Features
Can I Get a (GAAP) Witness?
John and Timothy Rigas ('the Rigases') were convicted in 2004 by a federal jury for their roles in looting millions of dollars from Adelphia Communications Co. and for failing to disclose billions of dollars in company liabilities on Adelphia's financial statements. In their appeal to the Second Circuit, the Rigases argued that because their convictions were predicated on Adelphia's accounting for liabilities in its financial statements, the prosecution was required to call an accounting expert to explain the technical aspects of applicable Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The Second Circuit recently affirmed all but one of the counts of convictions. Here is an analysis of the case.
Features
Tax Crimes: Has the Bright Line Moved?
The authors are longtime members of the ABA Section of Taxation Civil and Criminal Tax Penalties Committee. Their thrice-annual Saturday morning meetings used to involve continuing education only among lawyers joined by the common bond of representing clients who were not just aggressive in their tax affairs but who really cheated (or at least were thought to have by the government). For the past few years, though, their sessions have been packed with practitioners who never before cared much about developments in the world of criminal tax law. Here's why.
Features
The Bankruptcy Hotline
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
Features
Key Employee Retention under BAPCPA
Given that the raison d'etre of KERPs was to retain top management, it is perhaps ironic that debtors now must show that a compensation plan is not retentive ' or at least that retention is not its primary purpose ' in order to obtain bankruptcy court approval. This article offers a complete explanation and analysis.
Features
The Return of the Solvent Debtor Doctrine?
The First Circuit recently added its weight to the list of authorities allowing as unsecured claims unreasonable prepayment penalties asserted by oversecured creditors, but, by implication, the court may have added further fuel to the debate regarding the allowability of claims by unsecured creditors for contractual, post-petition attorney fees ...
2007 ABA Tech Report: Editor's Note
This month, LJN's Legal Tech Newsletter is proud to include its third annual special supplement highlighting and analyzing information from the 2007 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey Report. The article is written by Stephen Stine, a Research Specialist for the American Bar Association's Legal Technology Resource Center.
2007 ABA Tech Report: The 2007 ABA Legal Technology Survey
In 2007, the American Bar Association's Legal Technology Resource Center surveyed its lawyer members in private practice on their use of technology in the practice of law, and released its findings in the American Bar Association's 2007 Legal Technology Survey Report. What law office and mobile technologies are lawyers using to power their law practices? Are lawyers going paperless? Are they hopping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon? This article examines data from the survey to help answer these questions.
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