LIBOR TRANSITION AND LEGALTECH
“This is a challenging undertaking, particularly in relation to “tough legacy” transactions, with thousands of contracts requiring re-papering. This requires the review and redrafting of multiple documents, a process which is both time intensive and expensive.” December 31, 2021, was a historic date for global banking, for, on that date, the venerable London Interbank Offered […]
THE COLLAPSE OF FTX—AND THE ENSUING LEGAL FALLOUT
“Everyone’s learning crypto bankruptcy right now, and I think there’s a lot of work that will be there for how to deal with crypto bankruptcy.” Long after the dust has settled over the sudden collapse of FTX—which was, up until their November 2022 bankruptcy filing, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange—business schools will be studying just […]
RUNNING THE FULLY REMOTE LAW FIRM
”The legal profession is a profession of giving confidence to clients. Those things do well with physical meetings and physical contact. I feel that clients will still need hand-holding.” The COVID-19 pandemic created a paradigm shift in the way law office workers relate to their work. Although such devices as flextime and other alternative shift […]
THE ETHICS AND PRACTICALITIES OF CONTINGENCY FEES
‘Contingent fee contracts are the basic means by which much litigation in tort is conducted in this State. Such agreements are the poor man’s key to the courthouse door; they enable persons who cannot afford to retain an attorney on an hourly or fixed-rate basis to pursue their claims with competent counsel.’ Doesn’t every professional […]
CONTRACT ATTORNEYS—AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERMANENT HIRE
“We just hired people as temps, and then we would evaluate them over the first few months and convert the most successful of them to full time. It was a great way to scale in those very early days when we needed a lot of work done very quickly. It also got us to hire […]
ROBOT LAWYERS—TAKING A BYTE OUT OF BILLABLE HOURS
A young lawyer dies and goes to Heaven. He tells St. Peter: ‘There must be some mistake! I’m only 35!’ The angel looks at his records and responds: ‘according to your billed hours, you’re at least 85!’ It’s not clear what will happen to classic lawyer jokes if human lawyers really get replaced by robot […]
SEC PROBE DEMANDS PERSONAL MOBILE DEVICES
“As technology changes, it’s even more important that registrants ensure that their communications are appropriately recorded and are not conducted outside of official channels in order to avoid market oversight.” You probably thought your WhatsApp and other text messages were safe from the government’s prying eyes. If you work in the Wall Street financial sector, […]
SWISS VEREIN STRUCTURE AND CONFLICTS LIABILITY
“Firms worry a lot about their reputations for trustworthiness and integrity—and because of that, they worry about conflicts.” What did the world’s biggest law firm, with over 12,000 employees spread out over 200 offices in 80 countries, have to do to properly disclose a conflict of interest? Apparently, more than they did, according to an […]
THE RISE, AND RISE OF ATTORNEY SALARIES
“How much of a drag direct expenses will be — that’s really going to be a question of how long firms perpetuate this idea of constantly increasing salaries.” Did 2021 see the granting of a significant rise in attorney salaries? Well, no, it saw two or even three such raises! ‘Big Law’ firms who want […]
THE LITIGATION PROJECT MANAGEMENT ECOSYSTEM
“Many of the issues faced in legal operations are business issues more than legal issues. The concepts and the technology may be manageable, but some legal teams face difficulty with effecting change.” Managing complex litigation has been compared to taming not just one wild beast but several at one time. The snarls can come not […]
