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Legal Literacy

From Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, Associate General Counsel and national counsel for trademark enforcement at Lorillard Tobacco Company.

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Last Entry: November 20, 2009 at 21:49:26

Avoiding international legal headaches: 4 tips and an opportunity

Posted on November 20, 2009
If your business is engaged in international transactions you may be interested to know that law enforcement officials are increasingly collaborating across borders on investigations of a host of illegal activities ranging from the antitrust violations, to tax evasion, to bribery of foreign officials, financial fraud, and more...

Framed? Multiple perspectives.

Posted on November 12, 2009
Last week I wrote an article for my AllBusiness.com Business Law blog titled “How you frame the legal issue matters.” Yesterday, I read how Joe Halderman, the TV producer who allegedly tried to extort money from David Letterman is now claiming the alleged shake down was really offering Letterman the right of first refusal to [...

FCPA enforcement: 3 traps and 4 antidotes

Posted on November 08, 2009
If you conduct business internationally you may be interested in reading the new FCPA Digest: Recent Trends and Patterns in the Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act issued by the firm of Shearman & Sterling. What’s interesting is that enforcement agencies around the world are cooperating more and sharing intelligence among each other...

Worried about losing your job?

Posted on October 26, 2009
If you’re concerned about what to do or say if you think you might be terminated from your job you’ll want to attend a complimentary teleseminar by on October 29, 2009 at 8 pm Eastern ( 5 pm Pacific) when I interview nationally syndicated legal correspondent and co-author of the new book “So Sue me, [...

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How mindfulness can help your business thrive

Posted on October 23, 2009
There was an interesting article in the New York Times recently titled “How Mindfulness Can Make for Better Doctors.” The piece describes how time pressures and multi-tasking is causing burnout. Burnout is problematical because it not only leads to dissatisfaction but also causes doctors to “depersonalize patients and treat them as objects rather than as individuals [...

Trademark literacy: no wine and cheese party

Posted on October 15, 2009
A trademark smackdown is reportedly brewing between World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and the Philadelphia Wine School over the word “smackdown.” Apparently the Wine School has been holding a competition for food and wine pairings since 2007 called “Sommelier Smackdown...

No Nonsense Lawyer interviews ?So Sue Me, Jackass!? author Amy Epstein Feldman

Posted on October 13, 2009
On October 29th at 8PM EST (5PM PST) I’m privileged to be interviewing Amy Epstein Feldman who is a nationally syndicated legal correspondent and the general counsel of the Judge Group, Inc. She is also the co-author of a new book, with the colorful title: So Sue Me Jackass! Oct 29th is the anniversary of the [...

5 free resources to help your business cope with flu season

Posted on October 09, 2009
The cold and flu season is upon us and this year it has more than a few employers nervous. That’s because the new wheezing and sneezing season promises to bring more than the sniffles. It could feature some seriously pigheaded symptoms thanks to the H1N1 virus, also known as the Swine flu...

The psychology versus the economics of decision making: protecting your business from yourself

Posted on October 03, 2009
Economics tells us we should engage in rational decision making. We shouldn’t take irrational risks. Okay, then tell me why do so many successful, high-profile, and otherwise smart individuals take what appears to irrational risks that can turn their world upside down? Enron financial engineers, the Wall Street wizards who helped implode the financial market and deepen [...

Five critical legal literacy steps

Posted on October 01, 2009
[Editor's note: Today's guest blogger article is a follow-up on last night's Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer interview with Kathy Lang. Special thanks goes to Ms Lang and the firm of Dickinson Wright.] The Anticipation of Litigation: Five Critical Steps to Manage Risks and Costs By Kathleen A...

Quote of the Day: when risk is a hot topic

Posted on September 29, 2009
For unsuccessful companies, risk is a hot topic in the depths of a recession. For great companies, it’s a hot topic at the height of a boom. Geoff Colvin, “Time to Plan For the Next Recession,” Washington Post, September 29, 2009 Managing business risk when times are good is smart advice...

Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer interviews Kathy Lang on September 30, 2009

Posted on September 28, 2009
Businesses today are getting sued more than ever before. A lawsuit can pop up almost any time and any place. A customer slips and falls at your store or office, an employee or customer complain, or competitor sends a demand letter. How do you protect yourself and your business? If you’re not sure and you want [...

Enron ? the musical

Posted on September 27, 2009
The Enron story has been turned into a musical according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal. It opened this month in London at the Royal Court theater to strong reviews and hopes to come to Broadway in the spring. Columbia Pictures acquired the film rights, so who knows, it might be opening to [...

New wage and hour math in NY

Posted on September 24, 2009
In the State of New York it will pay employers to be legally literate starting November 25, 2009. That’s when a new state law goes into effect that gets tougher on wage and hour violations. More specifically, the penalty for complaints about wage and hour violations will increase from $200 to $1,000 and for employers who [...

Are you a deer caught in headlights?

Posted on September 18, 2009
All too often managers and executives act like deer caught in headlights when faced with a potential lawsuit. It often ends the same way. Bam! Fall is coming and it’s almost deer hunting season. While litigation isn’t seasonal, the opportunity to hear super lawyer Kathy Lang tell you how to avoid being litigation road kill is...

Redskins? fumble court of public opinion (part 2 of 2)

Posted on September 16, 2009
The simple collection matter involving a 72 year Washington, D.C. grandmother who defaulted on her Washington Redskins? season ticket contract after the housing bubble burst turned into unwanted media attention. Yesterday we discussed the legal literacy lesson of never ignoring a lawsuit...

Redskins? fumble court of public opinion

Posted on September 15, 2009
It started out as a simple collection matter. A customer had committed to purchase something by way of contract. They failed to pay. The company contacted them several times. When the customer still didn’t pay they sued. The customer still didn’t respond and the court issued a default judgment...

Quote of the day: the role of culture

Posted on September 09, 2009
Safety advocates who favor outlawing multitasking behind the wheel say the new generation of back-seat hawks may be playing a crucial role in changing the culture - much as they did in helping enforce seat belt laws - in a way these advocates say laws alone may not be able to...

Labor Day Reflections

Posted on September 04, 2009
As we slide into the Labor Day weekend in the U.S., I want to share with you a newly released study that contains some disturbing conclusions about wage-law violations involving low-wage workers. The 72 page study is titled “Broken laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of employment and labor laws in America’s Cities” and surveyed over 4,000 workers in low-wage industries [...

Twin Sweet Spots

Posted on August 28, 2009
So much of what I come across is examples of businesses that miss the boat on legal literacy, who don’t leverage the law for competitive advantage, and who don’t sidestep legal problems while they are still small and inexpensive to manage...

The recession?s impact on lawsuits

Posted on August 18, 2009
Lawsuits typically increase during a recession, but according to a recent article that is not the case during this recession (except for bankruptcy and employment suits of course). What’s different this time around? According to the report, Elizabeth Scully, a partner at Baker Hostetler, says the high cost of electronic discovery has a lot to do with [...

?Twink? before you tweet

Posted on August 13, 2009
The need for legal literacy doesn’t end with new fangled technology platforms such as Twitter. Just because Twitter is fast and easy doesn’t mean that others won’t try to hold you accountable for what you say. Free speech doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want...

The ethics of foreclosures and late fees

Posted on July 31, 2009
“The rules by which servicers are reimbursed for expenses may provide a perverse incentive to foreclose rather than modify” Recent paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, quoted by The New York Times, July 30, 2009. I’ve written about the distinction between law and ethics before...

New legal weapon for protecting integrity of distribution channels

Posted on July 24, 2009
Managing product distribution channels is a critical part of business. Goods need to go the right place. For electrical appliances, voltage requirements and power cord prong configurations, for example, must match the end use market. A mismatch detracts from functionality...

