LAWYERSCHILE EL MUNDO INTERNACIONAL DEL ABOGADO

Rodrigo González Fernández y un grupo de egresados de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad la Republica en Chile ha decidido poner al alcance de todo el mundo de la profesion legal importantes materias en Ingles para ir practicando el trabajo en materia de Tratados internacionales y que nuestra profesión estará en primera linea. Invitamos a todos a opinar, debatir, participar activamente.Es el primer blog legal en inglés de latinoamerica.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Two Visions of the Future Law Firm

What will we see in the law firm of the future? It is a question Richard Susskind considered more than a decade ago in his book, "The Future of Law," and again in last year's book, "The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services." With the economy what it is, Susskind is far from alone in considering this question, as two recently published articles underscore.

In The Philadelphia Inquirer this week, Larry E. Ribstein tells business writer Chris Mondics that law firms have yet to figure out the model that will get them out of the economic mess in which they find themselves. Ribstein, a professor of business law at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of a blog that focuses on business law, Ideoblog, says that their response so far -- cutting costs and discounting rates -- is not a cure.

"My theory is that big law firms don't have a coherent business model," Ribstein says in the article. "From a client standpoint, why would you pay so much per hour for a lawyer who works for a big firm vs. [a lower rate] for a lawyer who works for a smaller firm? What value does the big firm add?"

Instead, firms need to take a far more creative approach. One he suggests: Law firms might raise capital from investors. That would provide firms with lower-cost financing and make them answerable to investors. But before that could happen, of course, there would have to be changes in the legal ethics rules that bar such arrangements.

In another recent article... [MORE]

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Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 13,

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Rodrigo González Fernández
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Fordham Bans Reed Smith Recruiters

In what reporter Gina Passarella in The Legal Intelligencer calls an example of the current economic climate's "uncharted waters" and "choppy tides," Fordham Law School yesterday took the highly unusual and perhaps even unprecedented step of banning the international law firm Reed Smith, the 16th-ranked firm on this year's Am Law 100, from interviewing on campus for five years.

The ban, first reported yesterday on the blog Above the Law, came after Reed Smith notified the school that it was canceling interviews in September for which students were already scheduled. That meant the unfortunate students who had signed up for those interviews had lost a potentially valuable interview slot.

Fordham Dean William Michael Treanor (pictured) called Reed Smith's action unprofessional and disappointing. In an e-mail sent to students and faculty (republished by Above the Law), he informed them of the news and of his decision to impose the ban... [MORE]

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Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on August 13

A Marketer's Guide to Alternative Billing Methods

Posted on August 11, 2009 by Larry Bodine

A Marketer's Guide to Alternative Billing Methods

Clients are inquiring about alternative fees, which leave most law firms flummoxed. Hourly billing is all that many law firms are familiar with. Now Susan Van Dyke, the president of the Vancouver Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, demystifies several alternative billing models:

Blended rates
Capped fees
Contingency fees
Fixed fees
Retainers
Success fee

"American lawyers and firms are now undeniably called upon to introduce more creative approaches to billing by in-house legal departments," she writes on the LawMarketing Portal. "A few firms have jumped aboard and, further yet, some will be paid bonuses on positive outcomes, rewarding the creative and efficient."

Alternative fees are the bugaboo of law firm economics. Research by ACC/Serengeti and by Incisive Legal Intelligence show that the billable hour is firmly entrenched – not just by law firms, but by corporate clients as well. The research shows that clients may rattle their sabers about alternative fees, but they ultimately are satisfied with a discount on hourly fees.

"After many years of mumbling by lawyers and clients alike, one must wonder: will we look beyond the billable hour in light of the current economic bellyaching and slashed budgets of virtually every U.S. corporate legal department and many Canadian clients?"

Get the whole story on the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com

Tags: Money

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Tauzin's Pharma Lobbying Efforts "Blessed" By White House

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First Posted: 08- 4-09 12:31 PM | Updated: 08- 4-09 12:47 PM

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In today's Los Angeles Times Tom Hamburger reports on the extent to which former Louisiana Congressman Billy Tauzin has managed to integrate himself, and the interests of the lobbying group he heads -- the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) -- into the health care debate. The Times piece practices a studied neutrality, but I can't see how any proponent of meaningful health care reform can possibly read this piece and not conclude that President Barack Obama has essentially given away the store:

As a candidate for president, Barack Obama lambasted drug companies and the influence they wielded in Washington. He even ran a television ad targeting the industry's chief lobbyist, former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, and the role Tauzin played in preventing Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.

Since the election, Tauzin has morphed into the president's partner. He has been invited to the White House half a dozen times in recent months. There, he says, he eventually secured an agreement that the administration wouldn't try to overturn the very Medicare drug policy that Obama had criticized on the campaign trail.

"The White House blessed it," Tauzin said.

Yikes! What's been blessed? Something that reeks with the acrid aroma of a Faustian bargain. The pharamaceutical industry "has pledged $80 billion in cost savings over 10 years to help pay for it." What did Tauzin get in return?

For his part, Tauzin said he had not only received the White House pledge to forswear Medicare drug price bargaining, but also a separate promise not to pursue another proposal Obama supported during the campaign: importing cheaper drugs from Canada or Europe. Both proposals could cost the industry billions, undermine its ability to develop new cures and, in the case of imports, possibly compromise safety, industry officials contend.

Of course, Medicare drug price bargaining is precisely the sort of thing that would benefit actual health care customers. In essence, this reads as a deal by which corporate interests help to hurdle the political obstacle of deficit cost control without creating an effective bill. The White House can claim credit for "reform," while alleviating the actual health care impact on families gets kicked down the road, once again.

PhRMA has spent huge sums of money lobbying Congress for a health care bill that will ensure their profitability. In the first quarter of this year, Tauzin's outfit spent $6,910,000 in pursuit of the bill they wanted. They matched that amount in the second quarter with another $6,150,000. The efforts seem to be paying off!

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