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Several federal agencies and independent agencies and commissions have leasing authority granted by the U.S. Congress (<i>ie</i>, NASA for specific space needs; FDIC; SEC; U.S. Military for recruitment stations and other specific needs; Smithsonian Institution and others). The General Services Administration ('GSA') provides a large percentage of the commercial leasing space needs for the balance of governmental entities and certain services for even those within their own authority. The GSA has recently retained third-party brokerage firms on a national basis to assist the government in its leasing of office space. As more brokers &mdash; and, in the future, lawyers &mdash; are asked to assist the government with its space needs, an understanding of the leasing issues specific to the government is required. This article details some of these issues, and suggests ways to address them in your lease.

Every lease has a use clause. Most get little thought or attention. Use clauses permit a tenant to do any number of things. Next question?

Over the past several decades, federal and state courts nationwide have heard cases where the implied co-insureds doctrine has been asserted and have come to totally different conclusions. The doctrine holds that an insurer may not bring suit by way of subrogation against a tenant who negligently or willfully causes damages to property insured under an insurance policy procured by a landlord on the ground that the tenant is a co-insured under that policy. Recently, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York considered a case involving the implications of the implied co-insureds doctrine and the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

All law firms have invaluable information ' information about cases, precedent, contracts and clients. But in many instances, that information is not readily available. Some is locked away inside the heads of attorneys, and other types of information are stored away under obscure file names in disparate data repositories. <br>About 2 years ago, Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. realized we were sitting on a treasure trove of such information. But there was no mechanism in place at the firm that would allow for quick, accurate and broad full-text searches to access firm-wide information and share it among lawyers and staff. So we began looking for a tool that would efficiently open up those repositories of documents and knowledge.

Legal case management software is a valuable tool that law firms use to efficiently manage legal cases. However, while the application provides attorneys with a convenient method of effectively managing client and case information, there is a clear disconnect in many law firms that occurs at the point of implementation.

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Software trainers find the need for computer training to be never-ending. In many firms, training programs abound but users don't seem to be gaining ground fast enough to master the array of applications on the desktop. Frustrations among users rise with the need for speed in productivity and also for trainers as they fight for training time, training resources, and willing participants. Yes ' willing participants. End-users aren't motivated to attend training that is stressful,discouraging, or a waste of time; often defined as any training experience that does not provide skill retention and mastery.

Last year was explosive for the electronic discovery industry. From enormous jury verdicts to proposed changes in the federal rules, the legal and business landscape for e-discovery has never been more in flux. While more e-discovery vendors have entered the market this year, mergers have also consolidated the industry like never before. Meanwhile, case law continues to grow to include not just the very well publicized sanctions cases, but also opinions that have honed in on some of the technical challenges of e-discovery.

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