LJN Newsletters

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.

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.

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.
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.

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.

Improved hard-disbursements management can mean major improvements for firms' financial performance.
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.

National rulings of interest to you and your practice.

Real-time collaboration (RTC) has advanced to a point where its advantages bring benefits to almost every aspect of organizational communications. For law firms, RTC makes possible new ways of working that are simple to adopt, easy to afford, require little or no CapEx and, in most cases, utilize existing computer and peripheral equipment. RTC can bring together employees, clients, trainers and others in ways that save time and overcome distance, thereby delivering measurable competitive advantage.