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Your client, a corporate executive, is being investigated in connection with whether the stock of her employer was artificially inflated. The company is in a "full cooperation mode" with the SEC and the DOJ, and is negotiating the terms of a consent decree. You learn that the company's attorneys have met with DOJ and SEC attorneys and have admitted (as they felt was necessary to maintain credibility) to certain wrongdoing by various corporate employees. Can the company's statements during negotiations be used against your client, or are they protected by Rule 408 Fed. R. Evid.?

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A combination of factors has coalesced to spell trouble, or at least unwelcome complications, for federal prosecutors and aspiring cooperators and their counsel in the white-collar criminal arena. The factors include the political ambitions of state attorneys general (AGs), the broad overlap of state and federal financial-fraud crimes, the fully justified emphasis of federal prosecutors on pursuing nationwide financial-fraud offenses, and the persistence of the federal courts in refusing to limit the outmoded "dual sovereignty" doctrine that allows concurrent or consecutive federal and state prosecutions for the same offenses.

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Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.

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The framework that prosecutors and regulators use to assess a corporation's response to corporate wrongdoing changed forever on June 16, 1999. That day, then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder announced DOJ's new principles for the prosecution of corporations. The so-called Holder Memorandum emphasized cooperation with prosecutors and the requirement that corporations make full and voluntary disclosure of wrongdoing if they hoped to avoid or mitigate prosecution. The twin themes of cooperation and disclosure have become the standards by which federal and state prosecutors and regulators now judge a corporation's response to instances of corporate misbehavior.

In today's evolving technological legal market, it is not enough for a law firm to perform tactically, using best practices. Competitive marketing for same client market share necessitates strategic planning. And strategic planning, in turn, mandates Competitive Intelligence (CI) initiatives tag teamed with information analysis.

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So why don't more firms use Business Intelligence (BI)? Most of them just don't understand what BI is all about. Many firms have a pretty good report writer built into their time-and-billing system and their vendor provides many pre-designed reports, each with selection options. Moreover, many firms have someone on-staff who knows Crystal Report Writer. Isn't this all they need? No, it's not. Today's managers need more powerful and flexible access to financial information than canned or even custom-programmed report writers can deliver in a timely, economical fashion.

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Understanding the business challenges law firms face in obtaining and leveraging Competitive Intelligence is critical for legal IT professionals to help provide the support and expertise marketers need for client development. In addition, keeping up-to-date on new technology tools for law firm marketers will help IT professionals as they drive the technology selection and implementation process.

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In the past, Business Intelligence occurred on an ad hoc and informal basis in the legal industry. Before the proliferation of a legal trade press, the Internet (and competitor's Web sites), and market intelligence services, information about clients, prospects, and competitors was likely gained on the golf course, at bar association functions, or through the occasional press release issued by a law firm that was an early adopter of marketing. <br>Now a cottage industry has sprung up to support the burgeoning efforts of law firms to understand how to remain competitive, profitable and viable. As evidence of this, within the past year there have been numerous conferences and seminars aimed at teaching law firm management how to appropriately develop and use Business Intelligence, and a number of products and services are being offered to aid firms in their quest for actionable intelligence.