At the Tipping Point
The debate over the issue of whether or not a law firm can have a mandatory retirement age has focused on the threshold question of whether the 'partner' is an 'employer' or an 'employee' under the ADEA. If the partner is a 'bona fide' partner then he or she is an 'employer' and not protected by the ADEA. However, if the partner is not a 'bona fide' partner under the relevant legal principles (which will be discussed later in this article), he or she may be protected by the ADEA and, therefore, able to challenge the mandatory retirement age policy.
Partner Compensation Systems: Five Design Challenges
Something is beginning to quietly brew with respect to large law firm partner compensation systems.<br>The last major revolution in partner compensation began in the 1980s, aimed at increasing partners' focus on marketing and new business development. But, in the attempts to energize their partners to go out and market, many law firms may have overdone it ' and today are struggling with some of the resultant dysfunctional behaviors their reward systems have motivated.
<b>The Place to Network:</b> Creative Networking
In order to effectively network, you don't necessarily need to carve time out of your already-packed schedule for 'official networking.' Instead, just focus on meeting people and making connections in your day-to-day activities. For starters, networking need not be confined to 'business activities' or 'business days.'
Money Changes Everything
Very few attorneys really understand what their hourly rates mean to a client. It is not a number, according to Peter Darling, a former litigator and current CA-based business-development consultant. Few clients select their lawyers based on fees. Rather, the decision is usually driven by emotion.
<b>Technology In Marketing: </b> Spam and Filters
The increasing use of filters by companies to block spam has a downside for law firms engaged in legitimate e-mail marketing ' an increased risk that their e-mails will be improperly labeled as spam and either blocked entirely or routed to users' junk (bulk mail) folders and never read.
Note from the Editor
As I mentioned in my last Note from the Editor, this month marks the premiere of a new column for managing partners of law firms. 'Corner Office,' written by Mel Morrione, will provide insight into the world of managing partners and how their role impacts, among other things, marketing, business development, communications, growth and professional development. This month, Mel, who joins our Board of Editors, provides an overview of the role of the managing partner.…
Attorney Buy-In
'You need to get lawyer buy-in.' An oxymoron? You bet. If you have any doubts, read David Maister's 'The Trouble with Lawyers' (The American Lawyer, April 2006). Still, pretty much everyone on the firm's marketing staff will hear this refrain frequently. It's well meant, but it's also code for 'please don't expect me to take full responsibility for your hair-brained marketing idea.' Of course, this never happens at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, the progressive firm where I toil (right!), but I'm told it's fairly common at stodgy, traditional firms. <br>There are ways to tackle this challenge. Some are actually fun, if you allow yourself to plot imaginatively.
<b>Corner Office: </b>Who's Running The Store?
To understand why many managing partners might have difficulty answering this question, one needs to examine the resource pool within law firms from which managing partners are chosen. Among the popular choices are: those with the biggest books of business, the most widely recognized reputations, the best rainmakers, the best lawyers and the most effective client service partners. Most partners feel that anyone who has attained any of those levels practicing law ought to be just as proficient at running a law firm. Not quite!
How to Stand Out from the Crowd
The language is clear: 'An advertisement or solicitation shall not depict the use of a courtroom or courthouse.' While using a courthouse in an ad for your law firm may be a clich' ' and fail to set you apart from the competition ' it hardly seems intuitive that doing so would violate advertising guidelines. That will be the case in New York, if a proposed rule goes into effect this month. Across the country, advertising rules continue to evolve, so pinpointing how to best spend your marketing dollars can be challenging.
Waiver or Ratification of Alleged Misrepresentations By Subsequent Insurance Company Conduct
<i>'Fraud!' cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.' Ernest Lawrence Thayer,</i> Casey at the Bat.As most readers will know, after this couplet in which the baseball player Casey scorns to dispute the umpire's call on the second strike, Casey proceeds to swing and miss the third pitch, striking out. Thayer's poem does not contain any indication that the slugger then sought to go back and contest the ruling on the second strike.Unlike the notorious batsman, however, insurance companies frequently bring actions to void coverage on the grounds of alleged misrepresentation or 'fraud' in the application for insurance, when they themselves have scorned to contest coverage upon first learning that they may have a basis to do so. Whatever the rules were concerning untimely protests in 1880s semipro baseball, today's insurance coverage law is clear: An insurance company waives any right to void coverage for alleged misrepresentations or omissions in the application, if, after it learns it may have grounds for such relief, it does not promptly seek the relief, but instead takes any action inconsistent with an intent to treat the policy as void.
