Friday, March 29, 2002
Dorsey & Whitney Pays Bonuses in NY
New York Lawyer -- March 29, 2002
Minneapolis-based Dorsey & Whitney paid performance-based bonuses to its New York associates this month, the New York Law Journal reports.
Associates had to bill more than 1,900 hours to be eligible; they received a percentage of their base salary that was pegged to the number of hours they worked over that threshold.
Associates who billed more than 2,201 hours were eligible for a bonus of up to 20 percent of their base, for a maximum of $35,000 for senior associates. Dorsey & Whitney has about 750 attorneys worldwide and about 85 in New York.
Thursday, March 28, 2002
Enron In-House Aftershocks Spawn New Business Opportunities for Law Firms Advising Inhouse Counsel
David Hechler -- The National Law Journal -- March 28, 2002
With former Enron GC James V. Derrick under heavy scrutiny, corporate counsel are feeling the aftershocks of the Enron implosion. Although the full impact won't be clear until reactions in Washington, D.C., play out, anxiety is rippling through corporate legal departments. To avoid Derrick's fate, in-house attorneys are carefully evaluating their audit committees, accounting practices and pension plans. The impact of Enron is being felt at most in-house legal departments, as counsel at companies such as Intel, Pfizer, and Sprint study the case and the SEC's recent advisories and work closely with their audit committees to make sure their companies don't run afoul of the law. Top outside lawyers are also carefully considering the advice they're now giving companies.
Read more . . .
Katten Muchin Joins Forces With Rosenman & Colin
Anthony Lin -- New York Law Journal -- March 28, 2002
Chicago-based Katten Muchin & Zavis has gained a New York presence by merging with Rosenman & Colin, creating a firm of roughly 675 lawyers called KMZ Rosenman. Although Katten Muchin is by far the larger of the two firms, it is little-known in New York. Client needs, not grandiose expansion plans, prompted Katten Muchin to explore New York expansion, according to the merged firm's managing partner.
Read more . . .
Wednesday, March 27, 2002
Firms Discover E-Discovery
Ashby Jones -- American Lawyer Media -- March 27, 2002
For litigators, nothing is as tedious as the beginning of discovery in a big case.
First there is document collection. Then there's document review, Bates stamping, photocopying and delivery to the other side. It's a process that makes a lot of associates wonder what they were thinking when they signed up to take the LSAT.
But a handful of vendors are promising a new, painless approach to big-ticket discovery called e-discovery. Companies like Seattle's Applied Discovery Inc., Portland, Ore.'s Fios Inc., Seattle's Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc. (EED) and Eden Prairie, Minn.'s Ontrack Data International Inc. move all of a party's electronic documents into a vast, electronic database. Attorneys can then search the database by keyword or concept. This eliminates boxes of paper-and a bunch of associate hours.
Read more . . .
Tuesday, March 26, 2002
And now, in the "you heard it first here" category, are mega mergers all they're cracked up to be?
Whither Holland & Knight?
Tony Doris -- Miami Daily Business Review -- March 26, 2002
Rapid expansion and recessionary times have the partnership at Florida's Holland & Knight, one of the nation's largest law firms, facing serious financial challenges and tough decisions. Steered until recently by now-gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, the firm faces not only the typical recession-era issues of layoffs and compensation fueled by growing pains, but a more contentious and fundamental question of ethos.
Read more . . .
Monday, March 25, 2002
Lawyers go wireless
ZDNet.com -- Karen D. Schwartz -- January 22, 2002
An attorney traveling in London is trying to keep on top of information critical to her case, but her constant companion isn't another attorney or even the client, it's a RIM BlackBerry 957. With the wireless device she can respond quickly to voice mail, receive and send faxes and e-mail, and keep her billable hours up-to-date.
Problem: Allow all of your firm's attorneys working anywhere in the world to send and retrieve voice mail, e-mail, and faxes in a common format.
