Gray Cary & Piper Rudnick: It's A Match!
Partners at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich and Piper Rudnick voted to merge the two firms in mid-October, creating a firm with close to 1400 lawyers in 20 offices and setting the stage for an even larger combination later this year.
Eight Ways To Save Money On Legal Fees
Some may wonder why a partner in a major law firm is going to tell you how to save money on litigation legal expenses. The answer is simple. My job, first and foremost, is to obtain the best possible result for my clients. In my view (and the view of my colleagues), achieving the best result includes cost efficiency and cost effectiveness. Over the course of 18 years, I have had a front row seat to a wide range of client approaches to managing ' or not managing ' legal fees.
e-Discovery Conference: Some of What You Missed
In mid-October, <i>e-Discovery Law & Strategy</i>'s parent company, ALM, joined with the Business Development Institute (BDI) to offer ALM's first e-discovery conference in New York City. The faculty featured several e-discovery luminaries ' here are some highlights in case you missed it.
Bringing Electronic Discovery In-House
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.
Taming An Unruly Process
If information is power, then it's not the amount of information that gives us value, but access to the right information at the right time, and in the most suitable form. <br>This is especially true of e-discovery, which, despite all the supportive tools and technologies, has become a complex, time-consuming, inefficient and often costly process. <br>As a result, litigators and general counsel can benefit greatly from targeted data extraction, a process that compiles and organizes all electronic data associated with a case, then automatically extracts a specified subset of information.
Big Brother Is Watching
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.
Ethics and Compliance Programs
Last month, we discussed the fact that a recurrent task facing managers of Ethics and Compliance programs is to make sure their programs are effective, and to demonstrate this effectiveness to both internal and external audiences. We reviewed internal constituencies, including integration with business processes; clear written standards and controls; effective training and communication; and regular monitoring and evaluation. This month, we focus on external constituencies.
