ABA Section of Business Law

Snap judgments

Let’s hear it for the women

A woman’s place is in the high-tech industry — that’s according a recent Chicago Tribune article on the need for more women in computer-related careers.

Despite the fact that women outnumber men on college campuses 56 percent to 44 percent, the Tribune reports, only a quarter of the computer science bachelor’s degrees awarded this year will go to women.

The Tribune also reports that some in the biz think that from better software to more stable companies, the industry would be improved if more women were on board.

Julie Shimer, a vice president with 3Com Corp., said that upping the number of female engineers would have a big impact. "I think technology would be easier to understand and it would be more targeted at women and children," she said.

The reason women are opting out of high tech? The Tribune reports that an American Association of University Women study found that girls think computer jobs are "lonely" or "boring." We wonder then why so many women consider a career in law a palatable choice.

What’s the big deal? It’s only a name . . .

What’s in a name? An accounting firm by any other name may still smell as sweet, but according to the Los Angles Times, it probably won’t do as much business.

The Times article, which surely caused a tempest in the business world, said that a company’s name choice could make the difference between business as you like it or potential customers simply leering at an ad.

"The name is how potential clients and customers begin to recognize the product or service and your business," Debra Esparza, University of Southern California’s Business Expansion Network director, told the Times. Esparza advises entrepreneurs trying to decide what their name should be or should not be to consider several factors. Those factors include a business’ potential growth, state laws and what message that owners want customers to receive.

For those who think Esparza’s warnings are much ado about nothing, she cites the story of two women who started a business, Pickup Artists, collecting materials to be recycled. But when their business grew to include delivering recycled products, the name just didn’t fit.

We understand that the Montague-Capulet Conflict Resolution Center had a similar problem.

May the standardized force be with you

James Earl Jones’ words wouldn’t have the same impact in e-mail, so a theme-stealing ad campaign may be out of the question for a planned online registry of business-to-business merchants. But even without the voice of Darth Vader, the joint venture under way through I.B.M., Microsoft and Ariba should be a powerful force, the New York Times reports.

The goal of the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration project is to standardize listings of online business-to-business services and to automate commerce with them.

"We are intent on making the Web an easier way to handle business-to-business transactions," Marie Weik, IBM director of electronic markets infrastructure, told the Times.

The UDDI already has the support of 29 companies, including American Express and Sun Microsystems, and in coming years, will become the purview of one of the already-existing Internet-standards organizations.

Once it’s up and running, the directory may even make it easier for someone in a galaxy far, far away to order a gross of, say, light sabers.

A family affair

All those TV ads for stockbrokers and online trading must have it right: Everyone wants a piece of the stock market action, including some folks who are better known for bullying than bull markets.

According to a CNN Financial Network piece, mob families in New York have left numbers running and bootlegging behind to master the shady side of the stock market. (And let’s face it, when these brokers talk, people listen.)

In June, members of all five of the Big Apple’s Mafia families were among the 120 arrested in what CNN-FN called the United States’ biggest securities bust.

The suspects allegedly bought majority shares in companies, then bribed brokers to promote those companies.

But the families’ years of practice in getting the job done still had a place in their white-collar lifestyle. CNN-FN reported that the suspects allegedly used "tactics of violence including threats, extortion, physical intimidation and the solicitation of murder... ."

You wanna buy some more stock? Fuhgedabouddit!

What’s that tapping sound?

In an age of high-tech everything, the FBI is trying its darndest to keep up, leaving spy-movie wire taps behind and bursting into the information age with computer programs that essentially "tap" e-mail, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. The bug in this program, however, is that the laws governing this type of surveillance are unclear at best.

"This is an area in desperate need of clarification," Robert Corn-Revere, a lawyer on a pending Internet tapping suit, told the Journal. Currently, the FBI uses its Carnivore system to plug into an Internet service providers’ system and scan e-mail messages and other information to compile evidence on a suspect, the Journal reports.

While Carnivore can be used only under an order from a state or federal court, its use has raised serious privacy concerns. Since it is plugged into the ISP system overall, Carnivore technically could access or keep tabs on any and all users of a particular system, not just the person in question.

"It’s the electronic equivalent of listening to everybody’s phone calls to see if it’s the phone call you should be monitoring," Mark Rasch, a former federal computer-crimes prosecutor, told the Wall Street Journal.

For safety’s sake, we would advise Rasch not to share his opinions by e-mail.

Put your money where your mouse is

For anyone still trying to figure out the difference between hard and soft campaign money, hold onto your checkbook: A group of dot-com execs is bringing campaign financing into the new economy.

The New York Times reports that Internet start-up wunderkind John Witchel and his pals have formed PAC.com — a political action committee that will help techies put their money where their mouse is and contribute to political campaigns.

In addition to cold, hard campaign cash, this PAC for the new millennium will fuel democracy with stock options for candidates, the Times reports.

"We can cash it out and give it to a politician," says PAC.com member Wade Randlett, "and say here’s five grand. Or we can say here’s $5,000 worth of shares; you hang on to it and see where it goes."

Had a candidate received $1,000 in Excite stock four years ago, that contribution would now be worth $15,992.

Traditionally, such campaign largesse has bought donors political access. What would be the appropriate level of entree for a stock-option donation? A virtual stay in the Lincoln Bedroom?

— Heather Brewer

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