Commercial Law

  • Intangible Asset Finance: Investing in Effectiveness

    Nanotechnology financiers were biting their nails this past October as market forces were engaged by regulatory forces. In the same week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ('FDA') held its first full public meeting on nanotechnology safety and environmental risk, and the Environmental Protection Agency ('EPA') placed a Notice of Rulemaking regarding nanotech product commercial release requirements in the Congressional Record. Investors see only risk — each of the two agencies has the power to shut down the evolving nanotechnology industry.

    February 27, 2007Nir Kossovsky and Robert Block

  • Inside Blogging

    Although online blogging has gone mainstream in some professions, there's one group of people mostly absent from the blogosphere: the in-house bar. That said, a few in-house blogs do exist, and their numbers are growing steadily.

    February 27, 2007Catherine Aman

  • e-Lawyering Is Not for the Faint-Hearted

    Today, the pervasive role that technology has assumed in business and legal practice, as more and more of our daily lives are lived online, provides a more fundamental challenge to how attorneys practice business law. In an age when 'paper file' has become an anachronism and an oxymoron, business law and the way it is practiced have required more than just tinkering with particular rules.

    February 27, 2007Stanley P. Jaskiewicz

  • e-Commerce Docket Sheet

    Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.

    February 27, 2007ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Your Law Firm Web Site

    A law firm Web site is an interactive experience ' one that takes place between someone in need of information and someone in the position to provide that information.The total experience a client or prospective client has while visiting a Web site reflects on your firm. A bad experience forms a bad association. A good experience creates a good one.

    February 27, 2007Janet Ellen Raasch

  • Getting Published: The Foundation for Business Development

    Business development in the legal community is a science, but it requires the creativity of an artist. That artistry can be demonstrated most powerfully through the written word, a tool of great lawyers for centuries. Encapsulating an interesting case or complex transaction into 500 or 1000 words for the benefit of colleagues and the business community at large is the single best way to demonstrate expertise on a macro scale. It is at the very core of client generation.

    February 27, 2007Ari L. Kaplan

  • Corner Office: Are Gray-Haired Partners Expendable?

    Gray-haired, older, or as I shall refer to them, senior partners, as a class, represent a challenge that most managing partners find vexing. Many firms have avoided addressing this very complex issue either because of the emotional reaction it invokes, or because they just don't see it as a real problem yet. Others have adopted the apparently simple solution of setting a mandatory retirement age at which the partner is expected to stop practicing and head for a retirement community.

    February 27, 2007Melchior S. Morrione

  • Which Endorsements Are Right for Your Transaction?

    A commercial real estate attorney representing a client that needs title insurance in a commercial real estate transaction must consider which endorsements would be best to provide the client with all the necessary title insurance protection. This two-part article addresses which American Land Title Association ('ALTA') endorsements are typical when representing a buyer, tenant, or lender in an acquisition or lease of commercial property. In addition, the article discusses a few non-ALTA endorsements that are available in many states.

    February 27, 2007Sara K. Stock

  • In the Spotlight: Planning for Redevelopment

    For years, the commercial real estate market has been sizzling.Cap rates are down. Prices are up.Nevertheless, you managed to beat out the competition and buy a few shopping centers. To justify the price you paid, however, you need to increase the net operating income ('NOI') from your property. Now, however, the economy may be facing the headwind of a slowdown, if not an outright recession, which creates resistance to rent increases; so you may not be able to rely on ordinary rent increases to bolster your NOI.

    February 27, 2007Jack Garson and Lawrence Skok