Helping Associates Build Marketing Skills
May 29, 2008
The first priority of a young lawyer is to develop knowledge and skills as a lawyer, but there are actions you can take as a partner to help guide associates in the right direction for preliminary client development activities. New clients take time to ripen, but the seeds need to be planted early and watered often. The following are some things you can do to place associates on the right path.
Making It Run Isn't Running It
May 29, 2008
It's not uncommon for many partners in charge of marketing to insist on designing the marketing program, and directing the marketing manager to execute it. In too many firms, reasonably high-paid and experienced marketing professionals are directed by marketing partners with no marketing skills, no marketing experience, and no foundation for their projects. This is not only disastrous, but also expensive and wasteful.
Provisions of the 2008 Economic Stimulus Tax Act
May 29, 2008
The new law affects a wide variety of taxpayers including law firms, attorneys, their staff, and their clients. It contains temporary tax incentives for law firms to make investments in their companies as well as provides individuals with tax relief in the form of tax rebates. This article discusses some key provisions contained in the new tax act.
Ambiguity in Law Firm Partnership Agreements
May 29, 2008
You would expect that lawyers, many of whom draft and revise contracts on a daily basis, would be especially careful to draft their own law firm partnership agreements so as to make their intentions clear and remove areas of potential ambiguity. Yet this does not always happen. In several recent cases, partners have brought suit against their firms or former firms, and argue that provisions of their partnership agreements should be interpreted one way, while the firms have chosen to implement the provisions in other ways.
IFA Legal Symposium Tackles Wide Range of Issues
May 29, 2008
Rarely has the International Franchise Association ('IFA') Legal Symposium, come at a busier time for the franchise industry, as a wide range of legal and business issues are generating change at a rapid rate. The conference, which was held on May 12-13 in Washington, DC, addressed everything from green business practices to new disclosure regulations, and the protection of marks on the Internet to states' efforts to expand their ability to tax franchise activity.
It Takes More Than A Shingle to Be a Good e-Commerce Attorney
May 28, 2008
If you've grabbed the brass ring ' or you want to prepare to ' don't rest on your laurels too long. Experienced e-commerce counsel warn colleagues not to let the ever-shifting world of e-commerce catch them unaware. Traits of effective e-commerce counsel, culled from a cadre of some of these experts, follow.
Managing Practice Group Profitability
May 28, 2008
Managers can no longer ignore the performance of individual practices, hoping problems will correct themselves. Firms everywhere are venturing into various types of reporting and 'profit center accounting,' typically based on the performance of individual practice groups and even specific clients. However, they take a variety of approaches to these analyses, and the differences can cause severely different analytic outcomes.
Focusing on Issues In Artist/Label 360-Degree Deals
May 28, 2008
One could argue that the concept of the '360-degree deal' harkens back to the record business of the 1950s and 1960s. Then, labels would commonly provide integrated A&R, publishing, management and promotional services to their artists, as well as put them out on tours with their label mates. But today's 360 deals are substantially different. Generally, a 360 deal has a label participating in revenue streams outside of its traditional business of manufacturing and distributing recordings.
