A roundup of recent news important to your practice.

Features

An Atlantic County jury awarded $25.16 million to a Birmingham, AL, man after finding that Roche Laboratories Inc. knew or should have known that Accutane caused inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and failed to warn prescribing physicians.

Two recent New Jersey cases highlight the problems matrimonial attorneys are having collecting their fees, and the creative methods clients are using to avoid payment.

Entrepreneurs have always chafed against the formalities and procedures demanded of them by their attorneys and, more generally, by business laws. Who hasn't had to keep reminding clients of the importance of signing and returning annual minutes ' again and again and again? This is even more so for the tech sector, and e-commerce founders. After all, they created an industry by thinking outside the proverbial "box," so why should their creativity be constrained by legal rules created for the age of the steam engine?

Few practitioners may be aware that in a handful of jurisdictions, temporary spousal support is calculated by a rigid formula based solely on the litigants' incomes, without regard to the actual need of the dependent spouse. This article focuses on the spousal support Guidelines in Pennsylvania, the only state in the country to employ a flat 40% calculation of the difference in the incomes of payor and payee to determine the award.

Mergers can present some difficult issues to matrimonial attorneys. A discussion of one such merger, pharmaceutical company Wyeth, will illustrate some of the problems and their resolutions. In addition, several sample forms follow this article.

Features

Legal services are not sold, they are bought. You can't sell something that the other person doesn't want. Hence, the most effective way to detect a lead is to find someone ready to buy.

Features

Because in-house counsel are increasingly popular targets when claims are brought against their employers, their insurance protection becomes especially important. This article discusses some of the types of insurance policies available to companies that may provide coverage to company lawyers, including Errors and Omissions, Directors and Officers, and Employed Lawyers Professional Liability insurance.