Columns & Departments

A look at what's happening in neighboring states.

Features

This article focuses on one of the nuances of adoption law that is becoming increasingly relevant in the United States, the adoption of adults.

In <I>Rocky Point Drive-in v. Town of Brookhaven</I>, the Court of Appeals affirmed the long-established rule that where a zoning law is amended after the submission of an application for land use approval, but before a decision is rendered on the application, the courts are bound to apply the amended law.

When it comes to competitive pricing, both clients and law firms are more and more focused on quality. That sounds good, but how can quality best be represented in actual metrics?

Features

A number of scholars have studied relationship development and the science/psychology around building relationships. This article looks at a perspective on four stages of relationship-building, and provides some insight into each.

When negotiating the distribution of marital property, tax consequences must always be taken into account. There are federal, state and local taxes to consider. Leaving any of these out of the equation, particularly when the divorcing couple is wealthy, can mean that assets from which the parties might have benefited are lost to the tax man.

The tax credits that states have made available to attract film and TV productions have presented a challenging, changing landscape to producers, as individual states add or eliminate these credits, or adjust tax credits amounts that producers can obtain. This article considers film-and-TV tax credits on a national basis and concludes with comments on new California revisions.

Features

It is well settled that Equitable Distribution does not mean equal distribution, and we counsel our clients that the tides shift toward "equal" the longer the parties are married ' particularly if there are children of the marriage. But is that what the cases are really telling us?