Features

How Firms Should Be Measuring the Profitability of Matters
Matter profitability matters. Yet most firms struggle to measure it in a manner that is accurate, focused on the levers partners control, and inclines partners to take action. Using margin per-partner-hour (MPH) to measure profitability delivers on these objectives.
Features

Smaller Firms' Message To Big Law on Alternative Fees: Join the Club
Microsoft's vow to make its outside lawyers bill nearly all their work under alternative fee arrangements caused a stir, given large law firms' traditional devotion to the billable hour. But for a growing number of mostly smaller firms, those anxieties highlight a Big Law business model they've already left behind.
Features

Financing and Leasing Technology Is a Strategic Advantage
Law firms may want to leverage a specific law firm management technology to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace, but might not want to purchase those tools outright. How are you equipping your firm to succeed both in the present day and into the future?
Features

The New DOL Fiduciary Rule
</b><i.What Does It Mean to Me?</b></i><p>While there are many items and complexities to the new rule, this article focuses on the basic premise of why the rule was developed and adopted and the effect on the retirement landscape and the players involved.
Features

3 Tips for Handling the Difficult Decision to Downsize
By handling all involuntary terminations with professionalism and formality, law firms can limit the potential for conflict and give proper attention to the potential ethical and legal issues. Here are three tips for handling the transition of attorneys and staff from the firm.
Features

The Law Firm Value Proposition
<b><i>How to Successfully Hire Lateral Partners</b></i><p>While a law firm asks for specific education, experience, contacts and portables at certain law firms, what if the candidates were to ask for their own list of must-haves? How would a firm measure up?
Features

The Business Intelligence to Competitive Intelligence Continuum
Where law firm leaders' "gut judgement" was once sufficient, running the business well now requires solid intelligence (yes, Big Law is a business). Decisions must balance the demands of clients with those of the partnership. Law firms are awash in data, but harnessing it to support sound decision-making is a major challenge.
Features

Law Firm Strategy Execs Wield Uneven Clout
The role of chief strategy officer (CSO) — increasingly common in corporate America — has been adopted by relatively few law firms. Consultants say perceptions of what the position entails and whether it's necessary vary widely throughout the legal industry.
Features

The Am Law 100: Dark Clouds on the Horizon
While the year-on-year trends look appealing, a longer-term analysis reveals that many key metrics are showing signs of pressure, and firm performance is growing increasingly erratic. The Am Law data reveals that the past year has been good to Big Law but it also shows growing signs of problems on the horizon.
Features

Law Firm Strategy Execs Wield Uneven Clout
The role of chief strategy officer (CSO) — increasingly common in corporate America — has been adopted by relatively few law firms. Consultants say perceptions of what the position entails and whether it's necessary vary widely throughout the legal industry.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›