We all have a budget, right? Something that helps you plan for the expected and the unexpected.
Law libraries are certainly no different. They’re the lifeblood of law firms, law schools, government agencies and corporate law departments. And the weakened global economy’s impact on the practice, business and study of the law has led to difficult budget decisions over library resources. (more…)
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
The private fund industry is under more scrutiny as legislators and regulators worldwide are paying very close attention to what private funds do, or do not do.
“There is a lot of interest in the myriad of regulatory concerns that face a private fund,” said Yukako Kawata, attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. “Investment management attorneys and compliance professionals constantly field questions regarding the requirements of various statutes and rules applicable to them.”
“A lot of people coming into the hedge fund space or private fund space more generally have not been in the position of running a fund before,” said Leor Landa, also an attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell. “They do not have the background to understand why structures are set up in certain ways and what tax and regulatory issues are driving the structures. It is increasingly important for fund managers to be cognizant of these issues.”
Kawata and Landa, as well as Nora Jordan from Davis Polk & Wardwell, are the authors of Advising Private Funds: A Comprehensive Guide to Representing Hedge Funds, Private Equity Funds and their Advisers, just published by West.
Landa says it’s especially important now for people working with private funds to be aware of potential changes. “The world for fund managers is an uncertain place, there is a lot of regulatory pressure and a lot of regulatory oversight now and I think knowing where the regulatory pitfalls are, knowing where the tax and structuring pitfalls are, that can help a manager run a fund effectively and can help an attorney advising a fund manager,” Landa said.
For more on the private fund industry you can listen to a Westcast podcast with Kawata and Landa:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
On this Earth Day 2010, it’s fitting to take a look at the business and legal impact of some innovations in green technology. We do that via a post on Westlaw Business Currents titled “Green Tech Comes to MENA: Can 007 Be Far Behind?”
MENA, the Middle East and North Africa, has produced some remarkable renewable energy initiatives.
Jack Bunker, in Dubai, makes the point that the term ”green technology” is ”one of the great double entendres of the era. Not only does renewable energy reduce carbon emissions and the environmental impact of human habitation, it also fuels (no pun intended) research and development—a highly lucrative business in its own right… …Less obvious, however, is the impact Green tech will have on the world’s great steakhouses and high-end watchmakers, as bankers, lawyers and consultants stand to reap billions in fees for structuring deals and securing capital and managing projects.”
Bunker outlines several technological and energy developments in MENA. For example, he writes about networks of solar power plants, wind farms and carbon-free cities, and the business implications.
You can read the full post about green technology efforts in MENA on Westlaw Business Currents.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
The emergence of the Motorola Droid a few months ago meant one thing for the people at Thomson Reuters, Legal, who develop applications for smartphones:
It was time to get to work.
The first Thomson Reuters, Legal app for the Droid that came out of that work is now available.
It’s a version of the West app featuring the complete and organized text of the United States Constitution. (We first wrote about the Constitution app for the iPhone and iPod Touch in September 2009).
I talked about the development process and the reason the Constitution was selected to be the first app for the Droid with Justin Hummel, a director in New Product Development for the Thomson Reuters’ Legal Education Group.
“The Constitution app really represented another opportunity to reach our existing and new customers,” said Hummel. “We increasingly see our customers using new platforms. And it’s not just books or browser-based programs, they’re looking to get access to content and services wherever and whenever they are.”
Hummel also told me the idea to get the Constitution on the Droid came from developers outside of his group who saw what had been done for the iPhone and iPod Touch (including the Black’s Law Dictionary app) and wanted to create something for the Droid.
Hummel explains more about West’s view of the potential of the Droid, and mobile apps, in this audio clip:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
If you have a Droid phone, you can search for the U.S. Constitution app from West in the Android Market listings via your phone. It is available for $.99.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
Comments (4) |
Here’s a quick roundup of some interesting law-related blog and news links from the week of April 5, 2010:
“Justice Stevens to resign, Obama to reshape court” (Reuters.com) – Part of the coverage today from Reuters in Washington, D.C.
“A ban on referral fees may be too late for lawyers” – (Times Online) – Neil Rose writes about the regulation of referral fees in personal injury cases in the UK.
“Sudden IPO Surge Has Hungry Firms Scarfing Up Assignments” (The AmLaw Daily) – Brian Baxter examines why public offerings may be “poised for a rebound,” based on some recent IPO activity involving businesses in Japan and China, and elsewhere.
“Bank of Mom and Dad Shuts Amid White-Collar Struggle” (The Wall Street Journal) – Mary Pilon writes about the trend of American parents struggling to help their children pay for college. She also cites a FindLaw study about the difficulty many young adults are having when trying to borrow money.
“Different Strokes for Different Folks” (Practicing Law in the 21st Century) – Nicole Black, a West author (Criminal Law in New York), addresses some trends in the use of social media by lawyers.
“Children’s Book Version of the Peer Monitor Economic Index” (3 Geeks and a Law Blog) – Greg Lambert had some fun with the subject of one of our recent posts here on Legal Current about the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins Q4 2009 Peer Monitor Index (PMI).
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
On the LawVision blog from Hildebrandt Baker Robbins, Lisa Rohrer looked into the challenges for lawyers and law firms to emulate other successful businesses, and the notion of professionalism and what it means to those who practice law.
In her post, titled “Managing the paradox of professional distinctiveness,” Rohrer writes:
Lawyers and MBAs are grappling with what may be considered an evolving definition of a professional. I sometimes fear that lawyers hide behind professionalism to keep market forces at bay (by, for example, limiting who can profit from the practice of law). This type of protectionism makes innovation and process improvement more difficult, and yet those are some of the engines that have driven US companies to leap forward and provide radically new and wonderful solutions to their customers.
