Cheap armchair Armchair the armchair survivalist .
Cherry armoire Armoire baby armoires .
Best awning Awning rv awning repair .
Outdoor barstools Barstool commercial barstool .
High bed frame Bed Frame bed frame loft .
Oak bedroom set Bedroom Set cherry bedroom sets .
Mahogany bookcase Bookcase metal bookcases .
Majestic buffet Buffet no.1 buffet .
Outdoor canopy Canopy easy up canopy .
Inexpensive chaise lounge Chaise Lounge chaise lounge slipcovers .
Coffee veseat sets .
Sectional sofa couch in sectional couches sectional couch on sale .
Sectional sofa sleeper with a sectional sleeper sleeper

SCOTUS: Skilling and Honest Services

June 24, 2010 | Filed Under Criminal Liability 

Apparently a white collar conviction requires a crime to have been committed.

The US Supreme Court ruled today (PDF) in the case of former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling. It found that the government’s use of a deprivation of “honest services” statute given Skilling’s conduct did not constitute a crime under federal law. This has been an area where the government has sought to expand the area of corporate conduct that could be prosecuted criminally.

The court held that under Title 18 of the US Code:

Section 1346, which proscribes fraudulent deprivations of “the intangible right of honest services,” is properly confined to cover only bribery and kickback schemes. Because Skilling’s alleged misconduct entailed no bribe or kickback, it does not fall within the Court’s confinement of §1346’s proscription.

The court ruled on this point unanimously, but left it up to the lower court to determine whether the conviction should be overturned based upon other elements of the case. The Washington Post has a good summary here.

I recall years ago getting an annual form letter from Mr. Skilling’s former boss, Kenneth Lay. Mr. Lay informed all counterparties that Enron was committed to ethical business conduct, and that any concerns should be reported to their compliance department. At the time I believe there were a few hundred staff members working on compliance.

Enron had very good compliance training videos, too.

Enron

Law School Grades: From Inflation to Addition

June 22, 2010 | Filed Under Legal Employment, Law School 

A tough legal job market apparently calls for desperate measures.

The New York Times reports that Loyola Law School in Los Angeles is taking direct action to make its graduates appear more marketable. This is the “other” Loyola.

The school is retroactively inflating its grades, tacking on 0.333 to every grade recorded in the last few years. The goal is to make its students look more attractive in a competitive job market.

The article actually continues with a good recitation of the various grade philosophies and alternatives used by many law schools.

But to call the current legal job market “competitive” certainly misses the mark. When strong graduates from highly-ranked schools find nothing available, it’s more like a job desert.

Good luck to all law school graduates this year, including those at the western Loyola. They started law school under a different set of assumptions about a lot of things. And now many have at least 100,000 reasons to wonder whether they made the right career decision.

point-333.gif

AmLaw 200 — Revenge of the Third Coast

June 1, 2010 | Filed Under Cost Control, Law Firm Trends 

The American Lawyer has posted the results of the second 100 that forms the Am Law 200 here.

While this tranche of law firms followed the Am Law 100 in experiencing declining revenues and profits, there were some bright spots. One geographic area showing strength was the Midwest, even firms based in Detroit. Here’s an example from the article:

The GM bankruptcy also generated work for Detroit’s Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, where profits per partner rose 5.9 percent and revenue per lawyer increased 1.5 percent. Among other matters, Honigman represented the Tempo Group, a consortium of Chinese companies, in a $100 million acquisition of portions of Delphi Corporation’s brake and suspension division. Honigman chairman David Foltyn says that the firm’s fee structure helped it land the work. “We were competing with global law firms [to represent Tempo],” he says. “The transaction cost of using us is a percentage of what it is for law firms in money centers, and clients appreciate that value more than they have in the past.”

Law firms nationally who want to succeed will be opportunistic for episodic work (like auto industry reorganization or financial re-regulation) and compete for transactional work when it ramps up again (likely slowly). The article also notes that clients are becoming more demanding regarding litigation costs. This will continue as clients have more data on what things cost and therefore act with newfound confidence in unbundling components of the process.

So, two cheers for my home state of Michigan and those market-responsive law firms operating here. Hopefully they can continue to use their experience in dealing with clients facing serious challenges and capture work that would historically be sent to the Left or Right Coasts.

smitten.jpg