A recent study published by Altman Weil listed the ways in which chief legal officers would like to see their outside counsel embrace service improvements and innovation. The top four responses were greater cost reduction, non-hourly pricing, more efficient project management and improved budget forecasting. To anyone paying even cursory attention to the legal marketplace in the last half decade, these should not come as a surprise.
With proper planning, a pension can meet regulations, be funded to the acceptable green zone levels (80%) and reduce the annual net periodic pension funding requirement.
Beyond the "value-added" components of their efforts, expectations have risen in law firms for the marketing team to contribute directly to top-line growth. While their roles typically fall short of direct selling to new clients, in recent years marketing executives have been integrally involved in ongoing account management, prospecting, and expansion. They are juxtaposed with the rainmakers — practically joined at the hip in supporting partners as they embark into the legal market battlefield.
Rather than companies sending out RFPs to a number of law firms, they are now using a "reverse auction" to request quotes from law firms they trust. Here's how it works.
While an available tax credit might seem like a great savings opportunity, as many often are, caution should be your watchword before chasing that credit.
Law firms are at great risk for financial impropriety. Funds can come up missing in any law firm, and the cause can be intentional theft that qualifies as fraud or embezzlement, or an unintentional mistake that shows poor judgment.
Highlights of the latest intellectual property cases from around the country.
A recent federal district court award of $6.6 million in statutory damages to music publishers for the unlicensed use of song lyrics by the website LiveUniverse and its operator was hailed as the first of its type for owners of song lyrics, and thus a significant milestone for content owners in the digital era.
The FTC closed its inquiry, requiring Google to license patents that are essential to the interoperability of electronic devices but securing minimal agreements on what many viewed as the heart of the case: Google's dominance in the search market.
The Internet has changed immensely since its creation. What was once only accessible through a dial-up modem on a large desktop computer is now available wirelessly with the touch of a finger. Smartphones, tablets, e-readers and gaming systems have all entered the mix as the next generation of computers, and they have transformed our online experiences in a multitude of ways. As the number of mobile Internet-connected devices continues to increase, so will the traffic they generate to law firm websites.