Lisa Rohrer is the director of research for Hildebrandt Baker Robbins.
Again, you can read her full post on the LawVision blog.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
Lawmakers in the United Kingdom are in the final stages of considering major reform to the country’s anti-bribery laws, which many legal analysts think will be more strict than the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the United States.
In a post titled “UK Hot Topic: Companies Hope Anti-Bribery Measures Pay Off” on Westlaw Business Currents, Christopher Elias says the Bribery Bill:
…promises to introduce a new legal framework that will allow prosecutors to respond more effectively to bribery in the UK and abroad. Changes in the law include a new corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery that is causing much board room reflection. Particularly so for international companies who fear that business customs and practices that are acceptable in other countries may breach Bribery Rules in the UK.
Elias writes that many companies are already taking the spirit of the bill seriously:
Rio Tinto, the international mining giant, who recently had four executives jailed in China under corruption charges, recently announced that “business integrity training is required for all managers, of which 6,279 completed training covering anti-bribery, anti-corruption and political involvement”. Although, in a recent press release Rio Tinto recognised that there are improvements to be made following the recent Chinese prosecutions. Rio Tinto stated “we have already implemented a number of improvements to our [anti-bribery and corruption] procedures, and we have now ordered a further far-reaching independent review of our processes and controls. We will introduce any necessary additional measures and safeguards the review recommends and will spare no effort in doing everything we can to prevent any similar activity”.
You can read the full post about the Bribery Bill in the UK on Westlaw Business Currents and also view some related resources.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
Computer forensics truly is “the land of you can’t make this stuff up,” as John Simek of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. said in the session at the 2010 ABA TECHSHOW titled “Tales From the Trenches of Computer Forensics and E-Discovery – and Lessons Learned.”
Simek was joined by Sharon Nelson, president of Sensei, and Laurie Weiss a partner in Fulbright & Jaworski LLP’s San Antonio, Tex. office.
Nelson and Simek ran through several interesting examples of how their investigations in the “trenches” have gone, and the type of evidence they are able to get out of computers and phones.
“There is a great value to this kind of evidence in court, it really is quite effective,” Nelson said.
I was most intrigued by Nelson and Simek’s thoughts on the increasing number of cases where they’re called in to examine cell phones as sources of evidence, as Nelson explained to me in this interview after the session:
Nelson added that the increase in the use of mobile phones in our daily lives means that when something happens, it’s now very likely that a mobile phone is nearby.
“When people are where something cool, or neat, or unusual is happening they snap photos,” said Nelson. “Everybody’s on the ground and they’re taking pictures or texting immediately what they’re seeing.”
It’s about getting at the data in the phone, when an investigator has to. Even though many phones by themselves don’t always carry the data investigators are after, they are tied to other electronic sources like email accounts and text message logs, for example, said Simek.
Weiss brought up several other trends in forensics, including the increasing use for civil litigation and the importance of preparedness in the discovery process and having a focused plan to extract data.
The session wrapped up with a few more examples from the work by Nelson and Simek including divorce cases, prompting Nelson to remark, “In our world everybody lies, cheats or steals.”
Life in the trenches, indeed.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
Frank Aquila and Melissa Sawyer, partners in the Sullivan & Cromwell LLP Mergers & Acquisitions Group, outline some of the trends they’re paying the most attention to in mergers and acquisitions in a post titled “Guest Analysis: M&A Trends for 2010 and Beyond” on Westlaw Business Currents.
As they highlight in their post, they believe M&A markets will see the emergence or continuation of five trends. Among them, they believe there will be “Fewer “Mega” Distressed Deals,” and write that:
We will continue to see divestitures of underperforming assets. However, the deals will be smaller and the timing of the sales, and the competitiveness and structure of the bidding processes, will be driven more by pricing considerations rather than an immediate need for capital.
The other four trends from Aquila and Sawyer are:
2. More Unsolicited Bids
3. More Non-U.S. M&A Activity
4. More Leveraged Deals
5. More Post-Closing Purchase Price Protections
You can read the detailed analysis of those five M&A trends by Aquila and Sawyer in their full post on Westlaw Business Currents.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
With an expected increase in demand in 2010 for expert witnesses in many areas of litigation, the search for credible and trained experts is critical to a case.
Today, Thomson Reuters announced it has acquired Round Table Group, a leading provider of expert witness consulting services to litigators.
Round Table Group provides expert witnesses on hundreds of subject matters, with a network of over 100,000 expert witnesses, including industry experts, corporate executives and academics, and a database of proprietary expert content reaching over 750,000 records. It serves Amlaw 200 and boutique law firms.
The acquisition also allows the expansion of Westlaw’s expert witness content, primarily expert resumes, articles, video content and trial documents, allowing litigators even greater access to case critical information in a fully linked and integrated environment.
The Round Table Group was founded in 1994 and employs approximately two dozen people in five locations: Chicago, Boston, Dallas, New York City and Washington, D.C.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
No Comments |
The U.S. Constitution is one of the most powerful and impactful documents in existence. It literally touches every American’s life, and has since its creation in 1787. Recently, I had the opportunity to view the document first-hand as part of a new exhibit, “We the People: The First Official Printing of the U.S. Constitution,” sponsored [...]
Earlier this week, we released our 2011 Annual Report in an interactive format available online at thomsonreuters.com. Along with information on the company’s financial performance as well as business unit overviews, this year’s annual report contains a variety of dynamic content including interviews with our new business leaders as well as stories of how we [...]
We’ve got a great episode for you this month, kicking off with our “Chaos in the Courts” segment that, believe it or not, is yet another story about the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas. Since our March podcast, another person has fallen victim to the establishment’s trademark bypass burger.
Then in our “On the Blawgs” [...]