Solution: Install Captaris CallXPress and outfit all firm attorneys with wireless RIM BlackBerry 957 handheld devices.
Read more . . .
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Ten Business Opportunities From A Single Panel Appearance
Don't let your lawyers speak solo when instead they can turn it into a panel discussion that they lead. A panel lets the lawyer give exposure to existing contacts, gives entree to potential referral sources, and comes with free tickets to give away. Find out all the ways your firm can leverage a panel discussion from prize-winning marketer Craig Levinson of Sills Cummis in Newark, N.J.
The Glass Ceiling: Tenacious After All These Years
law.com -- March 19, 2002
Women now make up fully 50 percent of law school classes, so why are there so few women in the upper ranks of law firms, law schools and the judiciary? What happens along the way to derail so many women? Are they running into the fabled glass ceiling? Recent panel discussions in California and New York, featuring women who've made it to the top, attempt to figure it out.
Read more . . .
Sunday, March 17, 2002
Create a WOW Environment for Your Clients
Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Disney World, and in the process became an example of the way successful business firms should treat customers. But, Disney also created the "WOW"!
Anyone who has visited Disney World has been exposed to the "WOW". Almost immediately upon entering Disney World visitors perceive that something is different! They notice that there is a not a scrap of paper or a piece of chewing gum on the ground. The employees are extremely courteous and friendly, and totally committed to reacting to every desire of the customer. The quality of the experience is so high and different that sooner or later the visitor experiences a feeling that can only be described as "WOW!"
In creating the "WOW" for your clients, your entire team must be totally committed to rendering the highest level of service possible in your markets and to become the "best game in town". Client communication, attention to detail, attention to getting problems resolved quickly and at reasonable cost make for growing client loyalty.
Give your clients the "WOW" experience. A law firm that is committed to client satisfaction will grow.
Saturday, March 16, 2002
Managing Outside Counsel -- ACCA's 2001 "Partnering with Outside Counsel Survey" Results
New survey shows spending and management trends of about 400 law departments; findings may be helpful to in-house counsel
Rob Thomas -- Legal Times -- March 13, 2002
SPENDING -- MOST PRESSING ISSUE IN THE SURVEY
The most pressing business issue identified by law departments is reducing outside legal costs. Other pressing issues are:
- staying apprised of company activities that may have legal implications;
- too much work for too few resources;
- keeping up with changes in the law; and
- acquiring technology (to improve internal efficiency and to work with outside counsel).
Outside counsel are judged to be non-responsive to the cost concerns of in-house counsel. Outside counsel received the highest grades for demeanor and expertise, but the lowest grade for being conscious of costs.
Other low grades for:
- being proactive;
- predictive accuracy; and
- business knowledge.
To earn clients' trust and business law firms must demonstrate that they are as concerned with being cost-effective as they are with getting the work done.
Will legal work move in-house? Yes
[Ed. Note: Don't believe it.]
As a group, in-house counsel projected that for 2001 law department spending would increase by about 5 percent, while spending on outside counsel would decrease by 4 percent. Since the expected increase in law firm hourly rates is about 5 percent, the inescapable conclusion is that there will be less work for outside counsel. [Ed. Note: Nonsense.]
CONVERGENCE -- Yes and No
About one-third of the law departments surveyed reduced the number of primary firms they use by more than half, with the median dropping from 20 to eight. Large companies (annual revenue over $1 billion) are approximately three times more likely to have used a convergence strategy than small companies (annual revenue less than $100 million).
The top three benefits of convergence were identified as:
- making outside counsel more aware of business needs;
- getting lower fees; and
- spending less time managing outside counsel. [Ed. Note: Well, now there's a benefit! How stupid.]
INCREASED CONTROLS
In-house counsel are dictating the terms under which they do business with their law firms. [Ed. Note: That's progressive. Not.] Nearly three-quarters of in-house counsel require outside counsel to agree to specific terms in order to be retained. The most common are:
- preparing budgets and associated reports;
- following travel expense rules;
- providing periodic written updates and early case assessments;
- granting discounts from standard hourly rates; and
- not changing assigned attorneys without approval.
