LJN Newsletters

  • e-Meetings: The Same As, And Different From, Traditional Meetings

    e-Meetings have the same Constitutional protections and require lawyers to take the same precautions to preserve associated privilege as they must in traditional meetings. It is important then for counsel advising e-businesses and those conducting e-meetings to note ' and for those participating in them ' that e-meetings impose the same ethics requirements for confidentiality that traditional meetings do.
    But the ethereal nature of e-meetings can induce in participants and counsel a false sensation of security, which is something to guard against. This false sense of security is erroneously based on the belief that the Internet hides identity, and that because of that, confidentiality perhaps needn't be a concern.

    October 31, 2005Jonathan Bick

  • Use e-Billing Or Lose Business

    Today, the vast majority of the top 200 U.S. law firms are sending electronic invoices to one or more clients. Many work with four or more e-billing vendors, depending on the client demands. Electronic billing can provide significant value to the firm and to its clients, but it is absolutely imperative to align corporate client e-billing goals with law-firm participation and vendor functionality. With proper alignment and support, e-billing is a powerful tool that strengthens the relationship between the attorney and client.

    October 31, 2005James Evangelista, Teresa Stange and Kelley Johnston

  • Board Tech Committees Mean Business

    In today's information-driven society, businesses rely heavily on technology and knowledge. Because of that, just as corporate boards have long relied on committees to focus on such key areas as audit and finance, many have come to establish a tech committee as well. But does the average corporate board member understand today's technology well enough to serve competently on a tech committee? Indeed, should directors even try to provide guidance on technology issues, when the state of the art changes from day to day?

    October 31, 2005Stanley P. Jaskiewicz

  • DOL's New FLSA Regulations and Recent Opinion Letters

    The Department of Labor's new Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (Wage and Hour Regulations) regulations, which went into effect Aug. 23, 2004, are an attempt to modernize pay scales, increase employee coverage, and clarify rules for employers. Nevertheless, if one were to judge merely by the sheer number of opinion letters the U.S. Department of Labor has issued since the regulations went into effect, it would seem that the new regulations have generated as much confusion as the previous ones. The DOL has issued 31 opinion letters since the effective date of the new regulations, nearly as many opinion letters as for the entire years 2001, 2002, and 2003. This article will summarize the major changes brought about by the FLSA regulations and examine this recent spate of DOL opinion letters.

    October 31, 2005E. Fredrick Preis, Jr. and Christine White

  • The Best Little Warehouse in Missouri

    At least two large law firms have now decided to implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages (in both cases, software from SAP AG), and are now in some stage of implementation. Anyone who reads the business press is aware that ERP implementations can lead to catastrophic results, as happened not long ago when a well known chocolate company found itself unable to fulfill orders following an ERP implementation. There are also many accounts of companies, especially manufacturing companies, successfully implementing ERPs, with attendant benefits. Clearly, ERPs present a risk/benefit choice for the businesses implementing them. The question I address here is whether the benefits of ERP outweigh the costs and risks for law firms.

    October 31, 2005John Alber

  • Make It Go Away!

    Your client company is a target of a criminal investigation. You've read in the news about "Deferred Prosecution Agreements" and you even pulled out your old Business Crimes Bulletin for an early article on the topic ("Make It Go Away," March 2003). Can you get one for your client? What will it look like? What terms can you negotiate?

    October 28, 2005Jeffrey T. Green

  • Hard Times for Whistleblowers

    Headlines describing $500-plus million settlements with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in False Claims Act (FCA) cases initiated by whistleblowers -- often former employees of defense contractors, pharmaceutical companies, and others doing business with the government -- have encouraged many disgruntled employees to try it themselves. But they can have a hard time making their own case if the government declines to intervene. Although the 1986 FCA amendments generally made the private action more available, the courts' interpretation of the FCA has not been easy on whistleblowers who stand in court without the United States at their side. As judges weed out unworthy cases, two trends run against the legislative goal of encouraging more whistleblowers, and invite instead a tactical corporate response that undercuts the legislative goal.

    October 28, 2005James J. Graham

  • In the Courts

    Recent rulings you need to know.

    October 28, 2005ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Recent Fallout from Corporate Cooperation

    Ever since the indictment and demise of Arthur Andersen in 2002, the stakes for businesses under governmental scrutiny could not be higher. The pressure on companies to cooperate and reach agreement with government investigators is no longer simply a matter of "doing the right thing," but has become a practical necessity for survival. Issues being litigated in two high-profile cases right now -- one involving the Enron Task Force's prosecution of Messrs. Lay, Skilling and Causey, and the other involving an investigation by the Connecticut Attorney General's office into corporate governance issues at Mass Mutual -- are exposing severe pressure points, and potentially serious breaking points, in the current realm of corporate cooperation.

    October 28, 2005Andrew P. Gaillard