The legal and accounting professions have made significant strides in defining standard invoice data codes as well as formats for law firm electronic invoices. The standards bandwagon has been in no danger, however, of tipping over from too many community members hurriedly jumping on it.
Our legal department at Atlantic Bank of New York was looking for an electronic invoicing system to make our outside counsel billing process more manageable. What we found was new technology and software that enabled us not only to improve the overall efficiency of our system but also to implement an invoice discounting policy that saves us money and gets our outside counsel paid quickly. Because the new invoicing system lets us turn invoices around so quickly, we have achieved such significant savings that we expect the invoicing system to pay for itself within just a few years.
As argued in the accompanying article on one corporate law department's initiatives, implementation of electronic invoicing software should ideally be a win-win improvement benefiting outside law firms as well.
The Quest for Uniformity in a Mobile Society"The chancellor in exercising jurisdiction upon petition does not proceed upon the theory that the petitioner, whether the father or mother, has a cause of action against the other or indeed against anyone. He acts as parens patrioe to do what is best for the interest of the child. He is to put himself in the position of a 'wise, affectionate and careful parent' and make provision for the child accordingly." Finlay v. Finlay, 240 N.Y. 429 (1925), citing Queen v. Gyngall, 1893, 2 Q.B.D. 232, 238 (Judge Cardozo).
How to Deal with Negative Custody Evaluations and Guardian Ad Litem Reports In terms of the art world, a designer "tames the material to an application." That is exactly analogous to the lawyer's purpose when a Custody Evaluator or Guardian Ad Litem (CE/GAL) is brought into a case. Using certain practice and trial techniques, you can minimize the negative impact of a report from a "less-than-neutral" CE/GAL in a custody dispute.
New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, threw a lifeline to abused and neglected children with a powerful ruling that streamlines the adoption process and makes it easier to terminate parental rights in the most severe cases.
A look at Bates v. Perez, Nos. 2-02-0488, 2-02-0526, 2-02-0597, Ill.App.Ct., July 9, 2003.
Key cases of interest to you and your practice.
This month's questions:
Q: Like many law firms, to create access to new prospects we host seminars on a variety of topics. How can we differentiate our offerings in a virtual sea of seminars?
Q: How can we maximize the effectiveness of these investments?
In law firms, it can be difficult ' sometimes impossible ' to get actionable feedback from responsible partners or administrative management on how well a marketing professional is doing his or her job. While nice, I'm not talking about the "attagirl"s or "you go boy"s that might come from many of lawyers and co-workers as support and encouragement or intermittent salary hikes. I'm referring to a regular, systematic process that lets you know whether your assignments and objectives are being achieved as the firm expects.
