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Humor through cartoons can have a greater impact if strategically placed. This article touches upon some important factors when considering these special forms of illustrations for your next PowerPoint presentation.
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Can asking your clients questions be the answer to increased business? We recently attended a legal marketing workshop in Philadelphia, and the main topic of conversation revolved around retaining clients, and what clients believe is important in their choice of attorney or law firm. We were not surprised to find that there is a huge disconnect between what clients are looking for in their choice of attorney, and what they believe they are receiving from their current law firm.
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Holland & Hart 'marketing guy' Mark Beese uses a combination of public relations and advertising to set the stage for business development. The doors open on new client relationships when potential buyers are familiar with the firm's capabilities and reputation in the legal marketplace.
Why do so many lawyers know so little about the economics of practicing their profession? Not surprisingly, it's because their law school education did not address any of the business aspects of practicing law. So most young lawyers join law firms with little understanding of how they operate and without a clue as to what it takes to make a law practice successful and profitable. Many lawyers, especially those who join large firms, manage never to master these concepts ' and in many cases work hard at avoiding them.
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The objective in giving feedback is to enhance performance by supplying information to guide the individual toward the level and quality of work that is expected. This article contains seven steps to effective and useful feedback sessions.
A long accepted and familiar concept in Anglo-Saxon countries, whistleblowing, for cultural and historical reasons, has proven to be a rather unwelcome legal obligation. France's total opposition to whistleblowing has softened over time and has been accompanied by a greater understanding and appreciation of its implications. Nevertheless, strong pervasive principles of French law continue to govern this domain.
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In a substantial win for businesses, the U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a decision imposing strict requirements for lawsuits by private whistleblowers. Under the federal False Claims Act, once allegations of fraud are publicly disclosed, a relator (as citizen-plaintiffs are called) may bring suit on the government's behalf only if the relator is an 'original source.' In <i>Rockwell International Corp. v. United States</i>, the Court rejected the notion that a relator need only have knowledge of background facts about alleged fraud, even if those facts preceded the fraud. Instead, the Court held that a relator must have direct and independent knowledge of <i>the specific misconduct for which liability is actually imposed.</i>
As federal investigators examine the stock option programs of more than 160 companies, innumerable other companies launch internal investigations. As top executives resign, shareholders file dizzying numbers of derivative class action suits. Finally, as the Securities Exchange Commission and Department of Justice bring enforcement actions and criminal charges, the media is vilifying the so-called stock option backdating scandal as the biggest example of corporate abuse since Enron. The option backdating media frenzy focuses upon investigations by federal prosecutors and other regulatory agencies into public companies that have employed stock option compensation plans for corporate executives and employees.
On Feb. 8, 2007, the Internal Revenue Service ('IRS') made an usual offer to employers: on very short notice ' by Feb. 28, 2007, employers could inform the IRS of their intent to pay the back taxes and penalties owed by (non-insider) employees who exercised stock options with 'an exercise price of less than fair market value of the underlying stock on the date of grant in 2006.' Under this Program, companies with backdated options programs were 'allowed' to calculate and pay, by June 30, 2007, on behalf of their employees who exercised such options, a 20% penalty tax, and an additional 1% interest on underpayments, owed by such employees under ' 409A of the Internal Revenue Code ('IRC').
It is no longer acceptable ' if it ever was ' for in-house counsel merely to provide reactive assessments of legal risk presented by business people. Today, in-house lawyers must provide proactive solutions to their clients' problems, including solutions that mix legal advice with business-oriented suggestions. Of course, the attorney-client privilege protects only legal advice, and thus presents, at times, a difficult question: when has an in-house counsel provided non-privileged business advice instead of protected legal advice? That line is not always easy to draw, but a recent Second Circuit decision provides some guidance.
