LJN Newsletters

  • Part-Timers: Good Value for the Money

    Now, more than ever, women lawyers place enormous value on flexible work schedules. Firms that support such schedules reap benefits in the form of higher retention, increased profitability, and more diverse leadership. In turn, the legal profession ' and, on a broader level, society ' benefits from contributions by part-time lawyers who are in a better position to devote time to activities that make attorneys better citizens. These core conclusions emerged from a new survey of 167 lawyers at 37 firms in the Atlanta area. These attorneys included women and men, associates and partners, part-time and full-time lawyers, and retired and active attorneys.

    March 30, 2004Lynn M. Adam, Emily Hammond Meazell, and Lisa Vash Herman

  • Around the Firms

    Movement among major law firms and corporations.

    March 30, 2004Teri Zucker

  • Last Chance for Compliance HIPAA Privacy for Small Health Plans

    April 14, 2004 is the approaching deadline for small health plans ' plans that have annual total premiums (both employer and employee contributions) of $5,000,000 or less ' to comply with the privacy regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

    March 30, 2004Nancy Gallup

  • Spousal Maintenance: Confronting the Emotion

    In negotiations, as in mediation, many divorce attorneys find spousal maintenance to be one of the most difficult areas of conflict to resolve. This may be because spousal support often represents something entirely different for each spouse, and for each couple: Is maintenance meant to compensate for pain and hurt when the other party is leaving the marriage or having an affair? Is maintenance required to reimburse one party for past contributions to the career of the other party or to the family? Is maintenance viewed as an entitlement to one party or a source of guilt or failure to another? Was spousal support part of the "social contract" created within the family, which determined that one parent would stay home with children? Or were the parties never able to agree on such a social contract in the family during the marriage but one parent stayed home anyway? Is maintenance a source of anger because the receiving spouse is not working to his or her full "potential"?

    March 29, 2004Amy Carron Day

  • Decisions of Interest

    Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.

    March 29, 2004ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Gay Marriage Pushed to the Forefront By Activist Mayor

    After a prolonged silence on the increasingly charged national issue of same-sex marriage, New Yorkers finally entered the fray in February. It all began, of course, when New Paltz mayor Jason West, a 26-year-old who ran for mayor last year on the Green Party ticket, became the first elected official in New York State to preside over the marriage of a gay couple. None of the couples were issued marriage licenses, a prerequisite to marriage under state law. On that first day, February 27, West married 25 couples in the Village Hall parking lot.

    March 29, 2004Janice G. Inman

  • QDROs for Enforcement Purposes

    As matrimonial practitioners, we are often confronted with the problem of enforcing either pendente lite or post-judgment awards of support, equitable distribution and counsel fees. Perhaps one of the most overlooked enforcement tools is the Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). While QDROs are used routinely to distribute all kinds of qualified deferred compensation benefits, they are also available for enforcement purposes.

    March 29, 2004Michael B. Solomon

  • The Bankruptcy Hotline

    Recent decisions of importance to you and your practice.

    March 24, 2004ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Tactics for Defending Preference Actions

    In a troubled business climate, a scenario all too often occurs wherein a once steady and reliable customer becomes delinquent in payment and eventually files for bankruptcy protection. In this common situation, your client's good customer becomes a debtor and your client becomes one of many creditors jockeying to recover a small portion of its investment. To make matters worse, your client receives a letter from the debtor or court appointed trustee demanding repayment of a pre-petition preferential payment pursuant to section 547(b) of the Bankruptcy Code (the Code).

    March 24, 2004Ted A. Berkowitz and Aaron S. Halpern