Features

Why Lawyers Stink At Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Features

With Expenses Expected to Rise in 2021, Will Demand Match?
Budget season is in full swing at firms whose fiscal year matches the calendar year, and leaders are exercising a newfound scrutiny over every component of next year's spending as they prepare for an uncertain 2021.
Features

Retirement Planning Under a Biden Administration
The election of Joe Biden as President may clear the way for many changes in the retirement planning landscape.
Features

COVID-19 Dispels Long-Held Law Firm Operations Myths
During the COVID-19 pandemic, law firms have learned that a large number of "essential" services and Standard Operating Procedure rules and assumptions about how an office works are 1950's myths that need to be identified, examined and re-engineered or discarded.
Features

Law Firm Financial Management In An Era of Unprecedented Economic Uncertainty
The pandemic has forced law firms to reevaluate their expenses, refine their budgets, and review their overall operations to adapt to an environment of perpetual uncertainty.
Features

Back to Basics In Times of Uncertainty
One of the keys to success in competitive intelligence is communication. Effective communication builds rapport with your clients, which, in turn, builds trust and instills confidence that you will be able to get what they need to achieve their goals. In the last few months, this element of trust and rapport has never been more important.
Features

Transitioning to Remote, Electronic Signing for Transactions
The recent move to more remote work environments has prompted many to take a second look at not only e-Signature solutions but also remote online notarization. In order to support transactional practice groups and legal department in making the transition to electronic signing and closings, one must understand the challenges and opportunities of these technologies.
Features

It's 2025: What Did We Do to Successfully Shift Law Firm Operations?
A Look Back from the Future If we look back at 2020 five years from now, what will we point to as the key actions that brought law firms back, and which of those are still in play.
Features

Drumming Up Business While Trumpeting Your News
An Integrated Strategy Despite the current uncertainty, though, developing solid plans with accountability, results and measurement can be done. Preparing a comprehensive business development strategy — one that is integrated with public relations — is more critical than ever to avoid being considered pleasant but boring elevator music.
Features

Communicating During the COVID-19 Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has likely changed how law firms operate from now on, and it has affected all areas, from client service and IT to business development and attorney recruiting and advancement. One area that has been especially hit hard is the communications function.
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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 ›
- 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 ›
- 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 ›