Posts on ‘June 11th, 2009’

It is difficult to overvalue the benefits of a long-term productive partnership between a company and its outside employment counsel. Substantive knowledge and good service are givens. But what else should you expect — and what intangibles shouldn’t be overlooked? While opinions will differ, employment attorney Lynne C. Hermle outlines some distinguishing characteristics of effective employment counsel, like great people skills, specialized expertise — and a willingness to own up to ignorance.

Today’s law students are more proficient in technology and organic self-marketing than most law firms realize. In a down market when everyone must increase their business development, consultant Ari Kaplan advises you harness that talent to increase your firm’s Web 2.0 presence.

This week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Caperton v. Massey Coal Company has already been given a range of interpretations by commentators. By a 5-4 vote, the Court said the constitutional right to due process can sometimes require an elected judge to recuse in a case involving a campaign benefactor. To sort out the meaning and implications of the Caperton ruling, The National Law Journal’s Tony Mauro spoke with former Texas Chief Justice Thomas Phillips, now a partner at Baker Botts.

For the second time in a week, investors who fell prey to Bernard L. Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme are claiming they have been victimized not once, but twice: this time by the trustee charged with overseeing the liquidation of Madoff’s investment securities firm. In a suit filed Wednesday in New York bankruptcy court, three Pennsylvania residents accused trustee Irving H. Picard of favoring the brokerage industry and enriching Wall Street at the expense of innocent investors.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the Chrysler sale on Tuesday night, the justices’ traditionally quiet summer may be interrupted when the same opponents to that sale raise similar challenges to the pending General Motors bankruptcy. “We would not rule out going to the Supreme Court again,” said Barry Bressler, counsel to the Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of Chrysler and the Committee of Consumer Victims of General Motors. And the Chrysler case is not completely finished at the high court.

Traditional tools for finding a new job are not likely to work for the growing multitude of lawyers who have been laid off, according to a panel of recruiters and consultants who spoke in Atlanta last week. Resumes and recruiters are not going to be nearly as helpful as relationships and self-reliance, they said. And while it’s important to talk with a recruiter and rewrite a resume, the key is working full time at looking for a job.