Developments of Note
Recent developments in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.
Supreme Court May Be Ready To Uncork Interstate Wine Sales
The Supreme Court last month appeared hostile toward state barriers that impede interstate wine sales, likely foreshadowing a win for small wineries in their long battle against the system that controls sales of alcoholic beverages nationwide.
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e-Commerce Docket Sheet
Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.
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Practice Tip: Using Rules To Organize Your Outlook Inbox
How often have you faced the challenge of locating an important e-mail message in an unorganized Inbox? Where's that meeting? What's that date? If you're like most of us, you give up easily because the volume of messages makes locating one a daunting, if not impossible task. <br>So, how can you organize the other messages and keep your Inbox orderly so that you can find important messages when you need them? You use Outlook to create rules or alerts to manage and organize your Inbox.
It's 2 a.m. ' Do You Know Where Your Web Site Is?
From highly complex e-commerce sites to small "mom and pop" companies, nearly everyone is using the Web to do business. But all of this technology can produce problems ranging from inaccessible and slow-loading Web sites to critical Web applications not functioning when they're needed most.
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Beyond Sarbanes-Oxley: Conscientious Compliance
A confluence of various regulations and court decisions, beyond Sarbanes-Oxley, has made it de rigueur to adopt corporate codes of conduct or corporate compliance and ethic programs. But arguably, and not fully appreciated, the only thing that could be worse for directors and officers these days than not having adopted a corporate compliance program, is having adopted one and not effectively implementing it. Boards of directors and their advisors must now focus on not merely adopting programs, but on establishing procedures and processes that provide active oversight of directors of compliance programs.
The Role Of Economic Substance In Tax Shelter Controversies
In its assault on corporate tax shelters, the IRS ' with considerable help from Treasury and Congress ' has added new weapons to its arsenal and has honed its existing weaponry.
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Is The Government Losing Its Merger Home Field Advantage?
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.
Edgy Ethics In Law Firm Competition
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.
Cash-Out Distribution Plans Require Amendment
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.
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