LJN Newsletters

The growth in mezzanine and junior financing has spawned a rise in litigation over lien intercreditor agreements ' agreements between creditors that govern their relative rights and remedies with respect to shared collateral.

Part One, last month, set the stage for a possible overruling by the U.S. Supreme Court of its 1964 ruling in Brulotte v. Thys Co. that the collection of royalties after a patent's expiration constitutes per se patent misuse by looking at the case's critics and its impact on licensing over the last 50 years. In Part Two, the authors continue that discussion and look at the arguments made to the Supreme Court for and against overruling the case.

The price of a billable hour has risen by more than 10% in four years, as large corporate law firms focused on their most expensive work and saved clients' money elsewhere.

The explosion of social media in recent years has dramatically impacted the manner in which individuals and businesses interact with one another. Social media gives businesses endless opportunity to increase brand awareness and expand audience reach. However, social media also presents myriad legal issues, particularly with respect to brand management.

As pressure on pricing continues, Big Law firms are buying (or building) analytics technology and hiring pricing specialists ' people who use market data, internal firm data and economics/pricing experience to ensure that firms are smart about bidding on work. The mission: Educate clients about the value the firm brings, while making sure to charge enough to make a profit.

Typically, the production of data in litigation involves a series of disconnected actions involving several corporate or cloud-based systems. These disassociated e-discovery activities ' identify, preserve, collect, and track (IPCT) ' are then feed into a downstream set of processing, review, and production (PRP) steps often hosted outside the corporate firewall. Fortunately, technology advances are helping counsel and client alike to integrate systems and streamline processes both inside and across the firewall.

The good work we did to set up the default look and feel of the Microsoft Word environment can have a huge impact on the usability of the product. Another way that we can improve the overall experience is to tweak the variety of settings that lurk behind the scenes. That's right, it is time to talk about Word Options.

Can computers practice law? Many are inclined to say yes when using them affects us in so many ways. When scanning the pages of LJN's Legal Tech Newsletter , we learn a good deal about the use of computers in the practice of law, but what I am really asking here is how far can ' or will ' we go to automate dispute resolution?