Too good to miss

Posted on July 22, 2009
I just got off the phone with my friend Nicholas Chen. We were brainstorming about our interview Wednesday evening on Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer. (It’s at 8pm Eastern and 5pm Pacific.) Nic is as entertaining as he is informative and he will definitely have some very interesting stories to tell as well as tips about the [...

Sotomayor and business contracts

Posted on July 15, 2009
The significance of the rule of law in business was underscored during the current confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. In speaking about her experience as a lawyer in private practice, Sotomayor is reported saying, In business, the predictability of law may be the most necessary in the sense that people organize their business relationships [...

Quote of the Day: It?s your job to know

Posted on July 13, 2009
We thought he knew and he definitely should have known. He’s an investor. It’s his job to know. We thought the tape was damning. Jury foreman David Murphy discussing the conviction of Frederic Bourke Jr. (the co-founder of handbag maker Dooney & Bourke Inc...

Quote of the Day: We still admire dignity

Posted on July 08, 2009
Americans still admire dignity. But the word has become unmoored from any larger set of rules or ethical system. David Brooks, “In Search of Dignity,” New York Times, July 7, 2009 Brooks’ article speaks of dignity as a moral strength, a code of behavior that places the greater good above personal interests...

Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer about doing business in Greater China: an interview with Nicholas V. Chen on July 22

Posted on July 08, 2009
Doing business outside of your home country always presents a special challenge. Besides language and cultural barriers, you may also encounter unexpected legal hurdles. The rule of law may be less developed than you’re used to. Contracts may be viewed as more fluid and less enforceable than you’re used to, and concepts you may take [...

Patents and legal leverage

Posted on July 01, 2009
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about how Toyota is leveraging it’s investment in product development with patents. More specifically, Toyota has been diligently patenting the inventions resulting from the engineering developments associated with its best-selling hybrid Prius brand automobile...

Jersey Boys stole my heart

Posted on June 29, 2009
The past few years I’ve been to NYC I’ve been unable to get tickets to the Broadway show Jersey Boys, the story about the rise to success of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. When the Broadway South series recently brought the show to Raleigh, NC my husband surprised me with tickets for my birthday...

Smart cost saving move

Posted on June 23, 2009
A tip of the hat goes to the law firm of Howrey LLP who announced a new apprenticeship type program for new associates. More specifically, program aims to train the novice lawyers on the firms’ dime, not the clients’. That’s great news for client budgets ...

Outrageous arbitration award ? $4.1 billion

Posted on June 18, 2009
In a classic example of what not to do, fellow blogger Michael D. Young tells how iFreedom Communications International Holdings Ltd wound up with a whopping $4.1 billion arbitration award against it in a case involving the termination of a senior level employee without cause...

Are Strippers Independent Contractors?

Posted on June 16, 2009
Wage and hour claims have been on the rise and among the latest claims to be filed is a class action against a strip club outside of Minneapolis alleging the entertainers have been misclassified as independent contractors. It remains to be seen whether Minnesota will follow the court and labor commission rulings of Alaska, California, Oregon [...

Employment law is hotter than ever

Posted on June 14, 2009
Wage and hour litigation is at all time highs. The Department of Labor estimates that more than 70% of all employers out of compliance with wage and hour laws. A shaky economy has employers reducing their workforce and looking for alternate means of reducing labor costs...

Your partner: Uncle Sam?

Posted on June 14, 2009
Our government impacts business through legislation and regulation. It creates the legal playing field that all legitimate businesses operate on. When companies cross the foul lines and Uncle Sam prosecutes, the government may elect to become your business partner and help you nurse your business back to compliance through the use of deferred prosecution agreements, as AIG discovered [...

