The fast track at top law firms is slowing down. Facing increasingly complex matters, an active market for lateral partners and greater pressure to improve profitability, major New York law firms are prolonging the period leading up to partnership. At firms where an associate's first shot at partnership once came 7 years after law school graduation, tracks of 8 years or longer are now far more common.
Part One of this article compared some hybrid retirement plans (combinations of defined contribution and defined benefit plans) that are potentially desirable for law firms. In Part Two, we provide spreadsheet analyses to illustrate the benefits of these plans and to reconcile them with nondiscrimination criteria of the Internal Revenue Code and of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliff LLP, a San Francisco-based law firm with a global reach, contended with more than a little skepticism a few years ago…
Recent rulings of importance to your practice.
All about Daubert's Ghost...complete with Web sites. Also, a look at ECRI (formerly the Emergency Care Research Institute) is a nonprofit health services research agency. Its mission is to improve the safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness of health care. It is widely recognized as one of the world's leading independent organizations committed to advancing the quality of healthcare. ECRI's focus is health care technology, health care risk and quality management, and health care environmental management. It provides information services and technical assistance to more than 5000 hospitals and more.
Important news of interest to you and your practice.
Because many attorneys who handle professional liability cases are not also involved in cases challenging government regulations, they may not be familiar with the weight that the courts often give to regulations and regulatory preambles such as those discussed in last month's article on the new Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) regulations. This article should aid in filling any such gaps in the attorney's experience.
Under the "lost chance" theory, a claimant's recovery is limited by the odds or likelihood that the event would have or will occur -- a departure from the "all-or-nothing" rule of recovery, whereby a claimant receives the full measure of damages if, but only if, the injury is "reasonably certain." If, for example, it is shown that there is a 20% chance that the plaintiff will suffer future harm, the plaintiff will be awarded 20% of what he or she would have been awarded had he or she sustained the injury.
Recent developments of interest to corporate counsel.
