The Topography of a Strong Attorney Biography
<b><i>Part One of a Two-Part Article</b></i><p>Attorneys are generally not great salespeople (caveat: some are <i>great</i> salespeople, aka rainmakers) and they are often introverts. While lawyers may like to speak about themselves, many are not effective in <i>how</i> to speak about themselves and their work in a way that is appealing to clients.
Hiring Practices and the FCPA
While laws such as the FCPA do not necessarily prohibit hiring individuals with criminal records or bad credit records or who are former government officials, they do require employers to identify these individuals and assess whether their hire would pose a threat, violate the laws outright or impose an administratively difficult burden due to the need to monitor their activities.
The Death of the Law Firm Partnership Vote?
<b><i>With an Eye on Efficiency, Firms Are Ditching Old Methods for a More Corporate Form of Governance</b></i><p>A growing number of firms in the United States and the United Kingdom are eschewing historical partnership norms in favor of more centralized management, and with that comes fewer and fewer partnership votes.
Finally Finishing Unfinished Business?
<i><b>How the Recent </i> Heller Ehrman <i>Case Impacts Lawyer Mobility and Clients Choice of Counsel</i></b><p>The law of unfinished business, as applied to cases billed on an hourly basis, has been the subject of much commentary and case law. In <i>Heller Ehrman</i>, the high California court, like the New York Court of Appeals, found that a dissolved law firm did not have a property interest in hourly matters for work performed after dissolution. The case is worth exploring as it impacts, among other things, lawyer mobility and clients choice of counsel.
The Relationship Between Leadership and Management in More Successful Law Firms
Financial stability within a law firm practice does not guarantee harmony within the partnership itself — far from it. Law firm management that does not acknowledge or reflect the importance of firm leadership and the contributions and needs of its members endangers a firm's cohesiveness and its very existence, no matter how many clients come through the front door.
From Your Editor: Happy New Year, 2018!
Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Rice shares some thoughts on the direction of legal services in the U.S., and the role as strategically-minded legal marketing executives who strive to help shape the success of their lawyer clients to think outside their comfort zones of hourly billing and high compensation packages.
Quarterly State Compliance Review
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect from Oct.1, 2017 to Jan. 1, 2018. It also looks at recent decisions of interest from Delaware.