Features
What Law Firms Can Learn from The Ninth Annual Law Department Operations Survey
Over the last few years, the legal operation managers' role has flourished, growing from a profession in its infancy into an unruly teenager, far more mature but with substantial areas poised for development. Now, more than ever, law departments are focused on implementing programs and structures to improve their financial management and deliver value.
Features
Recent Developments in the Section 956 Deemed Dividend Rules<br></font>
<i><b>How to Avoid the Tax Pitfalls of 26 U.S.C. §956 when Negotiating Lending Transactions for Clients with Foreign Country Operations</i></b><p>A popular conduit for operating in a foreign country is a controlled foreign corporation (CFC). In 2012, U.S.-controlled foreign corporation earnings topped $793 billion as the world economy became increasingly interconnected. See, IRS, Statistics of Income. How does the aforementioned trend impact the legal profession?
Features
Richest Firms Pulled Ahead in 2016 as Some Regions Struggled
The top performing law firms continued to pull away from the rest of the Am Law 200 last year, according to a report released on January 23 by Wells Fargo Private Bank's Legal Specialty Group. Meanwhile certain regions, including the mid-Atlantic states, struggled to achieve even modest revenue growth.
Features
Monitoring for Recovering Lost Revenue<br><font size="-1"><i>Pricing Groups Can Be a Good Starting Point</i></font>
Most firms are building pricing groups as the place to start addressing this pain. This is certainly a good starting point, but if your firm is pricing and not monitoring, you've actually got a problem.
Features
The Possible Consequences of Pursuing Outstanding Legal Fees
The attorney-client relationship is not one that always ends well. The client is able to discharge the attorney at any time, but outstanding legal fees must be addressed. If the client either ignores the correspondence or refuses to pay the fees, the attorney may determine to commence an action seeking the legal fees. What follows is a long, unhappy, expensive experience for each party.
Law Departments and Clients Face Budgetary Concerns in 2017
Law departments are not being asked to do more with less? Instead, they are being asked to do more with more (though sometimes their budget increases are not keeping up with their new responsibilities).
Features
The Power of Monitoring for Recovering Lost Revenue
Realization has hit an all-time low of 83%, plunging from 93% just a decade ago. Most firms are building pricing groups as the place to start addressing this pain. This is certainly a good starting point, but if your firm is pricing and not monitoring, you've actually got a problem.
Features
Elite Law Firms Increasingly Suing Clients to Collect Fees
In an era when demand for legal services is softening, the country's largest firms are increasingly going to court and arbitration against their former clients to collect fees in what consultants say is the "new normal."
Features
Law Firms Struggle With Lateral Partner Due Diligence
Firms place a lot of weight on lateral hiring, but many of them aren't very good at it.
Features
Retiring Boomers Pose Big Challenges For Firms
The boomer generation — 75 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 — and a tiny cadre of over-70s Silent Generation lawyers currently make up just under half of partners at Am Law 200 firms. As partners with the greatest seniority, they constitute a majority in the equity and management ranks, and control an outsize share of client relationships. The impacts of retirement are amplified because a long surge in hiring and promotion that began when boomers entered law firms has halted since the financial crisis.
Need Help?
- Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
- Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.
MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Law Firms and the Rise of HospitalityThe law firm office cannot remain unchanged, as if frozen in time set to some date prior to the onset of pandemic, when the terms and meaning have all changed. In fact, the office must now provide benefits or an experience the lawyers and staff cannot get at home.Read More ›
- Disconnect Between In-House and Outside Counsel'Disconnect Between In-House and Outside Counsel is a continuation of the discussion of client expectations and the disconnect that often occurs. And although the outside attorneys should be pursuing how inside-counsel actually think, inside counsel should make an effort to impart this information without waiting to be asked.Read More ›
- The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.Read More ›
- Lack of Logo Placement At Center of Ruling Over Meat Loaf Album PackagingTo build visibility for its brand, a record label or production company will want its logo included on products containing its master recordings manufactured and distributed by third parties. This will be addressed in the agreement between the label or production company and manufacturer/distributor. The failure to include the logo may raise a host of issues, from the breadth of the logo-placement obligation ' such as whether it includes Internet downloads ' to the proper theory on which to base any damages and just which album-sales figures are subject to evidentiary discovery. A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ' in a long-running dispute between Cleveland International Records and Sony Music Entertainment ' illustrated how these issues may be argued and decided.Read More ›