Features
Contractual Risk Transfer: Your Policy or Mine?
Companies involved in collaborative undertakings frequently confront risk sharing and transfer issues. After they identify a project's hazards, they then decide who will bear what risk, in what way, and in what amounts. They also need to consider whether either party (or both) will maintain insurance for the other's benefit. When negotiating a contractual risk transfer agreement, the parties need to understand their bargaining position and relevant contract and insurance principles. They need to be cognizant of risk transfer limitations. They need to consider if the risk transfer will be supported by insurance, and if so, the scope of coverage required and their willingness to share it in the event of a loss. The companies also need to put in place measures to assure compliance with their contract. This article examines these matters and offers practice pointers for those confronting contractual risk transfer decisions.
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Mediation: Three Discernible Methodologies
In addition to collaborative divorce, another alternative to litigation is mediation. Mediation is a 'consensual dispute resolution process in which a specially trained neutral third party helps disputants to identify issues, clarify perceptions and explore options for a mutually acceptable outcome.'
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Orientation Revisited and Reinvented
Many firms have instituted elaborate machinery for their recruiting (entry-level and lateral) and orientation, but there is a long way to go toward stellar results regarding orienting, integrating, and retaining those hard-won recruits. Some of the difficulties are generational; others can be traced to the traditions of partnership culture, which often lacks openness about management and how the firm handles the business of law. This article focuses on pumping up orientation programs.
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Professional Development: Being Civilized in a High-Tech World
Being civilized means living, learning and working with others in an environment which is conducive to interaction and camaraderie. Proper etiquette means using all the high-tech tools we now possess in a manner in which we can build relationships and show others we are available and open to them. Technology should make our lives easier not more complex, so think before you turn on your Ipod next to that stranger on the plane.
Features
Op Ed: 'Miranda' Rights
What I think is that for the most part, women in law have feared being themselves because if they showed their 'feminine side,' they would be perceived as not good enough or smart enough to succeed. I am here to say that's just rubbish."--Elizabeth Anne 'Betiayn' Tursi
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Transgender Employees
Legislatures and courts alike in several jurisdictions have extended existing anti-discrimination laws to transgender people, and some employers have followed suit with changes to their non-discrimination policies. Employers are thus advised not only to familiarize themselves with the current legal landscape for transgender rights, but also to consider the practical implications of such laws on their own efforts to provide an inclusive and non-discriminatory workplace environment for transgender employees. This two-part article will explore the legal landscape and its implications.
Features
Changes to Retiree Health Benefits
The first part of this article discussed the current state of the law with regard to the legal standing of unions to represent and litigate on behalf of retirees. The conclusion herein addresses cases involving the presumption of vesting, and offers tips for managing changes in retirement plans and negotiating future plans.
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IRS Issues Limited Relief on Section 409A
The IRS recently issued Notice 2007-78, which provides additional guidance and limited transition relief on Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. There are still actions required by the end of 2007.
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'Tip Pooling' and Wage and Hour Laws
There have been numerous cases involving various challenges to employer 'tip-pooling' policies, particularly in Massachusetts and California, with wait staff and other restaurant employees claiming that such policies violate state wage and hour laws. This article describes this recent line of cases, which are of particular interest to employers and employees in the restaurant or hospitality industries, but which have extended to other industries as well. The article also suggests guidelines for employers in the restaurant and hospitality industries to adopt so that their tip-pooling policies do not run afoul of state wage and hour laws.
Features
Don't Take a Beating on Your Hit Rate
Faced with ever-increasing litigation costs, in-house lawyers are searching for effective and legally defensible means of limiting the costs of electronic discovery. Legal teams can effectively incorporate search techniques into their best practices by considering critical issues before they review a single page. Doing so will only eliminate a major nightmare: excessive costs associated with over-collection and technical challenges that will require teams of project specialists to resolve.
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