LJN Newsletters

Recent news of interest to the Internet law community.

Ruling on one of the most important First Amendment issues of the day, a Philadelphia judge ruled that a valid defamation claim trumps any right to speak anonymously on the Internet.

In my role as a consultant, I work with clients who wish to make critical business decisions but sometimes suspect the reliability of their internally generated numbers. Last month, Ed Wesemann wrote about just such a situation, when he referred to the common belief that associates do not make money in their first 3 years. Intuitively, this does not make sense to many law firm managers, yet their reports often support this contention.

The Internal Revenue Service has provided guidance in Notice 2005-86 on the interaction of the 2.5-month grace period for a health flexible spending arrangement (health FSA) (established earlier by Notice 2005-42) and an individual's eligibility to contribute to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

Anti-bribery laws have serious consequences for anyone doing business internationally. Violations come to light during routine M&A due diligence, when competitors complain or employees blow the whistle, or when companies voluntarily disclose as a part of their Sarbanes-Oxley reporting obligations. When they do come to light, strong internal controls may shield executives from some liability and restore confidence amongst shareholders and regulators.

As described in the following article abridgements from A&FP sibling publications, associate salaries and rates are headed up once again, pressures from cost-conscious clients notwithstanding. I have a possibly discomfiting view to offer on this, but first let's take a look at the bandwagon effect now in progress in some major U.S. legal markets.

In order for a firm to be competitive in today's market, more and more attorneys in each firm are expected to become rainmakers. There are two primary reasons for this shift.

When legal marketers are ahead of their lawyers, or when lawyers are ahead of their legal marketers, their expectations of one another are out of sync. These days, the departure of a marketer, whether by choice or with a nudge, presents an opportunity for a firm to reassess where it is, where it wants to go and how it will get there. Each new marketing hire represents an opportunity for more precise alignment of a marketer's skills and characteristics with a firm's strategic and financial objectives.