The Year in Review: Our Look Back and Look Forward
December 27, 2004
Last month we started our Year in Review, and made it up through June. In Part Two, we finish off the highlights of 2004.
Enhancing Your Firm's Web Presence
December 27, 2004
Your law firm's Web site design has remained static for years. While it may be functional, it's not generating the traffic you originally envisioned, it's not interactive and the overall design is looking a tad dated. You may also not have anyone in-house who can devote the requisite time and effort needed to make the firm's site a productive new business and practice development 24/7/365 marketing tool. <br>Many law firms still don't understand that a poorly designed Web site can damage the firm's credibility and impair its image. So what's the solution? Seek the services of a Web-crafting firm that will not just be a vendor, but a Web partner and architectural strategist.
Media & Communications Corner: <b>How To Make The Most Of A Stale News Story</b>
December 27, 2004
All marketing directors have experienced it. They receive an e-mail that describes a terrific deal closed or case "just" won by an attorney at the firm. The attorney requests a press release and a full-blown public relations push to all media outlets. But curiously, nowhere in the e-mail does the attorney mention when the big case or deal happened. As it turns out, it is because it happened more than a month ago and, since the client did its own press release immediately after the fact, every media outlet known to man covered it then. So how can a marketing director say no, without actually saying it? The dilemma is that you cannot send the release to the media again, weeks after the fact, but you don't want to tell the attorney that he or she has no options either. So here are some suggestions of how to make the most of old news.
Note From the Editor
December 27, 2004
Well we're off to another exciting year here at Marketing The Law Firm. I thought that I would give everyone a heads up on this year's "Best Of" competitions.
Employment Taxes and Stock Options
December 27, 2004
More than 2 years ago, the Internal Revenue Service published Revenue Ruling 2002-22, 2002-19 I.R.B. 849, in which it held that section 1041 of the Internal Revenue Code governed the transfer of stock options and interests in certain unfunded deferred compensation arrangements to the employee's spouse under a marital property settlement. As a result, the employee spouse was not taxable on the transfer. Instead, the spread on the options (the difference between the value of the employer 's stock at the time of exercise and the striking price) and the amount received as deferred compensation under unfunded arrangements were taxable to the nonemployee spouse in the same way and to the same extent as it would have been taxed to the employee. The ruling interpreted section 1041 to have established the rule that property transfers in divorce should be taxed as if the property conveyed were community property that had been transferred in settlement of the transferee's community property rights. As community property, stock options and interests in unfunded deferred compensation arrangements constituted "property" for section 1041 purposes, and the amounts received by the nonemployee spouse would be ordinary income to her (or him), taxable as compensation under IRC '83 and would be "wages" subject to employment taxes and withholding by the employer.
No Removal of Children Who Witness Abuse
December 27, 2004
New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, recently issued a ground-breaking opinion, holding that a battered woman's failure to prevent her children from witnessing her own abuse does not automatically give protective agencies license to remove the child. <i>Nicholson v. Scoppetta</i>, 113, Oct. 26, 2004.
How To Empower Your Client
December 27, 2004
Most divorce clients initially feel "powerless" about the events of their lives and their potential divorce litigation. With some creativity, attorneys can encourage their clients to take affirmative steps from the onset, and permit them to feel proactive instead of reactive to the circumstances in which they find themselves. This initial interview with a client carries significant weight and sets the tone for the attorney-client relationship. Attorneys can impress a potential client with their experience in dealing with these issues and solidify the client's trust in their expertise. The creation of trust in the relationship must occur. To accomplish this goal, the attorney must listen to the potential client's facts. Depending on the circumstances, the attorney analyzes the information presented, counsels the client on what facts are important to prove the case and informs the individual how to obtain them. The "empowered client" now has a sense of direction and actually may uncover significant information that might resolve or alter the final result of the case.
Psychological Assessment: Evaluating the Evaluations
December 27, 2004
In an article scheduled for publication in the April, 2005 edition of the <i>Journal of Child Custody</i> (in press), Gould-Saltman, an experienced family law attorney, opines that attorneys like tests because they "break things down to numbers, and we understand numbers." She adds: "Tests give the sense [emphasis added] of objectivity to counterbalance the much more subjective clinical portion of a custody evaluation." In commenting on the MMPI-2 in particular, Gould-Saltman expresses the view that it is "probably the most well-liked test among lawyers because it offers 'hard numbers' rather than ephemeral concepts." If only it were this simple.
MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Law Firms and the Rise of HospitalityThe law firm office cannot remain unchanged, as if frozen in time set to some date prior to the onset of pandemic, when the terms and meaning have all changed. In fact, the office must now provide benefits or an experience the lawyers and staff cannot get at home.Read More ›
- Disconnect Between In-House and Outside Counsel'Disconnect Between In-House and Outside Counsel is a continuation of the discussion of client expectations and the disconnect that often occurs. And although the outside attorneys should be pursuing how inside-counsel actually think, inside counsel should make an effort to impart this information without waiting to be asked.Read More ›
- The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.Read More ›
- Lack of Logo Placement At Center of Ruling Over Meat Loaf Album PackagingTo build visibility for its brand, a record label or production company will want its logo included on products containing its master recordings manufactured and distributed by third parties. This will be addressed in the agreement between the label or production company and manufacturer/distributor. The failure to include the logo may raise a host of issues, from the breadth of the logo-placement obligation ' such as whether it includes Internet downloads ' to the proper theory on which to base any damages and just which album-sales figures are subject to evidentiary discovery. A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ' in a long-running dispute between Cleveland International Records and Sony Music Entertainment ' illustrated how these issues may be argued and decided.Read More ›