Most large and mid-sized law firms today have disaster recovery plans in place. But are the plans realistic? Do they truly meet the needs of the organization? Do they really bring to the project the full range of options that are available to sophisticated providers of legal services? These questions are of paramount importance for those managing a disaster recovery plan, since the potential of natural disasters or terrorist threats is becoming an increasingly bigger concern for businesses to face.
Most law firm managers understand intuitively that the value of inventory (both WIP and A/R) degrades over time, but by how much and how quickly? The ability to understand and answer these two questions is the first step in preparing a realistic, forward-looking valuation model ' one that can identify opportunities and drive action.
Although the geographic landscape in southern Ontario is similar to much of the northeastern United States, there are subtle traps for the franchisor who ventures northward expecting the franchise laws to be substantially the same. Southern Ontario contains the bulk of economic activity in Canada, and it has a franchise disclosure law based upon the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Franchise Rule. However, there are significant differences in how Canadian law in general will affect franchisors.
Although the fallout from the financial crisis is yet to be complete, the franchise industry seems to be weathering the storm fairly well to date. However, franchise attorneys say that caution is the order of the day and that an extended economic downturn could raise tensions between franchisors and franchisees.
A Houston plaintiffs lawyer, on behalf of hundreds of silica litigants, is pressing a constitutional challenge to a 2005 Texas state law that restricts his clients from litigating claims if they suffer no physical impairments.
“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.
Insiders (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.
The 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.
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
With 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.
