With some prominent examples recently, law firms are finding themselves the targets of disqualification motions filed by former clients.
A post titled “Conflict Disqualification: Anti-Takeover Tactic… or Just a Cigar?’ from Erik Krusch, on Westlaw Business Currents, examines some high-profile disqualification suits.
He outlines the legal issues in cases involving Air Products & Chemicals, Airgas and Cravath; and matters between Dow Chemical and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and Rohm & Haas, among others.
You can read the full post on Westlaw Business Currents.
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Lawyers and legal professionals who enjoy listening to the podcasts from the Legal Talk Network can now earn continuing legal education (CLE) credit for their time spent with many of the network’s programs.
West LegalEdcenter is collaborating with the Legal Talk Network to offer some of its podcasts for CLE credit, for purchase as on-demand programs on westlegaledcenter.com.
Legal Talk Network’s fifteen legal programs – including its flagship podcast Lawyer2Lawyer with Robert J. Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams – focus on hot topics in the legal industry. Hosts and expert guests discuss issues ranging from U.S. Supreme Court rulings to legal ethics, intellectual property law, entertainment law, labor law and consumer protection law. The programs are produced and published regularly on the network, in iTunes and via RSS for legal professionals globally.
On the new episode of Lawyer2Lawyer, Ambrogi and Williams talked with West LegalEdCenter’s Lee Ann Enquist about the changing landscape of legal education.
“I think many lawyers think of continuing legal education as something they have to do, not something that they always want to do,” Enquist said. “But over the course of the last couple of years what we’ve tried to do – and I think the industry is moving toward this – is to recognize that being educated in your topic is critical to not only gaining clients but keeping clients and providing the best service possible…. So where our content has evolved, we really see ourselves now as a hot topic content provider, where we’re providing cutting-edge programming.”
Listen to the interview with Enquist here, while the full podcast episode is available here.
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The law, and dispute resolution, has changed quite a bit globally over the last decade. We wanted to get some thoughts on this topic from Dr. Paul Vout, who practices equity and commercial law in Australia. He’s also a contributor to the ALR International series recently published by West and a member of the editorial advisory board for the series.
Vout said one of the biggest changes has been the capacity for disputes to arise quickly across a wide range of jurisdictions. (more…)
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Editor’s note: Phyllis Weiss Haserot is the author of The Rainmaking Machine and The Marketer’s Handbook of Tips and Checklists, published by West. She often writes about generational trends affecting professional and personal interactions.
The technology use gap among the generations is closing rapidly. There may be no better example that hits home than Michael Winerup’s Generation B (for Boomer) column in the New York Times (January 17, 2010), “On Vacation and Looking for Wi-Fi.”
We all are touched; most of us are trapped by the psychological effect of being accessible 24/7 and the desire to keep on top of the deluge of messages and data coming in unstoppable torrents. (more…)
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A new FindLaw.com survey wanted to find out how younger people in the United States are being treated by financial institutions when it come to applying for loans, credit cards or a mortgage.
The results show they’re more than twice as likely to be turned down.
About one in five (22%) people between the ages of 18 and 34 said they were refused a mortgage, loan or credit card within the last year. That’s more than twice the percentage of any other age group.
They’re four times more likely to say they’ve been turned down than people age 55 and up.
Credit card denials top the list (15%).
Anyone applying to borrow money must meet strict standards set by the financial institution they approach. Younger people, according to Stephanie Rahlfs, an attorney and editor with FindLaw.com, often have had less time and opportunity to establish a credit history.
Rahlfs suggests you should be diligent about monitoring your credit score, correcting any errors in your credit report and building a good history of managing credit and loans.
The FindLaw.com survey was conducted using a demographically balanced telephone survey of 1,000 American adults and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percent.
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Law students sometimes struggle to build the kinds of relationships that can lead to a better educational experience on campus and getting out to a successful start in the working world.
In an article in The National Law Journal, West author Ari Kaplan (The Opportunity Maker) offers some helpful advice for networking. In “Law Students Can Benefit From Networking Follow-Up,” Kaplan writes that it begins with finding the right mentor in the right way:
The key is to avoid setting the foundation of the relationship on the need for employment or business. It is better to seek guidance and insight instead rather than naked business assistance. Individuals who find meaningful opportunities to interact with a mentor are more likely to create a sincere relationship.
Kaplan says law schools and law firms that create better opportunities for mentoring relationships will produce graduates and legal professionals who are more able to answer the challenges of a modern career in the law.
It starts with knowing how to follow-up:
The best results will come only if individuals stay connected and follow up, both with mentors and with others in their broader network. That said, 43 percent of the students polled did absolutely no follow-up whatsoever with people they have met. Law schools easily could provide better guidance in this regard.
Read the entire article in The National Law Journal, and the Lawjobs.com Career Center, for more of Kaplan’s advice.
Editor’s note: Ari Kaplan, of Ari Kaplan Advisors, currently hosts the 30-Minute Thursdays webinar series. the next program is Thursday, March 4, 2010, at 1 p.m. Eastern called “Writing an Article and Expanding Your Network in One Hour.”