[Ed. Note. If you believe that, there's a bridge you might be interested in.]
On average, budgets are required for about 40 percent of matters handled by outside counsel, more often for litigation matters than for transactional and other types of matters. [Ed. Note: In your dreams.]
In-house counsel are also generating management reports to keep tabs on the performance of their outside counsel: for each matter, the most commonly collected data is cumulative legal expenses, total outcome and budget-to-actual legal expenses. Many departments also monitor each firm's total periodic billings.
[Ed. Note: Coming to a theater near you, "The attack of the Bean Counters." As if "tracking" such things will lead to minimized total costs of litigation, including, most especially, results. One bad result can wipe out every penny of so-called "savings" that caused it. Shackeling outside counsel with whimsical budgets and restrictive operating conditions leads to disasters for inhouse counsel who then must explain to senior management how a bean-counted case resulted in a loss of the company's market capitalization and a lead story in the Wall Street Journal.]
CONFLICTS
In-house counsel are demanding a higher level of loyalty from their law firms, with approximately three-quarters requiring conflict checks that exceed what bar ethics rules require. These additional checks are for:
- past representation of an adverse party;
- current representation of business competitors not otherwise adverse in a specific matter; and
- positions taken in prior cases that may conflict with a current matter.
[Ed. Note: What a good idea -- eliminate outside attorneys with direct experience and go for virgins unfamiliar with your industry and regulatory environment. Hey, attorneys are all fungible anyway, right?]
On the other hand, in-house counsel are very lenient in granting waivers when conflicts are discovered: Overall, more than 85 percent of such requests were granted. [Ed. Note: Out the 15% who didn't.]
CREATIVE APPROACHES
The survey also explored alternative approaches to the traditional relationships between law departments and their law firms. One example is the practice of secondment or lending a lawyer to a client, which is used by more than 13 percent of in-house counsel.
[Ed. Note: Misleading. 13 percent of in-house counsel are on loan from a law firm? Besides, it's a stop-gap measure. Companies bring outside counsel inhouse temporarily because those lawyers bring experience and proven abilities that cannot easily be found elsewhere.]
This practice usually reduces hourly rates, but it is not gaining momentum, with only 4 percent of in-house counsel expecting to do more secondment during the coming year, and 37 percent expecting to do less. Fears of law firms that this practice leads to "raiding" are unfounded: Only 6 percent of the companies had hired a lawyer who was on loan.
A strategy that may be gaining acceptance is negotiating discounts for early payments. About 8 percent of respondents say that about one-fourth of their law firms agree to this practice, with an average discount of 5 percent for payments within 21 days.
A majority of law departments surveyed have negotiated alternative billing arrangements, with discounted hourly rates being the most common, followed by fixed fees and contingent fees.
Many other management strategies are covered in the survey and report, including finding qualified outside counsel, assessing performance, and collaborative technologies (electronic billing, videoconferencing, extranets, shared platforms).
Order the report . . .
Friday, March 15, 2002
Good Relationship Makes for Good Business
Outside counsel, GCs must develop rapport for good of company
Timothy R. Brown -- Texas Lawyer -- March 13, 2002
[Ed. Note: A dogmatic, pedantic little piece of poorly written advice skimming over some tiresome but nevertheless worthwhile ideas. Worth reading, even though annoyingly presumptuous.]
Each company has a unique way of doing things, and knowing the structure of the corporation can give outside counsel the ability to make his or her service better fit the client's demands. A complete understanding of the factors that influence the business will make an outside lawyer better able to anticipate road blocks and find answers to difficult questions.
Read more . . .
