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In the wake of the demise of Arthur Andersen following the partnerships' indictment by the federal government, prosecutors are increasingly pressuring corporations to enter into deferred-prosecution agreements (DPAs) to avoid ' at least temporarily ' full-blown criminal prosecutions. While these agreements may seem to offer an attractive option to embattled companies faced with the prospect of a lengthy and potentially devastating criminal prosecution, the freedom with which the individual prosecutors operate when crafting the agreements should cause concern.
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<i>' ' [A]lthough nothing is off the table when you voluntarily disclose, I can tell you in unequivocal terms that you will get a real benefit ' '</i> Despite these heartening words by Assistant U.S. Attorney General Alice S. Fisher at a recent conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), an attorney representing a corporation cannot recommend voluntary disclosure of potentially criminal FCPA activities without weighing the promise of a 'real benefit' against the very real risks.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ), in the wake of increasing criticism of its policies on waiver of privileges by corporations and their advancement of legal fees to employees under investigation, issued a 21-page memorandum on Dec. 12, 2006, revising the 'Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Corporations,' alias the Thompson Memorandum. The revised policy, embodied in a memorandum by Deputy Attorney General Paul D. McNulty, comes close on the heels of two influential attacks on the Thompson Memorandum: a bill sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) that would prohibit prosecutors from pressing companies to waive privileges or cut off legal fees, and an opinion by Manhattan U. S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, holding that prosecutors had violated the constitutional rights of former KPMG partners when they pressured KPMG to stop paying the ex-partners' lawyers.
The implementation of restrictions on stock and/or claims trading has become almost routine in large Chapter 11 cases involving public companies on the basis that such restrictions are vital to prevent forfeiture of favorable tax attributes that can be triggered by a change in control. Continued reliance on stock trading injunctions as a means of preserving net operating loss carry forwards, however, may be problematic, after the controversial ruling handed down in 2005 by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in <i>In re UAL Corp.</i>, 412 F.3d 775 (7th Cir. 2005).
Legacy costs, the common term for worker pension and health care benefits negotiated in past collective bargaining agreements, are rising at a rapid pace ' driven by weak projected returns on pension portfolios, strong growth in health care costs and aging baby boomers tipping the scale between the number of workers supporting each retiree.
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A Delaware bankruptcy court held on Nov. 16 that a secured lender with a $128 million claim could credit bid at a judicial sale of a Chapter 11 debtor's assets, after dismissing the expansive complaint filed against the lender by the creditors' committee in the debtor's case (claims for recharacterization of debt as equity; equitable subordination; breach of fiduciary duty; invalid loans; voidable liens; and preference liability).
Greenebaum Doll & McDonald, PLLC, is a business and commercial law firm with eight offices nationwide with approximately 180 attorneys. There are six practice groups serving clients locally, nationally and internationally in numerous industries. Much of this is credited to the firm's commitment to facilitating the flow of information. The firm's standing priority has been to provide client benefits through efficient information management and the application of Web technologies and collaborative systems.
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Modern Document Management Systems (DMS) provide ways of creating structures for organizing content that go beyond old-fashioned 'folders.' 'WorkSpaces' can contain folders (static containers for content) and stored searches (dynamic, predefined ways of finding current content that meets specific search criteria) organized under 'Tabs.' Security and metadata (document-specific profile information) can be assigned to different levels of the structure, and lower levels can be set to 'inherit' higher-level security and metadata values.<br>In a law firm environment, it is natural, considering the way matters are handled and taking into account important business processes (including new matter opening procedures and records management requirements), that each matter be allocated a WorkSpace ' leading to the 'Matter-Centric' architectural paradigm.
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When an attorney is creating work product, a document assembly product is in order. It's the perfect tool to bring together needed information that is otherwise often stored in incongruent systems such as document management systems, other documents and Internet resource sites. Attorneys and legal staff need to leverage a firm's library of past work, while eliminating the frustrating tasks of endless cutting and pasting and hunting for source documents.<br>However, without a document assembly application, the law firm's clients are paying billable attorney hours to search for the information they need.
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Lawyers are not necessarily known for being cutting-edge adopters of technology, particularly those in small- to medium-sized firms. In fact, it's more of a bleeding edge, as lawyers in all size firms are being painfully thrust into using sophisticated technology solutions to manage cases along with all the attendant print and electronic records. A comprehensive and reliable enterprise-wide electronic records management system is critical for tracking, storing and retrieving client files to reduce ethical, malpractice and compliance risks for law firms.