Client Speak: Insiders/Outsiders
By now you've heard it thousands of times ' If you want to sell, know your target. If you're a lawyer, don't bedazzle them with nonpareil insights into Markman or Title VII or the best arguments in support of federal preemption in a product case. Your expertise is really a pretty cheap commodity no matter where you graduated law school. C-Suite buyers won't care; in-house counsel, who've heard it all before, are even less impressed.…
Successful Wind-Down and Exit Management
Professionals are often asked to assist in the wind-down and liquidation of a company by the company's legal counsel. The requesting attorney, who may have a history with the company, knows the company is in trouble and may even expect a bankruptcy filing will come relatively soon. This in-depth article describes how to hire a wind-down specialist and what to expect.
Online Sweepstakes And Contests As Promotional Devices
Online sweepstakes and contests are well known devices that traditional and e-commerce firms and related operations frequently use to promote their products and services. While these tools of the online-promotions and online-marketing trade offer the promise of a cost-efficient way to target interested consumers and create a great deal of buzz, they are hardly trouble-free, and a myriad of traps await the unwary. The attorneys general of several states closely regulate and monitor sweepstakes and contests, and failure to conduct promotional and marketing campaigns properly can result in enforcement actions and consumer lawsuits, so be sure to operate a sure thing instead of taking a gamble.
When Legal Spam Isn't Spam
Demands for consumer 'extra effort' from Web merchants or service providers could become very common after a mid-2007 federal court ruling ' <i>Douglas v. Talk America, Inc.</i> In that case, a federal appeals court considered what it labeled an 'issue ' of some significance, (which) potentially affects the relationship of numerous service providers with millions of customers: ' whether to enforce a modified contract with a customer where the customer claims that the only notice of the changed terms consisted of posting the revised contract on the provider's Web site.'
A Primer on Foreign Language e-Discovery
While e-discovery may be Greek to many, it is those documents written in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian that cause much of the trouble. These 'multi-byte' languages have exponentially more characters than the 26 letters and few other punctuation marks that Latin languages like English, Spanish, French and German need. In fact, the number of Chinese characters included in the Kangxi dictionary is over 47,000 (though only 3,000-4,000 are reportedly necessary for full literacy). The impact on e-discovery is significant considering the increased sophistication necessary for case evaluation.
Online Sweepstakes and Contests As Promotional Devices
Online sweepstakes and contests are frequent devices used to promote companies and their products and services. While these tools of the online promotions and marketing trade offer the promise of a cost-efficient way to target interested consumers and create a great deal of buzz, they are hardly trouble-free and myriad traps await the unwary. The Attorney Generals of several states closely regulate and monitor sweepstakes and contests and failure to conduct the campaign properly can result in regulatory enforcement actions and consumer lawsuits.
WV Supreme Court Invokes Learned Intermediary Doctrine
Last year, pharmaceutical companies reportedly spent $4.5 billion on direct advertising to consumers, or about 400 times more than they spent 20 years ago. Drug company spending on advertising to consumers is increasing twice as fast as spending on promotions to physicians or on the research and development of new drugs. Given this exponential growth in direct-to-consumer advertising, it is hardly surprising that prescription drug makers' traditional immunity from consumer 'failure-to-warn' claims has increasingly come under assault.