Quote of the day: business strategy

Posted on June 10, 2009
Litigation . . . is a matter of business strategy. Kazumi Kuriyama, general manager of Pioneer’s intellectual property unit as quoted in “Asian Electronics Makers Waging All-Out Patent War,” June 10, 2009. A flat-screen TV typically contains memory, image-processing chips and technologies from multiple companies...

Privacy Piracy with Mari Frank on KUCI 88.9 FM

Posted on June 09, 2009
Please join me tomorrow evening, JUNE 10TH, 5-6 PM Pacific Time (8-9PM Eastern), on KUCI 88.9 FM in Irvine, CA and audio streaming on WWW.KUCI.ORG ( http://www.kuci.org/ ) when I’m interviewed by PRIVACY PIRACY host, MARI FRANK. Among the questions I’ll answer are: 1...

Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer Interviews New York Super Lawyer Elise Bloom on June 16th

Posted on June 04, 2009
I am delighted to announce that on the next edition of Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer, I will be interviewing New York Super Lawyer Elise Bloom, a partner at the NY firm of Proskauer Rose, LLP where she specializes in a wide range of labor and employment issues...

The MBA Oath: promises, promises

Posted on June 03, 2009
It’s nice to see ethics and corporate social responsibility rising to the top of MBA student agenda. In case you missed it, the NY Times recently reported that nearly 20% of the graduating class at Harvard Business School had signed The MBA Oath...

New era of hard comparison advertising carries legal risk

Posted on May 28, 2009
Aggressive comparison advertising is on the rise. Just last week, for example, Sara Lee sued Oscar Mayer over a hotdog ad that implied a certain type of Oscar Mayer frank beat the entire Ball Park Frank product line in a national taste test. With everyone fighting tooth and nail for customers and market share, I thought [...

Quote of the day: focusing on the big picture

Posted on May 27, 2009
We were concerned about the possible disruption to our business and more importantly to our customers. Qualcomm General Counsel Donald Rosenberg, commenting on Qualcomm’s decision to pay rival Broadcom Corp $891 million over four years to settle a patent case over handset technology...

The dog fight

Posted on May 25, 2009
It’s Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer and the livin’ is supposed to be easy - sandy beaches, shady hammocks, and cookouts filled with grillin’ goodies, including lots of hotdogs. Unfortunately, the two biggest hot dog-makers are headed to court for a dog fight...

The reluctant juror

Posted on May 20, 2009
What’s your first response when you get that jury duty notice in the mail? Are you eager to step up to your civic duty? Or do you bemoan the fact and try to get yourself excused? I’m not here to judge your reaction. But I do want to share with you what happened to one young [...

Quote of the day: Turning off the learning button

Posted on May 13, 2009
If you offend a student, they turn off the learning button and then you won’t get anywhere. Dawn Zweig, environmental studies teacher at Putney School, a private academy in Vermont, as reported by the New York Times. Perceptions of disrespect and outright anger make most people shut down...

FDA warns Cheerios

Posted on May 13, 2009
Is Cheerios, the “breakfast of champions,” soon to be a breakfast “drug”? Maybe. Seems the Food and Drug Administration has their knickers in a twist over certain language the makers of Cheerios are using to describe their product...

Marveling at Marvell

Posted on May 08, 2009
The case has been around for almost a decade. Jasmine Networks claims that rival Marvell Semiconductor stole its trade secrets and engaged in an unfair trade practice by hiring away Jasmine’s engineering group. Sounds like a classic lawsuit except that part of what has kept this case alive for so long involves a phone call made [...

Bratz lesson

Posted on May 06, 2009
Bratz dolls are the brain child of toy designer Carter Bryant and are made by MGA Entertainment. A big hit with the pre-teen set, in some parts of the world their popularity has eclipsed Mattel’s Barbie doll as the number one selling fashionista doll...

Mixed media sends mixed signals

Posted on May 04, 2009
Today I was reminded of a bad date I went on many years ago in the pre-cell phone age. We were supposed to meet in front of a Greek restaurant for dinner. We were both on time and we both thought we were at the front entrance. Mine was on the pedestrian mall side...

