Protecting Record Producer's Interest In Music-Royalty Audit Scenarios
October 01, 2003
An unfortunate fact in the recording industry is that successful records result in audits by royalty participants. This is partly due to the entrenched distrust that artists have for record companies and partly to simple prudent business practices. If an artist sells hundreds of thousands or millions of units around the world, it would be the rare company that could move that many pieces of product without making a mistake. Sometimes the mistakes are just mistakes, and sometimes an audit holds up a mirror that reveals what happens under the record company hood - warts and all. And the "all" category can be very interesting.
Warning Signs: How to Spot Partner Dissatisfaction and What to Do About It
October 01, 2003
By no means do the economic stability and steady growth of a legal practice ensure harmony in the partner ranks or, for that matter, the contentment of any single lawyer. Managing partners who breathe too easily when reassuring revenue or profit numbers get posted may endanger their firms by ignoring tell-tale signs of disharmony. Law firms have been known to go out of business amid strong financials just as precipitously as when those numbers tumble. Remember Shea & Gould?
Leadership Transition in a Law Firm
October 01, 2003
How does a law firm transition leadership from the founders or the current set of leaders to the next generation of leaders? There are three models of transition: King to Prince, CEO with credibility to COO with credibility and accepted founder/leader to people who should become leaders. Obviously the last model is the most difficult to execute. The approach for this transition model is also applicable to the first two. The King to Prince will probably not make the transition because benevolent despotisms crash if the Prince has not gone through a credibility building process. The CEO to the COO assumes the COO has gone through the process outlined below.
Around the Firms
October 01, 2003
Attorney movement among major law firms and corporations.
How UK Franchisors Protect Their Trade Secrets
October 01, 2003
As in the United States, franchisors in the United Kingdom usually invest in protecting their brand by way of trademark registrations, usually a Community Trade Mark (CTM). However, although they spend a considerable amount of time, money, and resources developing their customer databases and refining their business methodologies and know-how (and detailing this in the franchise Operations Manual, to which their franchisees and employees are given access), U.S. franchisors rarely seem to devote the same resources to protecting these trade secrets in the United Kingdom.
Sarbanes-Oxley, the SEC and Nasdaq
October 01, 2003
This article briefly summarizes the numerous provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the rules under it, the corresponding proposed governance rules that a new public company listing on the Nasdaq National Market will be required to address, and the deadlines for being in compliance.
Has Anything Changed?
October 01, 2003
Nearly 2 years have passed since the Enron scandal broke, and a year has elapsed since Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (the Act) in July 2002 in response to widespread calls for stronger measures to prevent and punish corporate fraud. Many observers expected securities class action litigation to rise in response to recent headline-making fraud scandals and the Act. However, little change has occurred in securities class action filings, dispositions and settlements, detailed statistical analysis shows. This article discusses the facts.
Methods for Securing Against Tenant Defaults
October 01, 2003
Security deposits are an age-old form of security for the performance of the tenant's obligations under a lease. In the simplest of transactions, the tenant deposits a fund with the landlord to be used to protect the landlord against the economic consequences of a tenant's default. The amount of the fund is the product of negotiations and usually involves a multiple of the monthly rent payable under the lease. In more sophisticated commercial transactions with other than the most creditworthy of tenants, the landlord wants the tenant to deposit a substantial sum, perhaps a multiple of the yearly rent payable under the lease, especially if the landlord pays for substantial tenant improvements. <p><i>Part Two of a Two-Part Series</i>
Private Leasing Companies Can't Ignore Sarbanes-Oxley
October 01, 2003
According to AMR Research, which recently surveyed 60 Fortune 1,000 companies, it is estimated that the Fortune 1,000 will spend $2.5 billion in 2003 alone in costs associated with Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance. How much more will be spent by smaller public companies and by those in the private-company sector is a mystery, but the total costs - in cash, time, consulting fees, lost opportunities, and human resources - will surely be staggering.
