomes the next tech-economy icon.
In the Spotlight: Beware of Lease Disputes in a Declining Market
December 28, 2006
We have just experienced a rising, perhaps frothy, commercial real estate market for the past half-decade, resulting in ever-increasing rental rates throughout much of the country. More recently, we have suffered increased gas prices that tax the budgets of all retail customers and appear to be reducing sales for many retailers.
Drafting a Better and More Effective Right of First Refusal
December 28, 2006
Land transfers date back to biblical times and have been the subject of an inordinate amount of litigation. Of course, the importance and value of land and the necessity for shelter might help to explain many of the disputes. Some, however, are due to human error, especially those involving the right to purchase property.
Confusion Over Regulation of Lawyers' Sites In Florida
December 28, 2006
To Google or not to Google is the dilemma plaguing the Florida Bar in its protracted debate over how to regulate law firm Internet sites. <br>Because the Bar Board of Governors deadlocked on proposed new Web site rules at its monthly meeting on Dec. 8 in Key Biscayne, law firm sites are completely unregulated as of Jan. 1. The Board tabled its discussion until this month.
Special Issue: The 'Hottest Issues' Get Hotter; The Bayou Hedge Funds Fraud
December 27, 2006
Investor confidence and market behavior can be impacted greatly by events that do not necessarily correlate. In the case of the Bayou Hedge Funds fraud, these unique and non-recurring events fueled a fire in the hedge fund industry that has spread, but not necessarily due to the particulars of the Bayou Hedge Funds failure. But, when dealing with significant investments made by pension funds, corporate entities, along with foundations and trusts, a healthy dose of skepticism is natural and appropriate. Not unlike the transition from the Enron scandal to the formation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, hedge fund investors may extrapolate the troubles at the Bayou Hedge Funds to all hedge funds. As a result, questions of the need for regulatory oversight for a stronger accountability within the industry arise.
Penance But No Absolution
December 27, 2006
The legal fiction of corporate criminal liability may finally get the rewrite it badly needs. Urged by practitioners and academics for decades, arguments for changing corporate criminal liability, if not abolishing it altogether, may now have a receptive audience in Washington.
BearingPoint and the Risk of Late SEC Filings
December 26, 2006
Companies that are late in filing their financial statements with the SEC may simultaneously trigger default provisions under their credit agreements and indentures. Accounting problems from practices such as the backdating of stock options make it difficult for companies to get auditors to sign off on their financial statements, resulting not only in a failure to meet SEC reporting deadlines but also a default under their loan agreements and cross-defaults under other agreements. This problem is widespread, with over 150 companies affected by the options backdating scandals and over 1300 companies in 2005 alone filing restatements of their financial statements with the SEC.
Data Security Breaches Offshore
December 22, 2006
Outsourcing decisions should be based in part on a comparison of data security in-house and at each vendor location; generally this is evaluated in terms of staff vetting, physical access security, database security, communications security, etc. But another vital consideration should be the effectiveness of each candidate location's legal preventive measures and remedies for data theft or misuse ' and the complexity and cost of securing those protections. This article, which surveys the state of data security legal protections in India, shows that making such a comparison is no simple matter.
Just-in-Time Benchmarking
December 22, 2006
Benchmarking has long been a difficult undertaking for private service providers and for law firms in particular. While firm partners historically have tracked firm-wide metrics such as billings, profits per partner and individual productivity, firms have until recently not had the means or opportunity to benchmark performance at the practice group, office location and timekeeper level with any accuracy or currentness.<br>This article, as the title implies, discusses how refined performance measures are made possible by a new benchmarking tool, West Peer Monitor' from Thomson West
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.