New on AllBusiness.com ? The No Nonsense Lawyer?

Posted on May 01, 2009
I’m pleased to announce that in addition to providing you Legal Literacy news you can use at this website, you’ll now be able to get even more information by following my Business Law blog on AllBusiness.com. Today’s posting (Do you say too much?) can be read by clicking here.

Quote of the Day: Furious is a better word

Posted on April 28, 2009
First thing is, I’m annoyed - furious is a better word - that I wasn’t told. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg commenting on the Department of Defense photo shoot near the site of the former World Trade Center. Yesterday office workers on both sides of the Hudson River, experiencing 9/11 déjà vu, panicked when they saw a [...

I never thought I?d say this, but

Posted on April 25, 2009
I’m not good at apologies. Are you? Even though Jay Leno did it, more doctor’s are doing it, and Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman of Goldman Sachs almost did it. Most of use have difficulty apologizing much beyond a quick “I’m sorry...

Quote of the Day: Decreasing benefit of e-mail

Posted on April 20, 2009
Every communications medium has its own costs and benefits. But with e-mail, the costs grow over time as the benefits shrink. Mike Elgan, “How to kill e-mail (before it kills you),” Computerworld, April 11, 2009. E-mails are unstructured documents...

A Viral Media Mushroom @ Domino?s

Posted on April 16, 2009
We all know that social media accelerates the pace of communication, including miscommunication. But most of us still underestimate how quickly one thing, even a silly thing, leads to another and can mushroom into a mini public relations crisis. That’s what happened to Domino’s Pizza earlier this week according to the NY Times...

Tax refund or amount due?

Posted on April 14, 2009
Why does getting a tax refund, especially a really big refund, feel so much better than having to write a check for taxes due? After all, deep down inside we know that a refund is nothing more than an interest free loan to the government. It’s not the best personal financial strategy...

Quote of the Day: ?Someone?s Gotta Go?

Posted on April 08, 2009
We asked the two men how they were handling the legal quagmire when it comes to revealing details of employees’ personal evaluations on national TV. They got all coy on us, blushing prettily and declining to discuss sordid details. From Lisa de Moraes’s article “They Get Fired, You Get to Watch,” Washington Post, April 8, 2009 Oh [...

Avoiding the Mason Effect

Posted on April 05, 2009
Mason couldn’t help himself. The aroma overwhelmed him and when he nibbled around the edges it tasted like more. So he ate until it was almost gone. It wasn’t until much later and $519 worth of medical tests that Mason’s gastrointestinal problem was traced to the verbena he had been eating in the garden...

AIG?s Legal Literacy Lessons

Posted on March 30, 2009
If you were angry about the $165 million in bonuses paid out by AIG a few weeks ago, you’re not alone. Outrage is what many felt in the furor over the $165 million bonuses handed out by AIG. Anger by taxpayers who felt betrayed about being forced to bear the economic burden of a privileged few [...

Counter-intuitive laws

Posted on March 26, 2009
In a classic case of “what you don’t know really can hurt you,” a food services company learned the hard way the value of processes and procedures for verifying an employee’s eligibility under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)...

Predictable surprises

Posted on March 22, 2009
Most lawyers are specialists. When you couple specialization with a penchant for risk aversion, it’s easy to see why cases are generously staffed and how costs can quickly escalate. When the owner of a small business, for example, engaged a law firm to represent him in a routine acquisition, his lawyers refused to revise documents he [...

Trimming Legal Costs

Posted on March 18, 2009
Would you like to trim you company’s legal costs? Are high legal bills making you crazy? Do legal costs sometimes feel like a runaway freight train? If your answer is yes to any one of those questions, you could be just one click away from accessing time tested secrets proven to put you in the driver’s seat of [...

