Best Software Technologies For Boosting Realization
November 01, 2004
<i>A&FP</i>'s July edition included an article describing how one large firm methodically improved collections with due regard for the delicacy of client relationships. To that same end, this new article by Jim Hammond explores software technologies that help focus and streamline a firm's collections efforts.
Improved Revenue Forecasting
November 01, 2004
Paramount among the many analytic challenges facing Law firm CFOs and their financial staff is accurately forecasting cash. Relying on the law of large numbers, most firms assume that prior averages will hold, so they use history-based, firm-wide performance ratios to obtain cash flow projections.<br>In a growing firm, this simplistic approach has an inherent weakness: over-budgeting revenue. The problem is that not all of this year's growing production will be collected this year.
Origination Tracking: Findings From The A-W Survey
November 01, 2004
As a counterpoint to the September edition's commentary by Joel A. Rose on tracking of partner contributions, here's a statistics-based line of thought from Jim Cotterman; this article expands on his introduction to Altman-Weil's 2003 Survey of Compensation Systems in Private Law Firms.
Corporate Tax Law Ends 'Double Taxation' Of Contingent Fees
November 01, 2004
Last year's November issue of <i>A&FP</i> editorialized against the IRS practice that is corrected, at least prospectively, by this legislation. As noted in that editorial, even the IRS's own Taxpayer Advocate supported such a correction. Passage of the new Act supports the argument that double taxation of contingency fees in such cases had never been the intent of Congress. Employment law and civil rights plaintiffs who previously held back from pursuing modest claims to avoid catastrophic income tax consequences are now free to proceed with such actions.
Tax Bill Makes Major Changes To Deferred Compensation Rules
November 01, 2004
In early October, Congress passed the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (Bill). President Bush is expected to sign it shortly. The Bill includes a number of tax breaks and is primarily directed toward ending export subsidies that were declared illegal in 2002 and that caused the European Union to impose tariffs on certain imports from the U.S. <br>In addition, the Bill includes provisions affecting deferred compensation that have been described as a "sea change" by senior government officials.
Bringing Electronic Discovery In-House
November 01, 2004
Is there a pot of gold at the end of the e-discovery rainbow? <br>As the amount of litigation, regulatory and compliance-related e-discovery grows to epic proportions, some law firms are wondering whether it's time to make capital investments to bring e-discovery processing in-house rather than outsourcing it to vendors.
New Tax Requirements for Nonqualified Deferred Compensation
November 01, 2004
The implementation of nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements providing for distributions upon certain types of arguably foreseeable "hardships" (<i>eg</i>, to pay for college) or in return for a "haircut" forfeiture, cut against the notion that the revenue deferral effect on the government is outweighed by the benefit of permitting the accumulation of additional retirement funds, as these arrangements provide benefits which may not be used for purposes of retirement. The American Jobs Creation Act (the "Act") was passed by the House of Representatives on Oct. 7, 2004, and received final approval from the Senate on Oct. 11, 2004. President Bush is now expected to sign the Act into law before the end of 2004. The Act enumerates an array of requirements intended to curb perceived abuses in the realm of executive compensation. In many ways, the thrust of the new requirements is to conform a number of aspects of the operation of nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements to those applicable to tax-qualified "401(k)" plans. Consequently, to be tax-effective under the new requirements of the Act, deferred compensation arrangements will need to operate in a fashion more akin to true retirement arrangements.
Big Brother Is Watching
November 01, 2004
Companies considering outsourcing today, and companies that have already outsourced significant functions and processes, face an increasingly complex web of domestic and foreign laws and regulations at various levels of government. Compliance with those laws in the context of an outsourcing transaction poses a considerable and growing challenge. This article examines three of the hottest topics in the area of regulatory compliance in outsourcing: Sarbanes-Oxley, privacy, and legislative initiatives focusing on offshore outsourcing.
Making the Case for a 'Good Faith' Chapter 11 Filing
October 29, 2004
The distinction between recourse to Chapter 11 protection as a legitimate means to maximize the value of a company's assets and/or to restructure its financially troubled yet otherwise viable operations, on the one hand, and clear bankruptcy abuse, on the other, is sometimes murky. A court called upon to make such a distinction is obliged to "get into the debtor's head" and investigate the board's motives for commencing a bankruptcy case and, in some cases, to decide whether the debtor's otherwise permissible use of the powerful provisions of federal bankruptcy law is impermissible because the debtor's motives are antithetical to the basic purposes of bankruptcy.
