Negotiating Alignment, Not Agreement: A Guide to Effective Tenant Negotiations
December 02, 2005
What do negotiators fear most? Failure, being manipulated and being second-guessed. Why do negotiators fail and why are they manipulated or second-guessed? Often, it's lack of adequate preparation and disregard for the issues, purposes and concerns of the other side. A lack of internal alignment can lead to confusion and that dreaded second-guessing. A well-prepared negotiator can be manipulation proof, avoid the second-guessing and achieve valuable results.
A Primer on Terrorism Insurance
December 02, 2005
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act ("TRIA"), 15 USC §6701 <i>et. seq.</i>, designed to make terrorism insurance readily available to property owners, is scheduled to sunset on Dec. 31, 2005. If the Act is not extended and the cost of terrorism insurance becomes prohibitive, lenders and borrowers may once again find themselves embroiled in controversy over the question of whether governing loan documents require such insurance.
The Best of MLF 2005: Looking Back at the 'Benchmark' Year
November 30, 2005
Well, it's been an exciting year here at <i>Marketing the Law Firm</i>. As with past practice, this month's issue will be a look back at the year that was. In this issue we will present February (the January issue recaps part of 2004) through July.
The MLF 50: Highlights
November 30, 2005
The MLF 50 ' The Top 50 Law Firms in Marketing and Communications appeared in a special September/October issue of MLF. Here are some of the highlights of that issue, including mention of the top five firms.
Using Client Profiles for Future Case Management
November 30, 2005
After a rigorous search, which involved input from key firm personnel including our IT director, paralegals, attorneys, senior managing partners, and the Chief Operating Officer, we selected Client Profiles as our case management solution. Since the selection, we have been able to revolutionize the way our users access, share and update information related to all cases and matters; have seen firm-wide adoption of 100%, and are realizing numerous technology-related cost savings and productivity enhancements.
Employee Blogging: What Employers Don't Know Could Hurt Them
November 30, 2005
Technology offers employers significant advantages, but it can be a double-edged sword. Technology has created issues that employers have never dealt with before ' and bases for liability employers have never confronted before.
Courthouse Steps
November 29, 2005
Recently filed cases in entertainment law, straight from the steps of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
GC's New Discovery Role
November 29, 2005
One of the most common complaints from corporations today is that the cost of discovery is simply too high, making compliance with regulatory rules and litigation requests extraordinarily challenging ' and at times even crippling. But corporations can control these skyrocketing costs by taking a more active role in managing and preparing for discovery.
Can The Grokster Settlement Close The File-Sharing Pandora's Box?
November 29, 2005
Last month, Grokster apparently gave up. The P2P filing-sharing service Nov. 7 filed documents with a Los Angeles federal court reporting that it had reached a settlement in its lengthy legal case with the nation's largest record companies, motion picture studios and music publishers, as represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). <br>This decision leads many experts to believe that a distributor of P2P technology with a legitimate intent not to infringe others' rights would not be liable for a third-party infringing use of the technology. But despite that perhaps being the case, the Court failed to create a bright-line test to help identify a "clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement" which, as Justice Breyer stated in his concurring opinion and as discussed in this article, could have a chilling effect on others creating or advancing file-swapping and other possibly legitimate technologies. Future litigations will necessarily turn on a case-by-case basis not as to the nature of the technology but potentially on the distributors' business plans.
