New Jersey Law Journal
In-house counsel with limited licenses to practice in New Jersey will be able to represent officers, employees and directors under rule changes adopted Tuesday by the state Supreme Court. But the court deferred action on more sweeping proposals toward deregulating the practice of law by out-of-state attorneys. Retired Justice Stewart Pollock, chair of the rules committee, says that given the importance of the cross-border lawyering issues it's understandable the court wouldn't want to rush to a conclusion.
New York Law Journal
Companies in the United States often undertake extensive promotional activities to market and sell their products throughout the world. These efforts can include paying the expenses for customers to travel to company facilities. But there is the potential that the payments will run afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Attorneys Richard M. Strassberg and Kyle A. Wombolt discuss recent FCPA enforcement action involving promotional expenditures and outline some compliance best practices.
The Recorder
Changes proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board that would force public companies to disclose more about the risks of litigation have caused a howl of protest among general counsel and corporate and defense lawyers. In-house and big-firm lawyers say the changes would force companies to lay their litigation strategies out for opponents to see, potentially lead to a waiver of attorney-client privilege, and lead to more securities fraud cases if hard-to-predict litigation turns out differently.
Corporate Counsel
Corporate Counsel's 2008 GC Compensation Survey shows that top
legal officers at Fortune 500 companies raked it in. And that was
true even for those heading the law departments at financial
institutions that are reeling after the collapse of the subprime
mortgage market. Once again, general counsel can thank lucrative cash
bonuses that swell year after year. The average bonus jumped 17 percent,
to $1.1 million. That's double the average salary. But will the good
times last?
Legal Times
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two largest Fortune 500 companies in the Washington, D.C., metro area, have their choice of outside counsel. But the review of Treasury's sweeping plan to restore public confidence in the mortgage giants was dominated by some of the high-profile in-house lawyers that have been recruited in recent years from big private firms. Freddie Mac GC Robert Bostrom, for instance, was previously managing partner of Winston and Strawn's New York office.
Legal Week
Few corporate counsel have been in the job as long as Richard Wiseman, the straight-talking Royal Dutch Shell lawyer whose spent 33 years in-house with the energy giant. While Wiseman agrees that the billable hour is not an ideal formula, he argues that the development of viable alternatives needs to move beyond the talking shop if they are to become a practical alternative. He adds: "Alternative billing measurements are like teenage sex -- everyone talks about it, but no one knows what's really going on."
The National Law Journal
The U.S. Department of Labor has continued its crackdown on companies sponsoring foreign workers for permanent residence, recently announcing its third action in a little more than a month. The DOL has said it's auditing the applications by one law firm, supervising a part of the process by another law firm and has debarred for three years applications from a software company. The recent efforts could diminish the growth of U.S. companies, said Charles H. Kuck of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Special to Law.com
Stock incentive and bonus plans provide effective mechanisms for improving retention of key talent, and for protecting business interests. Unfortunately, however, international companies are discovering that these tried-and-tested mechanisms can unravel quickly when applied across borders. Attorney Christopher Walter discusses two recent cases that illustrate how U.S. incentive plans can collide with mandatory European Union legal protections, resulting in significant enforcement problems for employers.
Texas Lawyer
As chief counsel for the Democratic National Convention Committee, Susana Carbajal deals daily with a variety of legal issues in preparation for the convention set to begin Aug. 25 in Denver. "Every day is different," says Carbajal, a former bankruptcy and specialty litigation associate with Austin's Brown McCarroll. On the DNCC's staff since June 2007, Carbajal says she has worked on everything from drafting contracts to dealing with IP rights on the design and production of the convention's logo.