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On December 16, 2009, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to the custody rule under the Investment Advisers Act of 1040.
Designed in large part to address regulatory issues exposed during the Bernard Madoff scandal, the new custody requirements will significantly impact many registered advisers.
Chief compliance officers will be challenged to assess how their firms’ activities and arrangements will be governed by the new requirements or, alternatively, whether to change the way the adviser does business.
Join the National Society of Compliance Professionals (NSCP) this Thursday, Feb. 25, for ”Challenges for Chief Compliance Officers Under Amended Advisers Act Custody Rule” – its first live programming on the Web as part of a new arrangement with West LegalEdcenter.
The program will be offered live, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern.
Legal professionals in banking, finance, corporate and securities law also will benefit from the program which will cover the following topics, and more:
-The new concept of “custody”
-The policies and procedures a CCO should consider to assure compliance with the new requirements
-How advisers who are part of a large financial complex inadvertently can be deemed to have custody
The program provides 1.5 continuing legal education credits. It is free for NSCP members and $165 for non-members.
For more information, and to register, visit WestLegalEdcenter.
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Our colleagues at Westlaw Business recently put together a roundtable discussion of some of the leading legal experts in Islamic finance to discuss its key trends and challenges. The result, is a post titled “Westlaw Business Talks: Islamic Finance Legal Leaders Turn to Dubai World” on Westlaw Business Currents.
The panel included a regulator, two Shariah scholars and four Islamic finance attorneys. A Reuters journalist, Shaheen Pasha, and Jack Bunker of Westlaw Business, moderated the discussion.
As Bunker writes in his recap, the discussion’s starting point was the Dubai World restructuring and its implications. The roundtable also searched for some of the lessons learned from the Dubai World and other high-profile defaults.
Muddassir Siddiqui, who heads the Islamic Finance Middle East practice for the law firm of Denton, Wilde & Sapte, said there’s a “mismatch” of factors in the situation:
…People who bought these sukuk, they were really not, most of them, interested in the asset.” Some of them did not even know “what the assets are, and in the Nakheel case, they were an asset in the form of a lease, which was the asset which was subleased from one entity to another, but not the land on the ground.”
While Michael J.T. McMillen of Fulbright & Jaworski said the lessons of the situation are being taken to heart:
The Dubai World/Nakheel publicity “is demystifying” Islamic finance instruments. “It’s getting people to look at the essence of that instrument. So in a way, I think this was good – we knew it was going to happen at some point.” In “any market you’re going to have bankruptcies; you’re going to have problems, and it was just a matter of time.”
You can read the full post on Westlaw Business Currents.
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As WestlawNext is rolled out across the United States to legal professionals, many are asking when it will be available in law schools.
Here’s a note that West just sent out to academic law librarians:
This month marks the official launch of WestlawNext. This new version of Westlaw has been in the making for several years, and was developed in large part through research and collaboration with our customers. Many academic law librarians provided feedback as part of the development process, and their input was instrumental in shaping our product and launch strategies.
Our plan is to offer law schools a phased rollout of trial passwords, beginning with librarians and faculty this spring. In addition to preview events in a variety of cities throughout the United States, we also will offer customized in-school or online presentations for librarians and faculty. In the coming weeks and months, your Academic Account Manager will schedule these events and distribute trial passwords. We’re now finalizing plans for launching WestlawNext to law students, with possible introduction as early as the Fall 2010 semester.
WestlawNext for law school subscribers will be included as part of your current Westlaw subscription agreement. There will not be an incremental charge to access WestlawNext.
We are pleased to work with law school librarians and faculty to evaluate WestlawNext, and we look forward to your feedback. We’ll be in touch soon; until then, please contact your Westlaw representative with any questions you may have.
For more information about WestlawNext, including webinars and live preview events, visit www.westlawnext.com.
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We had a busy week here on Legal Current out at LegalTech New York. But so did many journalists, bloggers and analysts who covered the show for their respective Web sites and publications.
So, it makes sense to use this weekly look at law-related blog and news links to focus on some of the content created at and about LegalTech:
Bob Ambrogi – LawSites
Monica Bay – Law Technology News
John Bringardner – Law.com
Christy Burke – Legal IT
Adrian Dayton – Marketing Strategy and the Law
Sean Doherty – Law.com
Rick Georges – Futurelawyer
Ari Kaplan – Law.com’s Legal Technology Blog
The Orange Rag’s LegalQB blog via Inside Legal
The Posse List
Donna Seyle – Freelance Law Firm
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Thomson Reuters, Legal, President & CEO Peter Warwick offered his perspective on the company’s approach to the current economic reality in a panel discussion, “Adapting and Thriving in a Challenging Economy”, at the Minnesota Venture & Finance Conference.
The launch of WestlawNext brings a significant advancement in the way professional legal research is done.
Andrew F. Popper, a professor at American University, Washington College of Law, talks about his award-winning novel “Rediscovering Lone Pine.”
