Joining A Board: The Porcupine Approach
October 27, 2005
The answer to the question "should I join a board of directors?" has changed in recent years from "I'm deeply honored," to "you must be out of your mind." <br>Nonetheless, I still advise people to go on corporate boards. They should, however, recognize that it's not an honor. It's not a position of social prestige. It's a hard and risky job. People should make the decision to join a board the same way we've been told in the old proverb that porcupines make love: carefully, very carefully. It is not a snap decision. It's a decision that requires considerable thinking and research.
Improving Information Flow with LegalKEY Practice Support Solutions
October 27, 2005
One of the oldest full-service national law firms in the United States, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, has now installed one of the newest conflict management systems available. With the addition of several new offices over the past few years, the firm has grown to more than 425 lawyers in 10 locations with further growth on the horizon. <br>In order to deal with the rapid growth of the firm, it was necessary for us to implement a system that would meet our future needs, maintain and improve the functionality of the firm, as well as fulfill all of our requirements. After researching the market, we chose Hummingbird's LegalKEY Practice Support Solutions, including LegalKEY Records Manage-ment and LegalKEY Conflicts Management. The conversion to LegalKEY combined disparate records sources into a single database, allowing the firm to work as one entity with synchronized firm-wide records management, paper and digital retention policies and a streamlined conflicts management system.
Auto-Coding Comes of Age in Electronic Discovery
October 27, 2005
The challenge for Holmes Roberts & Owen was daunting: How to respond to 35 boxes of paper, a maxed-out litigation support staff, and a 7-day SEC deadline? Previously, the volume as well as the tight timeline would have made this a hopeless task. Fortunately, auto-coding offered a viable solution.
Simplifying the TIFF Process
October 27, 2005
TIFFs have been the widely accepted format for electronic discovery (ED) production for more than 20 years due to their ease of use and relative simplicity in disseminating information quickly and effectively. Many programs use the .tif tags to accept or ignore fields, depending on the application. And, it is possible to lock out entire fields of metadata based on the settings for the TIFF image. So why is the TIFF production process so prone to mistakes? And, how can it be simplified?
Implementing Matter-Centric Architectures In Document Management Systems
October 27, 2005
This is the second part of a two-part series covering issues related to migrating from traditional document management systems to Matter-Centric Content Management Architectures. The first part reviewed some of the differences between these systems. This second part addresses issues involved in migration to a Matter-Centric Architecture, and Best Practices for addressing these issues.
Seiko's Smart Label Printers Bring Your Firm to the Future!
October 27, 2005
At some point or another in the life of your law firm one of your staff is going to ask the ill-fated question: "Why can't we just print one label to send this material out?" For years computer literate law firms have still had to either have pre-printed labels made with handwritten addresses or, alternatively, print an entire sheet of labels for only one address! <br>If this all too familiar scenario seems to be on your list of "been there, done thats," then it's about time that you heard the good news, and that's as easy as the words ' Seiko Smart Label Printer 430! Now you can print as many labels as you need from one at a time to many others all from within your computer.
Debate on DTC Advertising Heats Up!
October 14, 2005
Introduction to this Special Issue: This past June, the American Medical Association (AMA) joined myriad other consumer and medical interest groups to ask the question whether direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising by pharmaceutical companies had gotten out of hand. Sensing the way the winds were blowing, the pharmaceutical industry's trade group PhRMA (Pharmaceutical and Research Manufacturers of America) announced on Aug. 2 that it would self-police DTC drug advertising practices by signing up pharmaceutical manufacturers to a voluntary agreement to follow PhRMA's new DTC policies. In this issue, we will look at those policies and at the reactions they caused in the medical, legislative and consumer communities.
New PhRMA Policy: Not Everyone Satisfied
October 14, 2005
When the Pharmaceutical and Research Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced it was instituting a new policy on direct-to-consumer advertising, PhRMA President and CEO Billy Tauzin stated, "With these principles, we commit ourselves to improving the inherent educational value of advertisements. Patients need accurate and timely information and should be encouraged to discuss diseases and treatment options with their physicians. These principles will help us reach that goal."
Perez v. Wyeth and Direct-to-Consumer Ads
October 14, 2005
Six years ago, in <i>Perez v. Wyeth Laboratories Inc.</i>, 161 N.J. 1 (1999), the New Jersey Supreme Court enunciated a novel exception to the learned intermediary doctrine intended to address the rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals. The learned intermediary doctrine is a common law principle, codified in many states, that shields prescription pharmaceutical manufacturers from liability for failing to warn consumers of the potential side-effects associated with their products as long as they have adequately warned prescribing physicians. The <i>Perez</i> court, however, held that when pharmaceutical companies employ DTC advertising, there is an additional duty to warn consumers of potential risks.
PhRMA's New Rules on DTC Advertising
October 14, 2005
In response to continued scrutiny from the public and from legislators concerned over the effects of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, the Board of Directors of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) voted this past July 29 to institute what it calls a set of "Guiding Principles" that will extend and augment the current FDA rules for DTC advertisement. These principles will go into effect in January 2006.
