ABA Section of Business Law
Business Law Today
Volume 7, Number 6 - July/August 1998
This is a mini-theme issue on the delivery of legal services.
Breaking up is hard to do
What are your rights when business partners decide to split?
By NEAL A. JACOBS
What happens when a business breaks up? After all, success can bring old resentments to the fore, stirring open warfare. The author discusses the ins and outs of a divorce between business partners.
Playing by the rules
10 tips about immigration for business counsel
By ROBERT DIVINE
With a no-nonsense approach, the author presents a top-10 list for business lawyers whose companies have to deal with immigration issues for their employees. He discusses such issues as establishing lines of responsibility, considering tax and benefit consequences, and filling out the ubiquitous I-9 forms.
Law firms and legal departments: Can't we all get along?
From the outside, looking in
By JOEL F. HENNING
Henning: Don't blame your clients — lawyers are responsible for their own unhappiness. The legal profession has finally seen the collapse of the medieval guild as the client begins to tell the outside counsel what to do. Are outside lawyers just junkyard dogs?
From the inside, looking out
By ARTHUR CHAYKIN
Chaykin: So many law firms are making money with the old model — why change? The goal always should be the good of the client. Outside counsel should understand your client companies, including their in-house resources.
Rein in that technology
Getting a handle on the hardware to deliver the goods
By NORMAN K. CLARK
How can law firms spot potential problems long before they become crises? Change can be managed so that you can build employee and client acceptance of change. You should link technology to specific, quantifiable improvements in a process. The author leads law firms and legal departments through the management of technological change where the biggest problem is often a failure to see consequences.
A plea for understanding
Whether you're in-house or outside, the client wants you to know their business
By SUSAN SNEIDER
You're an in-house counsel: Do you understand what your company does? Or you're an outside counsel: Do you understand what your client company does? Do you really care? You should. It could mean the difference whether you're retained or shown the door. Clients want their lawyers to understand their businesses. So visit that client. Show you care. Then maybe they'll care about you.
Straight are the gates
How to structure an independent compensation committee
By DENNIS B. DRAPKIN and LOUIS RORIMER
So many golden parachutes, so little time to monitor them. Shareholders are demanding independent compensation committees. The challenge for companies is finding independents to serve as directors who will qualify under all of the regulatory standards outlined in this article. The main problem is director independence.
Trapped on the Web
Your office and Web site are in Honolulu, but they're hauling you into court in Fairbanks
By MARK A. WILLARD
This is all about personal jurisdiction in cyberspace. Your client company can be sued in any number of distant forums — so you have to minimize that risk. The author discusses states' long-arm statutes and whether your client's Web site is interactive or passive. Web site owners can do a number of things to reduce the possibility that they will be subjected to jurisdiction in a distant form. The article includes an easy-to-use list of what things to kind in mind.
Banks enter a new age
Do their products come under the Commodity Exchange Act?
By STEPHEN F. SELIG
As banks get involved in more and more activities and handle different kinds of products, they may find themselves subject to the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That can happen in their contract of sale of a commodity for future delivery — the basis of CFTC jurisdiction. The author discusses commodity options, swaps, commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisers.
Don't get too comfy with that home page
Securities-law implications when a bit of prevention is worth a gigabyte of cure
By MARK A. METZ
The author advises readers "not to become roadkill on the information superhighway." He discusses several securities-law issues that can arise when setting up and maintaining a company's home page on the Web. He mixes clear advice with a cogent discussion of the securities-law implications. A helpful sidebar on home page guidelines is included.
This is a mini-theme issue on the delivery of legal services.
Breaking up is hard to doWhat are your rights when business partners decide to split?
By NEAL A. JACOBS
What happens when a business breaks up? After all, success can bring old resentments to the fore, stirring open warfare. The author discusses the ins and outs of a divorce between business partners.
Playing by the rules
10 tips about immigration for business counsel
By ROBERT DIVINE
With a no-nonsense approach, the author presents a top-10 list for business lawyers whose companies have to deal with immigration issues for their employees. He discusses such issues as establishing lines of responsibility, considering tax and benefit consequences, and filling out the ubiquitous I-9 forms.
Law firms and legal departments: Can't we all get along?
From the outside, looking in
By JOEL F. HENNING
Henning: Don't blame your clients — lawyers are responsible for their own unhappiness. The legal profession has finally seen the collapse of the medieval guild as the client begins to tell the outside counsel what to do. Are outside lawyers just junkyard dogs?
From the inside, looking out
By ARTHUR CHAYKIN
Chaykin: So many law firms are making money with the old model — why change? The goal always should be the good of the client. Outside counsel should understand your client companies, including their in-house resources.
Rein in that technology
Getting a handle on the hardware to deliver the goods
By NORMAN K. CLARK
How can law firms spot potential problems long before they become crises? Change can be managed so that you can build employee and client acceptance of change. You should link technology to specific, quantifiable improvements in a process. The author leads law firms and legal departments through the management of technological change where the biggest problem is often a failure to see consequences.
A plea for understanding
Whether you're in-house or outside, the client wants you to know their business
By SUSAN SNEIDER
You're an in-house counsel: Do you understand what your company does? Or you're an outside counsel: Do you understand what your client company does? Do you really care? You should. It could mean the difference whether you're retained or shown the door. Clients want their lawyers to understand their businesses. So visit that client. Show you care. Then maybe they'll care about you.
Straight are the gates
How to structure an independent compensation committee
By DENNIS B. DRAPKIN and LOUIS RORIMER
So many golden parachutes, so little time to monitor them. Shareholders are demanding independent compensation committees. The challenge for companies is finding independents to serve as directors who will qualify under all of the regulatory standards outlined in this article. The main problem is director independence.
Trapped on the Web
Your office and Web site are in Honolulu, but they're hauling you into court in Fairbanks
By MARK A. WILLARD
This is all about personal jurisdiction in cyberspace. Your client company can be sued in any number of distant forums — so you have to minimize that risk. The author discusses states' long-arm statutes and whether your client's Web site is interactive or passive. Web site owners can do a number of things to reduce the possibility that they will be subjected to jurisdiction in a distant form. The article includes an easy-to-use list of what things to kind in mind.
Banks enter a new age
Do their products come under the Commodity Exchange Act?
By STEPHEN F. SELIG
As banks get involved in more and more activities and handle different kinds of products, they may find themselves subject to the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That can happen in their contract of sale of a commodity for future delivery — the basis of CFTC jurisdiction. The author discusses commodity options, swaps, commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisers.
Don't get too comfy with that home page
Securities-law implications when a bit of prevention is worth a gigabyte of cure
By MARK A. METZ
The author advises readers "not to become roadkill on the information superhighway." He discusses several securities-law issues that can arise when setting up and maintaining a company's home page on the Web. He mixes clear advice with a cogent discussion of the securities-law implications. A helpful sidebar on home page guidelines is included.
