A Quagmire Of Uncertainty
March 01, 2006
most lawyers considering their ethical obligations under applicable rules of professional conduct typically aren't employees or partners of the client itself. Likewise, ethics rules and authorities, virtually invariably, address the traditional attorney-client relationship. The role of in-house corporate and law firm counsel, from an ethical perspective, has received very little reported attention. But that doesn't mean that these issues aren't there, or that a law firm or corporation does not need to pay attention to these issues. Failure to plan ahead on ethics strategies, with the help of experienced ethics practitioners, could subject the entity to increased risk of liability. The lawyers involved likewise could be exposed both to liability risks and to potential bar counsel grievances or unauthorized practice of law (ULP) complaints. The three most troubling aspects of these issues are discussed below.
Competing For Talent: Recruiting In A Competitive World
March 01, 2006
It seems that one price we pay for a sound economy is a growing shortage of talent. Finding and keeping good talent in a strong economy, for many firms, is becoming a major intrusion in firm management, consuming large blocks of valuable time. <br>If you're a major international law firm, recruiting is relatively easy. But if you're not, you face a vast array of problems. You may be competing against larger or more prestigious firms. You may be in a small town that nobody ambitious wants to work or live in, or a town with expensive housing. You may find yourself in an area with a large number of competing firms. And recruiting, remember, is a competitive business.
Oh, Canada!
February 28, 2006
In some quarters, there is the misperception that Canadian law firms lag behind their American counterparts when it comes to marketing practices, but in fact Canadian firms are no less sophisticated at marketing. They simply operate in an environment that is vastly different. Based on conversations with various Managing Partners, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Marketing Officers and other legal industry insiders it is clear that the marketing of Canadian law firms suffers more from the structure of the Canadian sector than from any specific approach to marketing.
Increasing Equipment Reliability
February 28, 2006
While we used to copy millions of pages a month and send out hundreds of overnight mail packages a day, current copying rates have dropped to a few hundred thousand pages, replaced by thousands of e-mails per day and "scan to PDF and print" jobs totaling millions of pages. With these advances in technology have come heightened client expectations to complete work in minutes or hours, rather than days. This means our equipment has to be very reliable and easy to use, allowing the attorneys to spend their available time focused on legal work, not on mechanical problems with scanners, copiers and printers.
Planning For The Inevitable
February 28, 2006
People who negotiate tech deals and draft contracts for legal or other services ' such as partnerships and the instruments that monitor them and give them teeth ' must remember one constant in today's ever-changing world: The technology we depend on every day often does not work. <br>As a result, the traditional wisdom, "failing to plan is planning to fail," has been transformed into a rule of thumb for the tech sector: "plan for failure." Firms that do not explicitly anticipate systems failure run the risk of being unprepared for a catastrophe
Another Kind Of Room With A View
February 28, 2006
Ramping up for document-review is a challenging prospect, requiring a firm to react quickly and aggressively, depending on the requirements of the case. The timeline for reviews can be extremely long, requiring attorneys to spend months sifting through information or very short, at times requiring firms to use contract attorneys to scale up to several times their original staffs' size to meet deadlines. <br>Vendors are offering off-site document-review rooms (DRRs) more frequently for customers who see the value these resources provide, and the DRR market is expanding.
<i>Caveat Emptor</i> in the Purchase of New York Real Estate
February 28, 2006
Under New York law, the doctrine of <i>caveat emptor</i>, or buyer beware, applies to the purchase and sale of real property. <i>Stambovsky v. Ackley</i>, 169 AD2d 254, 257. Under this doctrine, which has undergone some recent modifications, the seller of real property is under no duty to speak (<i>ie</i>, make certain disclosures to the purchaser) concerning the condition of the property when the parties deal at arms' length. <i>Id</i>. Mere silence on the part of the seller concerning a defective or otherwise undesirable condition of the property, without some act or conduct that deceived the purchaser, does not amount to conduct that is actionable as a fraud.
The Whens and Whys of Asserting Fifth Amendment Privileges
February 27, 2006
The Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination is one of the foundational rights of the America justice system. It provides that "no person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." It protects witnesses from what Justice Field called the "cruel trilemma of self-accusation, perjury, or contempt." <i>Brown v. Walker</i>, 161 U.S. 591, 637 (1896) (Field, J., dissenting). In this post-Enron era of corporate prosecutions, it is critical that corporate insiders understand the scope of the Fifth Amendment's protection.
