Affinity Groups: Tools for Retention
Affinity groups are groups that are sponsored and supported by an organization and consist of people with a common set of characteristics. Common affinity groups in larger law firms include ones involving women attorneys; attorneys of color; reduced- schedule attorneys; and people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender ('GLBT'). Affinity groups are effective tools that organizations have used successfully to improve retention and promotion, and to enhance recruiting efforts. Affinity groups that 'support the attorneys and provide outlets and channels of communication with senior management' are also considered diversity best practices (The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Statement of Diversity Principles, Diversity Practices).
Features
Decisions of Interest
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
Features
Support Modification: Overview and Update
In the past few years, more requests for modification of a child support obligations, either upward or downward, have been denied than granted. With regard to the cases in which an upward modification was denied, the courts have been reluctant to find that the party seeking to modify the child support obligation has established that any claimed change in circumstances was unanticipated or that the children's needs were not being met.
Lawsuits over Judicial Pay Raises
New York's judges, who have not had a raise in pay since 1999, are growing increasingly frustrated with the legislature's failure to address the issue. Some are taking matters into their own hands by filing lawsuits to force the issue.
Caveat Kojovic v. Goldman
The bench and bar are long weary of the surfeit of baseless proceedings to vacate pre- and post-nuptial agreements. A cursory review of decisional authority involving efforts to set aside marital agreements readily reveals that the odds are overwhelmingly against success. These efforts are often futile because they are correctly seen as nothing more than a last try to pressure the payor spouse to be more generous. The hope is that the monied spouse can be intimidated by general trepidation, the fear of legal costs and the difficulties of locating no-longer-extant evidence.
The Disabled and the Co-op Approval Process
Co-op boards have become accustomed to having their process for approving prospective applicants significantly insulated from review. But boards and applicants must be acutely aware of the effect of the laws protecting the disabled as boards are subject to, and their particular building rules do not trump, the disability laws.
Index
Everything contained in this issue, in an easy-to-follow format.
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