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Attorneys live and work in a world of contracts. Usually, however, this expertise involves optimizing legal agreements for the firm's clients. But when a law firm enters into its own software contracts, it is presented with the unique opportunity to optimize a negotiation for its own benefit. Attorneys, more than most software buyers, are aware of the legal issues involved in an IT contract such as indemnity, limitation of liability, confidential information and warranties. However, there are a number of business issues for any software buyer to consider. The key is to anticipate which of these a software company might deem negotiable.
Features
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Thacher Proffitt & Wood was forced to relocate from its offices at the World Trade Center, and as a direct result began to enhance its business continuity plan to protect itself in the event of another catastrophe. Part of that plan included the safeguarding of the firm's IT assets.
Features
To read some accounts, the review of "native" files is the Holy Grail in electronic discovery. As the story goes, the ability to review documents in their original format will provide perfect insight into the treasure trove of discoverable information. To read others, reviewing in native formats is the road to ruin, the tipping point to calamity. Perhaps, somewhere between these extremes lies the truth. Demystifying this notion, electronic discovery, using files in their native format, has some drawbacks and some advantages. In the end it's an understanding of these pros and cons that may permit the savvy litigator to gain a true advantage.
Features
The New York Court of Appeals declined last month to take immediate appeal of two lower court decisions on the issue of gay marriage in the state. One of those lower court decisions found denial of marriage rights to same-sex partners unconstitutional under state law, while the other court found no such barrier to New York's current prohibition against gay marriage.
Features
In October 2004, I wrote a column for The New York Law Journal outlining the status of "no fault" divorce in the State of New York (Lee Rosenberg, Outside Counsel, "Is the Time Ripe for No-Fault Divorce?" NYLJ 10/20/04 at 4, col 4). In the interim between then and now, we still await consideration of the proposed legislation submitted by the Family Law Section of the New York State Bar Association urging the enactment of a long-overdue no fault statute.
Features
Recently, the Associated Press reported the story of a New Hampshire couple with an unusual problem. After being married for a few years, the husband, with his wife's assent, underwent a sex-change operation. The husband, a naturalized U.S. citizen with a foreign birth certificate, is now seeking to have the name on that birth certificate changed from Michael to Mikayla, something the federal government is not necessarily going to allow.
Although banks and financial institutions are currently paying interest on savings at about 4% per year, the statutory rate of interest on judgments is 9% per year, except where otherwise provided by statute. Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) ' 5004. In today's economy, with financial institutions paying low interest rates, the 9% statutory rate on the payment of a distributive award is a good investment for the recipient spouse, if he or she can get it, and an incentive for the obligor spouse to pay the award promptly.
Features
Many states make an exception to the time limitation in which a medical malpractice action may be brought if the cause of action is based on a foreign object left behind in the plaintiff's body. But what if the defendant was not the one who placed the foreign object in the patient? Will the foreign-object exception leave the doctor, nurse or hospital vulnerable to suit years after the patient was treated?
Clinical trial agreements can almost always be negotiated. Most part-time investigators, however, do not have the necessary legal expertise or time to interpret the agreement and conduct an effective negotiation. Proper legal representation at present requires an attorney who is expert in this very specialized field. Because sponsor negotiators often have huge backlogs of contracts in process, and over half of part-time investigators do not negotiate (or even read) the clinical trial agreement, an investigator who opens a negotiation may never emerge from the queue.