http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/index.jsp Receive critical information - from practice management to product information -- for running a successful small firm. en-us 11/21/2009 Copyright 2009. Incisive Media US Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.law.com/service/terms_conditions.shtml http://www.law.com/img/newswire/sfb_rss.gif http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/index.jsp The economy isn't giving us a lot to cheer about this holiday season ... and it could get worse. This year, it appears more companies are saying no to an annual tradition: the office holiday party. But attorney Kelly Phillips Erb notes that not only are holiday office parties a good way to say thank you to employees -- they may also bring tax benefits to the firm as well as employees. Phillips Erb discusses some of the things to keep in mind if law firms want to take advantage of those benefits. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435670766&rss=SFB Little did Robert J. Peragine know that his commute to law school would lead to a case that could soon become a $8.7 million class action. During his ferry rides to Connecticut, other passengers saw him studying his law books and alerted him to a gripe they had over surcharges that didn't seem to benefit passengers. After a district court ruled that the surcharges were unconstitutional, and awarded damages to an individual passenger, Peragine knew there was a potential class involving all the other passengers. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435678491&rss=SFB It seems large plaintiffs firms aren't done recruiting patent lawyers to their ranks. New York's Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann announced recently that former WolfBlock and Cozen O'Connor IP partner Joshua Raskin is joining the firm. Raskin's move follows similar lateral hires in recent years. Raskin found that at Cozen, a viable patent litigation practice was difficult to build given the constant pressure of the billable hour. "None of this is a knock on my former firms," Raskin says of his move. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435677107&rss=SFB During the third quarter of this year, gross revenue among law firms industrywide fell by 6.9 percent and net income by 6.1 percent, according to a new survey by Wells Fargo Corp.'s Wachovia Legal Specialty Group. "What that tells you is there is going to be a lot more riding on the fourth quarter," said Jeff Grossman, national managing director at Wachovia. The survey was of 131 firms nationally, 50 percent coming from the Am Law 100 and with at least 10 in each region of the country. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435687415&rss=SFB Cassidy & Associates vice chairman Gregg Hartley didn't like a critical New York Times story on one of the firm's biggest clients, Equatorial Guinea. So he's hitting back against the reporter using an unusual vehicle: his personal Twitter feed. The reporter's father, a federal judge, presided over a high-profile case involving Equatorial Guinea. Hartley acknowledged that he hadn't verified the connection before tweeting. "Here's one thing about social media. You don't have to always be right," he said. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435670880&rss=SFB A federal jury on Wednesday acquitted a Georgia criminal defense lawyer on all counts of a money laundering and drug conspiracy indictment that had also charged him with the attempted bribery of an Assistant U.S. Attorney. After eight days of testimony and 12 hours of deliberation, the jury found J. Mark Shelnutt not guilty, discrediting a two-year government investigation of Shelnutt. The case had centered on Shelnutt's acceptance of cash legal fees that were generated by illegal drug trade. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435615015&rss=SFB Smaller and midsize law firms have been able to reduce expenses -- but revenues have declined faster than their ability to trim costs. That's according to the recently released Survey of Law Firm Economics, conducted by ALM Legal Intelligence. The survey shows that firms reduced expenses by 1.8 percent last year, but revenue slid by 4 percent. But on the positive side, the firms surveyed, depending on size, are able to collect their fees 96 percent to 98 percent of the time despite the downturn. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435562648&rss=SFB A Connecticut-licensed attorney ensnared by a nationwide ethics complaint moved to dismiss his case last week after a six-and-a-half hour hearing before a state ethics commission. The decision on the motion could impact more than 550 lawyers in 47 states who have done or are doing business with Total Attorneys, which helps connect consumers to lawyers through Web sites. Attorney Zenas Zelotes filed grievances against all of those lawyers, arguing that Total Attorneys' method has lawyers paying for referrals. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435566896&rss=SFB A panel of attorneys at the ABA's Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference in Philadelphia did not tiptoe around their overall message: Small and midsize law firms in 2009 need to market themselves on the Internet -- and the ones that don't are behind and risk losing credibility. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435573221&rss=SFB Trauner, Cohen & Thomas, a Georgia collections firm that operated for more than 30 years, has dissolved amid litigation from former clients claiming that the firm failed to file suits on their behalf and used funds for those suits to pay its own expenses. A lawyer for the firm says its current operations are "limited to winding up its affairs." http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435531892&rss=SFB The State Bar of Texas last week concluded a series of seven public hearings focusing on whether lawyers should have to disclose if they have professional-liability insurance. A majority of the 67 speakers who testified at the hearings were of a like mind: They oppose such a rule. According to the American Bar Association, Oregon is the only state where professional-liability insurance is mandatory for lawyers, and there are 25 other states with rules requiring lawyers to disclose whether or not they have such coverage. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435484624&rss=SFB