The Growth of Litigation: A Global Trend
December 26, 2006
For the past three years, our law firm, Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, has conducted its Litigation Trends Survey, based on responses from senior-level in-house lawyers at companies in a variety of industries and at various revenue levels. In the first year, we surveyed only United States companies. Last year, we expanded our survey to encompass companies in the United Kingdom as well. This year's edition of the Litigation Trends Survey ' in recognition of the increasing globalization of the world economy and our own firm's rapid international expansion ' drew on responses from companies around the world. The survey results generally confirmed what prompted us to expand the scope of the Survey to begin with ' that companies are increasingly operating more globally and therefore face greater and more frequent challenges in protecting their interests in areas far from home.
BearingPoint and the Risk of Late SEC Filings
December 26, 2006
Companies that are late in filing their financial statements with the SEC may simultaneously trigger default provisions under their credit agreements and indentures. Accounting problems from practices such as the backdating of stock options make it difficult for companies to get auditors to sign off on their financial statements, resulting not only in a failure to meet SEC reporting deadlines but also a default under their loan agreements and cross-defaults under other agreements. This problem is widespread, with over 150 companies affected by the options backdating scandals and over 1300 companies in 2005 alone filing restatements of their financial statements with the SEC.
Base Salaries Up; Bonus Levels Mixed
November 28, 2006
The recently released 2006 Altman Weil Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey of U.S. corporate law departments, published in partnership with LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, shows base salaries up across the board for in-house lawyers in 2006.
New Federal Discovery Rules: A Compliance Roadmap
November 28, 2006
Revised Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have likely gone into effect as you read this. They place a very early focus on existing retention practices and the preservation and discovery of information. For companies without modern enterprise retention programs and robust legal holds processes, a thoughtful gap analysis and readiness plan should be completed immediately.
Employers Beware EEOC Information Request
November 28, 2006
Understandably, companies have become more sensitive about protecting confidential, proprietary business information from disclosure to competitors and others outside the company.<br>A recent ruling by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, <i>Venetian Casino Report v. EEOC</i>, 2006 WL 2806568 (D.D. Cir. 2006), demonstrates that such disclosures may occur in the most unexpected ways.
Protecting Legal Data
November 28, 2006
In today's environment of well-deserved hypersensitivity to corporate compliance as mandated by the SEC and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the thought of unauthorized parties viewing or altering privileged corporate records should strike fear in the heart of any corporate compliance officer. That threat can quickly evolve into a reality if your corporation's law department implements an electronic invoicing and matter management system in an application service provider (ASP) environment.
The Bell Keeps Tolling
November 28, 2006
Selective waiver of the attorney-client privilege is a lonely doctrine indeed. Since the Eighth Circuit first adopted it in the 1977 <i>Diversified Industries</i> case, the notion that a litigant may disclose privileged material to government enforcers without waiving the privilege as to third parties has hardly won fans among federal courts of appeal. Most recently, in June, 2006, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit weighed in on the viability of selective waiver. The <i>In Re: Qwest Communications Int'l</i> decision is precisely what advocates for selective waiver needed least; it is a comprehensive evaluation, and rejection, of nearly all of the cogent arguments advanced in favor of the doctrine.
NLRB Rulings Regarding Supervisors Provide Clarity and Controversy
November 28, 2006
Before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its recent decisions in the Kentucky River cases, union leaders and activists predicted dire consequences ' potentially stripping millions of workers, especially in the healthcare industry, of their rights to join a union. Unions, which are trying to attract more employees to their ranks, staged rallies and other events to draw attention to these cases. <br>But the decisions did not dramatically redraw the lines for determining which workers are considered supervisors and which are not. Instead, they provided guidance that will be helpful to employers and unions alike in determining the status of workers whose classification falls into the gray area between supervisor and employee. The analysis remains highly fact-specific and appears unlikely to create the dramatic effects predicted.
The Importance of <i>Wa</i> When Doing Business in Japan
October 30, 2006
Volumes have been written on the supposed non-litigious nature of the Japanese, usually citing statistics showing there are hundreds of times fewer attorneys and lawsuits per capita in Japan as compared to the U.S. These statistics are generally misleading because they fail to take into account the structure of the Japanese court system itself, which presents significant barriers for litigants. <br>This article focuses on two aspects of Japanese culture that noticeably affect the Japanese approach to business relationships. First, the Japanese insistence on preserving harmony as evidenced by consensus decision-making, avoidance of confrontation and attention to formalities of rank and seniority. Second, the importance of mutual trust to the business relationship as evidenced by the emphasis on non-business discussions.
Competitive Intelligence: A Tool for In-house Counsel
October 30, 2006
Competitive Intelligence has long been used by corporate America to analyze trends, client feedback, and marketing strategies to get an edge. It's the newest buzzword among law firms to win more market share and retain clients. But it's barely a whisper in law departments, at least when it comes to selecting outside counsel.