New Class Action Fad -- Unfair, Albeit Small, Added Charges by Internet Retailers and Other Sellers of Mass Merchandise or Services
Miami Daily Business Review -- Matthew Haggman -- March 14, 2002
Internet retailer Buy.com's $1.95 flat shipping rate for all CDs, tapes and DVDs is being challenged in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The suit, which alleges that the Orange County, Calif.-based company jacked up profits by charging an inflated shipping rate, seeks class action certification under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act -- and may portend a growing use of class actions under the act.
The case, which could amount to substantial dollars if class-action certification is granted, comes on the heels of a similar case involving port fee charges by cruise line operators. It may portend a growing use of class action under the Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. What makes such suits possible are significant recent rulings by the 3rd and 4th District Courts of Appeal that allow class certification under the consumer protection statute without the need for plaintiffs to prove a previously essential legal element called individual reliance.
The problem in bringing such suits over service fees is that when an individual consumer is allegedly defrauded, the amount of money at issue is so small that it's highly unlikely any consumer would file suit. But if an entire class can be combined, then a lawsuit can go forward. If courts, however, require a showing of individual reliance to let a suit go forward -- that is, that a party relied on a material statement of fact to its detriment and resulting harm - that precludes class certification.
To the delight of plaintiff attorneys, two years ago, the 3rd DCA and 4th DCA sided with consumers and ruled that individual reliance is not a required element under Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The appellate rulings grew out of a variety of lawsuits filed against cruise line operators several years ago. The cruise lines were sued for charging a "port fee" that was not paid to the port but instead went into the corporate coffers of the cruise lines. In the suits, the two appellate courts certified class-action cases and ruled that a customer need not have individually relied on the purported fraud in order to make a successful claim under Florida's consumer protection law.
"Reliance and damages are sufficiently shown by the fact that the passenger parted with money for what should have been a 'pass-through' port charge, but the cruise line kept the money," Judge Gerald Cope Jr. wrote in a unanimous three-judge panel ruling February 2000.
Read more . . .
Thursday, March 14, 2002
The Case for Professional Management of Law Firms
Ron Leuty -- San Francisco Business Times -- 3/1/02
Lawyers serving three- to five-year stints as chairmen or managing partners, some say, aren't up to the challenge of overseeing larger and increasingly businesslike operations. "Forward-looking law firms that really want to compete in the business world as it's changing around us have to recognize that lawyers that are just promoted from within know a lot about the firm culture -- and that's very important," Littler Mendelson's chief Wendy Tice-Wallner says, "but they frankly don't know a lot about running a law firm."
The evolution toward more-professional leadership began more than a decade ago. The idea gained converts as law, accounting and other professional services firms lobbied lawmakers to allow them to merge into so-called multidisciplinary practices.
In the mid-1970s, a 100-attorney firm was considered large; now a number of firms have more than 1,000 attorneys, and some are approaching $1 billion in revenues.
But many large law firms -- ones that experts say have the most to gain (or lose) -- still count on hundreds of partners to elect a fellow partner chairman to oversee the firm over a set number of years. That moves many strong lawyers away from the courtroom and into management careers for which they are ill-prepared.
"Law firms are not organized so much to promote efficiency as to prevent tyranny," says Peter Newton, senior consultant for Hildebrandt International, which advises law firms. "There's a tremendous fear in law firms about anyone having authority."
"The law firm landscape is littered today with examples of once very successful -- and right up to the end outstanding -- firms that either went out of business or ultimately had to get acquired by someone else," Ralph Baxter, chairman and CEO of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, says. "That's what happens if you don't manage professionally enough."
The key is convincing all partners on a future vision of the firm, he says. "If partners don't think there's a need to change," he says, "you're never going to get them to go along with the program."
Read more . . .
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Why Law Firm Web Sites Don't Bring in Business
The Law Marketing Portal -- Larry Bodine -- 3/12/02
Why are so many firms' web sites so difficult to use? Many firms' sites are more like labyrinths than tools, hiding information and clogged with extraneous videos. The sites don't fulfill their basic function -- communication -- and they certainly don't bring in any new business.
