The Calpine Case
April 27, 2006
When is an executory contract not just an executory contract? When it's also a regulation, of course. So ruled Judge Richard Casey of the District Court for the Southern District of New York in <i>In re Calpine</i>, 337 B.R. 27 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 27, 2006), dismissing Calpine's request for authority to reject under 11 U.S.C. ' 365 certain regulated wholesale power supply contracts that fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of a federal administrative agency. Casey's decision and the subsequent appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case is currently pending, culminate a 3-month legal sprint through the executive and judicial branches of government in a case that pits the authority of the judiciary against the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ' the administrative agency tasked with regulating the wholesale sale and transmission of electric power.
Computer Forensics Docket Sheet
April 27, 2006
Sanctions Awarded Against Attorney for e-Evidence Spoliation Reversed on Due Process Grounds<br>Court Sets Protocols for Computer Forensics Examination<br>
The Basics of Hiring A Contract Attorney
April 27, 2006
Law firms use contract attorneys to aid in large-scale document reviews such as those often required in e-discovery, and for mergers, internal audits and other matters that require an influx of temporary help. Of course, the subject matter involved in these wide-ranging projects varies, which makes contractors an ideal solution for dynamic business. If a project requires that attorneys or other workers who are or may be involved have a specific background, then law firms, or the agencies they hire, may well be better positioned using temporary workers who also may be making a specialty of the work required, such as the search, classification and other specific functions required in e-discovery. And often, projects require only a general legal background, which makes finding candidates far easier. But whatever the situation that demands looking for short-term or long-term employees ' for staff positions or contract work ' firms should consider the key factors when hiring contract attorneys.
FRCP Changes Approved
April 27, 2006
Legal analysts can stop putting 'proposed' before the word 'amendments' concerning long-coming changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure relating to e-discovery. On April 12, the U.S. Supreme Court approved the amendments without comment. The OK was a formality following extensive debate while the Rules Committee pondered the changes.
Mission to Comply
April 27, 2006
e-Discovery, e-records management and the mitigation of internal fraud ' such as the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets ' are three of the top compliance priorities for in-house counsel. Because all three center around computer data, the technical ability of business concerns to properly manage, identify, search and retrieve computer information across the global enterprise in an efficient manner is necessary, in fact, imperative, these days. As such, while well-developed processes and managerial oversight are important, deploying effective enterprise-class computer investigation and retrieval technology is also needed to achieve meaningful compliance. Without such a capability, compliance efforts become highly manual, inefficient and expensive, and lead to compromises in the execution of even the best designed processes.
<b>Product Review</b>Using Legal Files to Win Complex Trial And Appellate Cases
April 27, 2006
With the implementation of Legal Files, we have successfully consolidated case information, provided better case-management reporting, and enabled our lawyers to manage their cases more cost effectively and efficiently. Through the use of Legal Files, we can successfully manage multi-district litigation (MDL), gather expert information, categorize, associate and manage groupware items (e-mails, calendar events, and tasks), maintain matter-centric documents, manage deposition and evidentiary documents and produce dynamic reports for overall management of cases.
Litigation Support Software: Own or Lease on Demand
April 27, 2006
Think back just 6 or 7 years to the approaching end of the millennium. If the woes of Y2K planning held the primary focus for IT leaders and litigation support professionals alike, the lofty promises about how to become an 'instant ASP' and 'deliver applications, with unmatched levels of security, speed, and availability, in a fully managed and integrated environment' ran a close second. <br>Although it took a bit longer than the optimists originally forecast, the 'buzz' from the 1990s ' the promise of more affordable, more accessible, on-demand software delivery (paying others to host, maintain, and upgrade applications under an umbrella of guaranteed uptime) continues to gain market acceptance, now under a new name, 'Software as a Service' (SaaS).
Implied Renewal Of Employment Agreements
April 26, 2006
Employers frequently enter into employment agreements with their employees for a fixed period of time at a stated annual salary. What happens if, at the end of such an agreement's term, both parties continue to perform under the expired employment agreement as if the agreement were still in effect?
