Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Features

Supreme Court Defers to State Law on Ownership of Tax Refund Image

Supreme Court Defers to State Law on Ownership of Tax Refund

Michael L. Cook

Federal courts should "turn to state law to resolve" a "fight over a tax refund," held a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court in Rodriquez v. FDIC (In re United W Bancorp., Inc.).

Features

The State of Legal Finance in 2020 Image

The State of Legal Finance in 2020

Ari Kaplan

Legal industry analyst Ari Kaplan interviewed 32 lawyers from Finland, France, Hong Kong, Norway, Singapore, the UK and the U.S. about the evolution of legal finance. He also surveyed 20 in-house lawyers at Fortune 500 companies and 18 law firm lawyers from Australia, the Cayman Islands, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, Sweden, the UK, and the U.S. about emerging trends in legal finance. Below are some of his findings and what they indicate about the current state of the sector.

Features

Recovery Models for e-Discovery and Litigation Support Services that Make an Impact Image

Recovery Models for e-Discovery and Litigation Support Services that Make an Impact

Nathan Curtis

In 2019, Mattern went to the market to conduct its first deep dive into e-discovery and litigation support cost recovery in the 2020 e-Discovery and Litigation Support Cost Recovery Survey. Some of the results surprised us.

Features

Law Firm Mergers and Predictions for the Year 2020 Image

Law Firm Mergers and Predictions for the Year 2020

Marcus Dyer

2019 went down as another record year for law firm mergers. But what do the numbers teach us? Did the tendency to merge apply to law firms across the board? Is the merger mania likely to continue in 2020? What was the impetus for record number of mergers? This article breaks down the available data to answer these questions and attempts to give us a glimpse into the future.

Features

Client Maximization: Doing Well by Doing the Right Things Image

Client Maximization: Doing Well by Doing the Right Things

Linda Hazelton

Making the most of your firm's client base need not be a costly undertaking. There are several steps a firm of any size can undertake to improve client experiences, ultimately, while also increasing the firm's chances of thriving.

Features

Outsourcing: How to Do Better Than Flipping a Coin Image

Outsourcing: How to Do Better Than Flipping a Coin

Rob Mattern

The legal industry is on the cusp of transformational change making the "siren song" of a successful outsourcing engagement ever more alluring: increase expertise and flexibility while lowering costs, and significantly mitigating risk.

Features

How Law Firms Are Overcoming New Business Development Challenges Image

How Law Firms Are Overcoming New Business Development Challenges

Julie Savarino

With the intense competition for new legal work, demands on lawyers' available time and the increasing discounts clients demand, it's getting harder for law firms operating under a billable-hour business model to support the consistent development of new legal work by investing in and maintaining a marketing department alone.

Features

Linking Partner Pay to Strategic Firm Objectives Image

Linking Partner Pay to Strategic Firm Objectives

J. Mark Santiago

Pay for performance is not a new concept in this country. The ideas and concepts underlying a graduated pay scale based on contribution and merit are deeply ingrained in our society. However, in general law firms have been slower to adopt pay for performance systems. What law firms need now, and this article describes, is an approach to partner compensation that closely links a partners pay to their ability to contribute to the achievement of the firm's strategic objectives.

Features

Sales Speak: Strategies to Avoid or Reduce Billing Rate Discounts Image

Sales Speak: Strategies to Avoid or Reduce Billing Rate Discounts

Eric Dewey

Requests for discounts have become a routine step in the legal services purchasing process. Lawyers face the uncomfortable task of defending their billing rates in both RFPs and client pitches. But too often, lawyers don't make an effort to resist giving a discount when asked. Mostly because they haven't been trained in how to do it.

Features

Driving Law Firm Profits Through Data Analytics Image

Driving Law Firm Profits Through Data Analytics

John Schrumpf

"Data Analytics" have become more than just buzzwords and are an integral part of well informed decision making. The following best practices have the ability to bring your firm's data management up to speed with competitors in the law industry, while turning what might be an underutilized resource into a working asset that drives revenue.

Need Help?

  1. Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
  2. Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.

MOST POPULAR STORIES

  • The 'Sophisticated Insured' Defense
    A majority of courts consider the <i>contra proferentem</i> doctrine to be a pillar of insurance law. The doctrine requires ambiguous terms in an insurance policy to be construed against the insurer and in favor of coverage for the insured. A prominent rationale behind the doctrine is that insurance policies are usually standard-form contracts drafted entirely by insurers.
    Read More ›
  • Abandoned and Unused Cables: A Hidden Liability Under the 2002 National Electric Code
    In an effort to minimize the release of toxic gasses from cables in the event of fire, the 2002 version of the National Electric Code ("NEC"), promulgated by the National Fire Protection Association, sets forth new guidelines requiring that abandoned cables must be removed from buildings unless they are located in metal raceways or tagged "For Future Use." While the NEC is not, in itself, binding law, most jurisdictions in the United States adopt the NEC by reference in their state or local building and fire codes. Thus, noncompliance with the recent NEC guidelines will likely mean that a building is in violation of a building or fire code. If so, the building owner may also be in breach of agreements with tenants and lenders and may be jeopardizing its fire insurance coverage. Even in jurisdictions where the 2002 NEC has not been adopted, it may be argued that the guidelines represent the standard of reasonable care and could result in tort liability for the landlord if toxic gasses from abandoned cables are emitted in a fire. With these potential liabilities in mind, this article discusses: 1) how to address the abandoned wires and cables currently located within the risers, ceilings and other areas of properties, and 2) additional considerations in the placement and removal of telecommunications cables going forward.
    Read More ›