When examining a site's usability, keep these questions in mind:
1. What information do visitors seek, and how can they find it quickly?
2. Is the text written to attract business?
3. Does the layout of the site conform to visitors' expectations?
4. Are there impediments that standing between visitors and the information they seek?
5. Are the services described and organized in a simple way?
Six Deadly Sins of Bad Website Design
Typical flaws in the design of law firms' Web sites include the following:
1. Tiny Text: Tiny text that scrolls across the screen. Small text is hard enough to read on a computer, and scrolling text is even more difficult to see.
2. Non-obvious Hyperlinks: Links that are hidden behind graphics, such as a picture of a cloud that is actually a link to a firm's brochure. Mystery graphics force visitors to "minesweep" -- clicking on everything on a page to see which elements connect to other pages.
3. Meaningless, Functionless Graphics: Graphics that have no function other than decoration. If a graphic is not "clickable," it's only taking up space and should be deleted from the site. Real estate on a Web site is too valuable to waste on a dead graphic.
4. Videos and Other Introductory Nonsense: Introductory videos (sometimes called "Flash videos"). Visitors want to get to your home page quickly; they don't want to be slowed down by an introduction.
5. Mandatory Plug-ins: Requiring plug-ins to be downloaded. Special downloads to get animation or sound players are just barriers. They slow down the visitor's experience and waste time.
6. Too Many Options: Offering too many choices. Some law firm Web sites obscure their content in a blizzard of options to click on. Often this is the result of a decision by internal committee that every partner have a link on the home page. However, this just makes the site hard to use. Smart law firms will read their Web traffic reports, and limit the choices to pages that most visitors regularly want to see.
Law Firm Sales Departments?
Law firms are installing sales programs supported by $1 million advertising budgets. The programs include client visits, follow-up by team leaders, regular sales assignments and tracking of time for sales efforts.
Read the report from the Marketing Partner Forum by MarketForce's Terri Pepper Gavulic.
Monday, March 11, 2002
NY Firms Hiring More Temps, Federal Reserve Says
New York Lawyer -- March 7, 2002
New York law firms have "exhibited strong demand" for temporary attorneys, the March edition of the Federal Reserve's Beige Book, which reviews the nation's current economic conditions, reports. It provides no additional details about the increase.
"Conditions in the temporary labor market continue to be slack in most reporting districts, but the worst seems to be over," it says. "Although services industries were mostly sluggish or flat in recent months, selected industries reported improvements."
"Dallas reports that law firms and accounting firms note strengthening demand for work on litigation, bankruptcy, auditing, and taxes," it says.
Link to: The Fed's "Beige Book"
Despite Layoffs, Legal Sector Grows in NY
New York Lawyer -- March 11, 2002
Despite the layoffs and reduced hiring plans at New York City's major law firms during the past 12 months, the number of lawyers and non-legal staff employed by the legal sector as a whole has increased during the past year, according to the latest figures from the New York State Department of Labor.
In New York City, there were 80,000 people working for legal employers in January, up 2 percent from the 78,400 employed in January 2001. Statewide, there were 117,600 people employed in the legal sector in January, up 1.1 percent from the 116,300 employed in January 2001.
Links to: NYC stats and NYS data.
Monday, March 04, 2002
Goodell DeVries Wins Defense Verdict in Rezulin Case
On February 5, 2002, Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann, LLP obtained a defense verdict for Pfizer Inc. following a five week jury trial in Rockville, Maryland in a wrongful death case. In the lawsuit, the patient's family alleged that Rezulin, a Pfizer diabetes drug, was defective, and that Pfizer was negligent. The adequacy of Pfizer's warnings was questioned and the family alleged fraud on the Food and Drug Administration in obtaining Rezulin’s approval. The family sought $180 million, including punitive damages. Local and national media followed the case closely throughout the trial, with stories by the CBS National Evening News, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post. The case was tried by Charles Goodell and Rick Barnes.
