Prebilling, the process of generating invoice drafts and circulating them for annotation/adjustment, is one of the most important monthly tasks a law firm conducts. Since prebilling involves bringing money into the firm, the more efficient the process becomes, the better off the law firm is financially.
Recent actions by the DOJ suggest that although the DOJ may continue to prosecute certain relators' FCA cases, other relators may find themselves on the other side of a government motion to dismiss.
This case should determine the availability of federal trademark registration for “immoral” and “scandalous” marks – in this case, the acronym “FUCT” for a clothing line.
Part One of a Two-Part Article
This article defines the specific and best actions lawyers and law firms can take to expand client relationships. This first part includes specific actions individual lawyers can take to expand client relationships.
Information governance and the protection of corporate data are top concerns for law firms. To ensure standards are met, some clients are now tying payment to compliance with Outside Counsel Guidelines (OCG). OCG have moved from guidelines to actual contracts that provide for indemnification of the client for cyber breach and violation of privacy laws.
<i><b>The Federal Circuit's Threat to Software Innovation in the </i>Oracle v. Google<i>Decisions</i><</b><p>The Federal Circuit decisions in the Oracle v. Google copyright case rattled Silicon Valley not simply because the decisions upended software developers' understandings of copyright law, but also because the decisions do not comport with the disruptive ethos of the technology industry.
A would-be class action against Barnes & Noble could have cost the bookseller hundreds of millions of dollars — not to mention a reputational hit for allegedly sharing private information about its customers' online video purchases with Facebook.
<i><b>When Entities May Not Have a Filing Choice and How Creditors Are Impacted</i></b><p>This article explores the difficulties some entities have encountered in filing bankruptcies and how one organization used extraordinary civil remedies in an attempt to accomplish what reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code would have provided.
At the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.
With trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.
The legal implications of branding generally arise initially for companies during the process of selecting a company name and any initial product or service names. For drug development companies, however, careful consideration should also be paid to the implications of branding a clinical trial.
'Disconnect Between In-House and Outside Counsel is a continuation of the discussion of client expectations and the disconnect that often occurs. And although the outside attorneys should be pursuing how inside-counsel actually think, inside counsel should make an effort to impart this information without waiting to be asked.
