Features
The Unfriendly California Skies: Avoiding Sales/Use Tax on Aircraft Purchases
Imagine getting slapped with a $100,000 past-due tax bill from the state of California several years after you purchased an aircraft, and you don't even live in that state. Think it can't happen? Better think again, as this type of scenario plays out with increasing frequency as California grapples with perennial budget shortages.
Features
Private Leasing Companies Can't Ignore Sarbanes-Oxley
According to AMR Research, which recently surveyed 60 Fortune 1,000 companies, it is estimated that the Fortune 1,000 will spend $2.5 billion in 2003 alone in costs associated with Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance. How much more will be spent by smaller public companies and by those in the private-company sector is a mystery, but the total costs - in cash, time, consulting fees, lost opportunities, and human resources - will surely be staggering.
A Primer on Portfolio Management Options for Parents and Captives
Imagine receiving a call from corporate indicating that your captive team has done a wonderful job of providing financing for your manufacturer parent organization. In fact, as a result of this excellent performance the parent company's leverage ratio is reaching the point that its financial rating may be reduced by the rating agencies. This is the type of good news/bad news call most captive managers would rather not receive.
Features
The Incredible Shrinking Privilege Strategies for Corporate Criminal Defense After the Thompson Memorandum
The headlines reporting multi-million dollar corporate guilty pleas often miss a point widely understood among white-collar practitioners: The driving force behind the corporate plea is often not the merits of the government's charge, but the corporation's need to reach a global settlement resolving administrative and criminal sanctions that could put the company out of business. Considering the role of prosecutorial discretion and the draconian consequences of a corporate conviction, corporations often have little choice but to plead guilty and cooperate with the government. Recently, the feds have raised the ante in this process by defining "cooperation" to include waiving the attorney-client privilege. Thus, corporations and counsel alike are forced into a Hobson's choice where at least partial waiver may be inevitable.
Features
Comply or Die: Corporate Record Keeping in a Digital World
Although compliance is generally thought of in a regulatory sense, every corporation that could be involved in litigation needs to consider the implications of how and what information is stored. In a sense, heavily regulated industries such as health care, securities, banking, and commodities are in a better position since the specifics of record keeping are set out in great detail. All industries that interact with the government can assume that their time will come. Other corporations may not discover whether they are adequately preserving information until they are faced with a discovery request. In either event, failure to comply can have dire financial consequences.
Features
Confiding in the Government <b><i>Corporate Fraud Brings New Pressures to Provide Disclosure to the Government in Confidentiality and Non-waiver Agreements</b></i>
In the wake of the headline-grabbing corporate fraud scandals starting with Enron, the Justice Department earlier this year issued revised guidelines making a corporation's waiver of the attorney-client and work-product protections a factor in determining whether to charge a corporation for criminal conduct, including fraud. Under these guidelines, prosecutors may "consider" a company's willingness to identify wrongdoers, make witnesses available, disclose the results of its internal investigation and waive the attorney-client and work-product protections.
Features
Verdicts
The latest cases of interest to your practice.
Facing the 'Expert'
<b><i>How to Take the Opposing Medical Expert Witness' Deposition: A Step-by-Step Guide</i></b>
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
 - The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.Read More ›
 - Understanding the Potential Pitfalls Arising From Participation in Standards BodiesChances are that if your company is involved in research and development of new technology there is a standards setting organization exploring the potential standardization of such technology. While there are clear benefits to participation in standards organizations — keeping abreast of industry developments, targeting product development toward standard compliant products, steering research and intellectual property protection into potential areas of future standardization — such participation does not come without certain risks. Whether you are in-house counsel or outside counsel, you may be called upon to advise participants in standard-setting bodies about intellectual property issues or to participate yourself. You may also be asked to review patent policy of the standard-setting body that sets forth the disclosure and notification requirements with respect to patents for that organization. Here are some potential patent pitfalls that can catch the unwary off-guard.Read More ›
 - The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance ProgramsThe parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.Read More ›
 - The Roadmap of Litigation AnalyticsLitigation analytics can be considered a roadmap of sorts — an important guide to ensure the legal professional arrives at the correct litigation strategy or business plan. However, like roadmaps, litigation analytics will only be useful if it's based on data that is complete and accurate.Read More ›
 
