The conventional wisdom is that the government has a significant advantage when challenging mergers in court, and that this advantage is especially difficult to overcome when the government presents major customer witnesses opposing the transaction. However, three recent government court losses in which the FTC or Department of Justice teamed up with state attorney generals challenge that conventional wisdom.
Of the firms that are playing to win, I particularly respect those that have gone out of their way to define what constitutes unethical and culturally unacceptable behavior.
Qualified retirement plans that provide immediate cash-out distributions to a terminated participant if the vested benefit is "$5000 or less" must be amended to comply with Department of Labor (DOL) final regulations. The final regulations are effective for rollovers of mandatory distributions made on or after March 28, 2005. The final regulations provide a safe harbor for fiduciaries of tax-qualified pension plans that are required to roll over plan benefits into an individual retirement plan when a terminated employee fails to elect a distribution method.
The Eighteenth Annual Conference & Workshops on Law Firm Management & Economics will be held in New Orleans, LA on March 17 and 18, 2005 at the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel.
In conducting strategic planning studies and facilitating numerous strategic planning retreats, I regularly discuss long-term trends affecting law firms with dozens of members of executive committees and managing partners. These trends of interest differ somewhat, of course, for firms of different sizes. More importantly, sometimes the same trend has very different implications for firms of different sizes.
Lawyers who prevail in a civil rights case but win only nominal damages are generally not entitled to attorney fees, the Court of Appeals has ruled in a groundbreaking opinion.
It only seems fair for the in-house department to strive to simplify the billing process at a time when it is demanding so much from outside counsel.
Three more Philadelphia law firms have joined in the parade to raise starting salaries. Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin and Saul Ewing both moved their starting wage from $105,000 to $115,000, and Fox Rothschild is jacking its rate from $100,000 to $110,000.
National rulings of interest to you and your practice.
The latest rulings you need to know.
