As general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Mechanics Bank in Northern California, I always considered my financial institution's method for delivering its board books to our corporate directors in advance of their board meetings was fraught with peril and legal risk. The fact is that it was no different than what many corporations ' banking and otherwise ' do when distributing board materials in advance of their meetings.
On Aug. 13th, a techie blogger named Oilman posted an article entitled, "Shame Shame Shame Findlaw," accusing the legal behemoth of violating Google's guidelines. Within hours, Findlaw was pilloried by the Search Engine Optimization blogosphere. Google dropped FindLaw's Page Rank from a 7 to a 5. The controversy unveiled Findlaw's SEM Advantage program ' which was essentially an agreement to sell a link from FindLaw.com to a law firm's Web site for up to $2,500 a month for the sole purpose of improving that site's search results, and is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
The latest news from the franchising world.
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.
Now more than ever, marketing should take center stage ' and for 50 firms it has ' I'm a believer!
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.
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
