A Rational Basis for Setting Hourly Rates
February 01, 2007
For the past 20 years, law firms have annually increased their hourly rates on the basis of various ad hoc criteria ' what the market will bear, matching the competition, cost-plus, maintaining profit margins ' that neither firm members nor clients find satisfactory. Alternative pricing methods (fixed fees, percentage of the deal, etc.) have long been advocated as a solution to hourly billing discontents, but in practice, for a large majority of firms they remain limited in application. Firms whose clients expect fees to be charged on an hourly rate basis therefore require a rational means of constructing an hourly rate schedule that is transparent and acceptable to clients as well as defensible within the firm.
Challenges to Law Firm Mandatory-Retirement Policies
February 01, 2007
A 2006 survey report indicated that 57% of law firms with 100 or more attorneys have mandatory retirement age policies. See L. Jones 'Pitfalls of Mandatory Law Firm Retirement,' <i>National Law Journal</i>, May 24, 2006. But legal challenges to mandatory retirement policies at law firms are likely to become more common as baby boomers reach retirement age.
Trends in Financial Services Patents
January 31, 2007
Armed with a well-stocked patent portfolio, a company can effectively corner valuable markets for a limited amount of time. While this concept is second nature for most makers of tangible products, pharmaceuticals, or even software, it is only now becoming widely accepted in the financial services sector. As a result, another battlefield is emerging in which patents are becoming the weapon of choice, and trading floors and back-office processing centers have become the new settings for patent disputes.
Supreme Court Revisits Test for Deciding Obviousness
January 31, 2007
The U.S. Supreme Court has recently shown an interest in intellectual property in general and patents in particular. Most prominent among the recent cases is <i>KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc.</i>, which presents perhaps the most difficult question in substantive patent law: When is the subject of a patent application a true 'invention' ' that is, something that promotes the progress of a useful art sufficient to warrant giving the applicant exclusive rights to the technology claimed for the next 20 years. Conversely, when is the invention 'obvious' ' merely taking a step that anyone of ordinary skill would take, confronted with the same problem and possessing all the knowledge already known to the field?
News Briefs
January 31, 2007
Highlights of the latest franchising news from around the country.
Court Watch
January 31, 2007
Highlights of the latest franchising cases from around the country.
Getting Published: The Foundation For Business Development
January 31, 2007
Business development in the legal community is a science, but it requires the creativity of an artist. That artistry can be demonstrated most powerfully through the written word, a tool of great lawyers for centuries. Encapsulating an interesting case or complex transaction into 500 or 1000 words for the benefit of colleagues and the business community at large is the single best way to demonstrate expertise on a macro scale. It is at the very core of client generation.
Musical Chairs for Firms' Public Faces
January 31, 2007
It all started when communications director Peter Columbus left O'Melveny & Myers for a position at Kaye Scholer this fall. To fill the opening at O'Melveny, John Buchanan left his job at Heller Ehrman. To fill that slot at Heller, Patrick Bustamante left his post at DLA Piper. 'Clearly there's a domino effect,' Buchanan said.
An Excellent Year for Private Law Firms
January 31, 2007
Corporate counsel will outsource more legal work at higher rates in the coming year, and supervise the law firms less closely, issue fewer RFPs and request alternative fees less often, according to projections based on a survey by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and Serengeti Law. The survey shows that the balance of power has swung away from corporations and in favor of private law firms, which will continue to bill by hour and face less convergence,' or consolidation of legal work by a corporation to a small number of firms.
Technology in Marketing
January 31, 2007
First came business card exchanges, then networking events, then law firms became more organized and developed marketing databases to keep track of all clients, potential clients, referral sources and mailing lists. Then along came Client Relationship Management systems otherwise known as CRM. Now we have ERM (enterprise relationship management), RCM (relationship capital management) and more acronyms than you can shake a stick at. No matter what the new technology, the bottom line persists: Lawyers need to maintain and grow their world of relationships in order to be successful and generate revenue.
