Features
Beyond the Basics: Leasing and Operational Audit Issues
Whether you work for a national retail chain or a local retail tenant, you should consider periodically performing lease audits to determine what type of short-term and long-term strategies to implement in an effort to keep your business viable. A lease audit that reviews and identifies risks and liabilities will assist you in developing and/or fine-tuning a business strategy that benefits your company.
The Leasing Hotline
Highlights of the latest commercial leasing cases from around the country.
Features
Be Timely or Be at Risk
Parties to commercial leases often have opportunities to exercise rights that they have bargained for in the lease negotiation process. Those rights may be held by both the landlord or the tenant and may relate to the termination of the lease, the renewal or extension of the lease term, the right to expand or contract the premises, the right to reduce rent, the right to relocate the tenant to other premises or whatever the needs and creativity of the parties may have caused them to negotiate. Typically, these rights are important to the operation of the business of the landlord or the tenant, and the lease document requires that a right be exercised by giving notice in a certain manner and by a certain date. If the notice is not timely and properly given, the right may be lost.
Strategically Manage Occupancy Costs to Increase Law Firm Profitability
Aside from payroll, real estate costs are a large law firm's most significant expense. Even under the best circumstances, such expenditures — sometimes called occupancy costs — consume 8% to 10% of the typical large firm's annual revenue. These costs are not confined to rent; many firms finance millions of dollars worth of expenses associated with the construction of their space.
Best of Law Firm Leaders in Marketing Supplement
A special insert to November's issue features our picks for the law firm leaders that best support marketing.
Features
Second Circuit Tackles RLUIPA
The federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) threatens to have a significant impact on local zoning decisions. Municipalities across the country have challenged the statute's constitutionality. In the most recent of those cases, <i>Westchester Day School v. Village of Mamaroneck</i>, 2004 US App LEXIS 20327 (NYLJ, 10/15/2004, p. 18, col. 1), the Second Circuit declined to address the constitutional issues directly, but suggested a narrow construction of the statute that would reduce RLUIPA's impact on local zoning policies.
Need Help?
- Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
- Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.
MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About ItWhy is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?Read More ›
- Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the RoughThere is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.Read More ›
- Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand OwnersBlockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.Read More ›
- Trying to Determine Rights in Pre-1972 Sound RecordingsAudio recordings of speech, musical instruments or any other sounds created before Feb. 15, 1972, are treated very differently from other recorded sounds under U.S. law. Each of the 50 states is free to apply its own rules to the protection of audio sound recordings made before Feb. 15, 1972, and may continue to do so for the next 54 years. As a consequence, the scope of protection for pre-1972 sound recordings is inconsistent from state to state, often vague and sometimes difficult to discern.Read More ›
- Disavowals of Liability Do Not Disembowel Coverage: Liability Settlements and Insurance CoverageLiability insurance policies apply where the insured is liable for bodily injury, property damage, or wrongful acts (depending on the policy). What happens, however, when the policyholder denies that any injury or wrongdoing took place? Does that mean that insurance is not applicable?Read More ›