NextClient.com: The Future for Law Firm Web sites!
During the American Bar Association GP/Solo Section meeting in Beverly Hills this past October, I happened to be talking to a colleague who was busy on his laptop. When I asked him what he was working on, he told me he was in the process of updating his Web site. I knew he was not a "techie" by any stretch so I became intrigued. I asked him how he was able to work on his Web site at all, let alone make updates while away from the office. He then showed me a solution he found that allowed him to choose and launch a custom Web site in minutes, and then update it from anywhere he could connect to the Internet.
Document Change Management
Legal and corporate governance processes all have one thing in common: They generate large volumes of documents. Teams of professionals must produce most of these documents. The teams may be in multiple locations, and the members may have diverse responsibilities and skills. All of them must provide their input in a timely way, often influenced by one another's contributions. Someone must pull all of the input together to complete the document under strict deadline pressure. And there frequently are multiple approval steps; final approval cannot be given until all input is provided, comments considered, and several round of changes made and signed off on. <br>In other words, the success of the team generating the document depends on the ability of its members to collaborate quickly and effectively. The burden of all this administrative give and take is enormous. But the issue of collaboration is more visible now that the pressure to document compliance with complex regulations has been extended across all industries by way of Sarbanes-Oxley. Now it's everyone's problem.
E-mail, Instant Messaging and Voice-mail
Electronic communication has been a productivity boon in nearly every industry. E-mail, voice-mail, and the latest favorite, instant messaging (IM), enable workers to communicate at the pace and level of interaction they need. Unfortunately, the more digital messages workers exchange, the more risk companies face from electronic information that could prove damaging during litigation.
Falling Stock Prices?
Open any major newspaper over the last few months and you will find a surprising number of articles detailing the significant drop in a public company's stock price in mere hours or days after the disclosure that the company has been civilly sued, be it a class action, securities fraud case, or harassment suit. The decline in a company's stock price following the disclosure of a pending lawsuit is not by any means new. Yet, the speed and extent of the decline in a company's stock appears to have greatly accelerated in recent years. As a result, public companies are now faced with a growing number of lawsuits geared principally at obtaining a speedy settlement by leveraging the lawsuit's potential impact on a company's stock value.
Employers Beware
It is a sad but true fact that employers are accused of discrimination on an almost daily basis. While most of these claims are without merit, it is critical that employers take them seriously and caution managers and supervisors that treating the complainer differently or more harshly because of the complaint is a recipe for disaster.
Identity Theft: The Next Corporate Liability Wave?
The nation's fastest growing crime, identity theft, is combining with greater corporate accumulation of personal data, increasingly vocal consumer anger and new state and federal laws to create significant new legal, financial and reputation risk for many companies.
Mandatory Arbitration for Employee Benefits Disputes
Thanks to the well-publicized rising cost of litigation and the growing availability of alternative dispute resolution options, mandatory arbitration provisions are more popular than ever among would-be litigants. The employee benefits realm is no exception. <br>Indeed, there is a trend toward using arbitration in the benefits context that is fueled by a growing sense among practitioners that a well-crafted policy mandating arbitration of employee benefits disputes can be a useful tool to save an employer time and money.
Committee Aims To Standardize Pass-Through Taxation
If an influential congressional committee has its way, some professionals and many small business owners could be forced to dig into their own pockets to help bridge the projected $3.75 trillion funding gap for Social Security. <br>At issue is the sticky subject of limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships and so-called "S" corporations, and the manner in which participants in those businesses pay their Social Security and medical insurance employment taxes.
Surviving A Malpractice Fiasco: 10 Views
Recently I asked members of <i>A&FP</i>'s Editorial Board and several new contributors for their thoughts on how a law firm might best deal with the financial blow of an unusually large settlement or penalty assessed against the firm. Last month, in Part One, we got our roundtable discussants' views on how to keep a firm from crumbling immediately after a malpractice disaster. Concluding the discussion, here are their views on professional liability insurance.
Basics Revisited: Reducing Law Firm Overhead Costs
A law firm management's primary focus, like most professional service firms, is new business, billing a high percentage of partners' and associates' time and, of course, collecting a high percentage of billings. Under pressure to increase revenues and grow the bottom line, executives often overlook smaller firm overheads such as office supplies and related items, printing, stationery, overnight delivery, telecom and copiers.
