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As goes New York, so goes the nation? Last month, the New York Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of a women's health act that pressures some religious-affiliated employers to either offer their employees a prescription plan that includes contraceptive coverage, or deny their workers any drug coverage at all.
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The recent wave of investigations and lawsuits involving the alleged backdating of stock options promises to become one of the most widespread corporate crises in recent years. As these allegations mount, targets of the investigations will look to their insurance companies to help pay their potentially substantial defense costs and any resulting liabilities. <br>At the same time, insurance companies will be looking for ways to minimize, or even evade entirely, their coverage obligations. As a result, targets of backdating investigations must move quickly to protect their insurance coverage.
Features
The composition of the modern corporate board has evolved into a complex and sophisticated governing body that places increasing demands on the lawyers. In the post Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley world, corporate boards continue to be comprised of directors with their own myriad personal and business agendas. These boards, however, have also become more mindful and responsive to watchdog agencies, and have a renewed focus on board independence, financial expertise and diversity. There is, therefore, an increased need for adaptable, experienced, and informed lawyers ' both in house as well as outside a given company ' to counsel the board and its members on these and other controversial issues. The best practices for doing so, including those addressing how to better understand the client board's structure, culture and goals, as well as the board member's personal concerns, is the subject of this piece.
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We have all run into a situation where an existing or potential client has outlined a deal management wants to do (or, in some cases, has already done), which meets the legal definition of a franchise, but the client is adamant about avoiding the real or perceived burdens of being deemed a franchisor. Establishing a franchise system may require, among other things, compliance with franchise sales laws, public disclosure of financial statements, observing contractual limitations imposed by franchise relationship laws, and enduring the public image of being a franchise. There are a variety of distribution models other than franchising available to clients for structuring envisioned expansion. However, if certain elements are involved in the proposed transaction, creation of a franchise system may become legally necessary. This article addresses the issues practitioners face in advising clients in these scenarios and explores some of the various alternatives to the franchise model and exemptions from franchise disclosure law that are available to your clients.
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As defined by the ADA, a qualifying disability is 'a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.' 42 U.S.C. 12102(2)(B), (C). The ADA regulations define disabilities broadly, including a specific reference to 'neurological systems, mental or psychological disorders.' (29 C.F.R ' 1630.2 (h).) Because the ADA only provides such general guidance, litigation continues to arise as parties try to refine the concepts presented in the Act, such as whether a mental disorder is a qualifying impairment, whether an employee with a qualifying mental illness can perform essential job functions, and how the limitation of a major life activity caused by a qualifying mental illness can be reasonably accommodated in the workplace.
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Both the American Bar Association and the University of California's Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco are launching initiatives aimed at helping attorneys who have stopped practicing maintain their connections and ease their transition back into the profession.
Features
Standards of Value: Theory and Applications, written by Jay E. Fishman, Dr. Shannon P. Pratt, and William J. Morrison, addresses the standard of value as applied in four distinct contexts: estate and gift taxation, shareholder dissent and oppression, divorce and financial reporting. The book is written in a fashion that will prove useful for judges, lawyers and practitioners to better understand the theory and conceptual underpinnings related to the various standards of value in both judicial and regulatory applications. The depth of the book in several areas reaches well beyond anything published to date with respect to how the recognized standards of value relate to these four very different purposes in application.
In May, just 1 month after Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld announced Chang-Joo Kim had joined its New York office as a partner, the law firm cut a check to recruiting firm Boston Executive Search for $227,500. <br>But did it pay the right recruiter? New York search firm Sivin Tobin Associates says it sent Akin Gump a package about Kim last December, along with a term sheet. Sivin Tobin is now suing the law firm, alleging breach of an implied contract. In September, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jane S. Solomon denied Akin Gump's motion to dismiss.
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Law firms have been largely unable to take advantage of modern business improvement methods such as Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints ' complex techniques often applied to manufacturing processes ' with much success. Those methodologies are measurement-based strategies that focus on process improvement and variation reduction.
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Improved hard-disbursements management can mean major improvements for firms' financial performance. <br>In the mid-1990s, the IRS stopped allowing lawyers to deduct as a business expense funds advanced for clients, treating their repayment as income. The agency said such advances should be treated as loans. This policy turned the nation's lawyers into bankers making interest-free loans. Last year, the AmLaw 100 firms alone reportedly advanced more than $4.5 billion in such loans.
