Linking Partner Pay to Strategic Firm Objectives
February 01, 2020
Pay for performance is not a new concept in this country. The ideas and concepts underlying a graduated pay scale based on contribution and merit are deeply ingrained in our society. However, in general law firms have been slower to adopt pay for performance systems. What law firms need now, and this article describes, is an approach to partner compensation that closely links a partners pay to their ability to contribute to the achievement of the firm's strategic objectives.
When Is a Promise Enough?: Contractual Duties and Insider Trading
February 01, 2020
Two criminal appeals before the Second Circuit require the Court of Appeals to decide whether the violation of a fiduciary relationship is required to create insider trading liability or if a breach of contract is sufficient.
New Lawsuit Over Meek Mill Documentary
February 01, 2020
A former Philadelphia police officer has alleged she was defamed in an episode of Free Meek, the documentary series that was made available on Amazon Prime last year.
Linking Content into the Client Journey: Why Content Experience Matters
February 01, 2020
One of the most effective components of legal marketing is thought leadership content. With today's available palette of media tools, law firms are able to design, build and customize the content that their client's experience like never before. Ensuring that this "content experience" is profound and impactful is a necessary and critical endeavor.
Move Quickly: Supreme Court Holds that Bankruptcy Court's Denial of Motion for Relief from the Automatic Stay Is a Final Appealable Order
February 01, 2020
In a recent, unanimous opinion authored by Justice Ginsburg, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed lower court decisions holding that a bankruptcy court order denying a motion for relief from the automatic stay constitutes a final order that must be appealed within the time provided under Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 8002.
Local Law Banning Music Festival Is Not Unconstitutional Restraint of Speech
February 01, 2020
A landowner challenged local zoning that banned holding a three-day music festival, arguing that the law was an unconstitutional violation of free speech and void for vagueness.
Legal Perspective On Major League Baseball Scandal
February 01, 2020
Two Major League Baseball in-house lawyers, both former prosecutors, led the investigation into the Houston Astros cheating scandal.
GDPR-Based Objections to U.S. Discovery Requests: 2019 Year in Review
February 01, 2020
U.S. civil litigants faced with an obligation to produce "personal data" protected by GDPR can find themselves on the horns of a serious dilemma. Initial rulings addressing the tension between the broad scope of data protected by GDPR and the similarly broad scope of discovery under U.S. law revealed substantial skepticism that complying with a U.S. discovery request would expose parties to significant enforcement risk in the EU. This article takes a look at what arguments parties put forth in the past year, and make a few suggestions for how litigants can avoid violating one jurisdiction's law to satisfy another's courts.
Sales Speak: Strategies to Avoid or Reduce Billing Rate Discounts
February 01, 2020
Requests for discounts have become a routine step in the legal services purchasing process. Lawyers face the uncomfortable task of defending their billing rates in both RFPs and client pitches. But too often, lawyers don't make an effort to resist giving a discount when asked. Mostly because they haven't been trained in how to do it.
Second Circuit Upholds Title 18 Insider-Trading Conviction Where Title 15 Elements Not Established
February 01, 2020
Will Prosecutors Take Advantage?
The recent decision in United States v. Blaszczak may signal a change in how prosecutors in the Second Circuit, and perhaps in other jurisdictions, pursue insider-trading cases.
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