Too many e-mails

Posted on March 16, 2009
We’ve all received them, the unwanted e-mail solicitations offering solutions to dysfunctions we didn’t even know we had. It clutters up your in-box and is more than annoying. Nonetheless, email is a valuable marketing tool. If your company relies on this important customer communication channel, you want to make sure no one hits the “report as spam” button...

Should employers intervene when an employee?s MySpace page creates the appearance of impropriety?

Posted on March 12, 2009
“Too much information,” said my husband. We’d just passed a college coed who needed a fashion police Miranda warning. I sighed in agreement - seems that some folks will pay a high price to be cool. In a slightly different venue, Officer Vaughan Ettienne also paid a high price to be cool, only his fashion statement was one of manly bravado...

Contractor or Employee Smackdown?

Posted on March 10, 2009
How does a contract turn into an employment smackdown? When a federal judge dismisses a case brought by some former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestlers who claim they were misclassified by WWE as independent contractors. That’s how...

Second Chances

Posted on March 08, 2009
If you missed my Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer interview with Rees Morrison on last month, you’ll have a second chance to find out about how to work more efficiently with law firms. The interview was recorded and I’ll be making a free audio link available shortly, BUT for a limited time only...

Quote of the Day: Separating Fact from Hearsay

Posted on March 08, 2009
You need to separate fact from hearsay when it comes to the law. Michelle Singletary, Personal Finance Columnist, Washington Post, February 26, 2009, Before You Buy, Study Rules for New Tax Credits. Michelle Singletary tells the story of a reader who contacted her because he had purchased a new car on President’s Day, February 16th, the day [...

Strategies for turbo charging the attorney-client relationship

Posted on February 25, 2009
Would you like to increase the return on investment of your legal budget? Would you like to optimize the attorney-client relationship? If your answer is yes, you could be just one click away from accessing information that can help you take that relationship to the next higher level and boost performance from good to great...

Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer Interviews Rees Morrison

Posted on February 19, 2009
I’m delighted to announce the launch of a new feature called Ask the No Nonsense Lawyer. It’s a teleconference series with experts and thought leaders on timely business law topics. Our first program on February 26th at 8pm EST/ 5 pm PST will be on ”How to work more effectively with law firms...

Nan Russell?s Work Matters

Posted on February 16, 2009
I had the privilege of being interviewed by Nan Russell on her Work Matters show. She focuses on practical business tips and advice. Our topic of discussion was one of my favorites: smoking gun emails and how to avoid them. Also included on the segment is Beth Pelkofsky discussing options businesses can consider before layoffs...

?Other People?s Money?

Posted on February 14, 2009
The stimulus package awaiting President Obama’s signature puts executive compensation for businesses receiving taxpayer bailout money into a financial straight jacket. It limits bonuses to no more than 30% of base salary. The legislation is in response to public outrage over supersized pay packages that have become unhinged from solid performance...

It?s standard: beware

Posted on February 10, 2009
?It?s our standard agreement,? says the sales representative. ?It?s standard language,? says the lawyer trying to get you to agree to sign a settlement agreement. ?It?s standard? is a phrase we often hear in business. What does it mean to you? Does it suggest that all sales agreements, for example, say the same thing? Is [...

Announcement: American Executive Article

Posted on February 06, 2009
Just a quick note to let you know that “Avoid the Trap,” a new article I wrote, is in the current issue of American Executive magazine. It’s about how companies can protect themselves against the rising tide of wage and hour claims and can be read by clicking here...

The high cost of getting it wrong

Posted on February 03, 2009
You don’t need to read Maureen Dowd’s sizzling columns in the New York Times to know that there’s massive disappointment with our financial institutions and their kings of commerce (although I did enjoy her recent columns from Jan. 31 and Jan...

Quote of the Day: Healthy Relationships

Posted on February 01, 2009
We want to give them the tools to say ‘You can have a healthy relationship, and here’s the road map’” Esta Soler, President, Family Violence Prevention Fund as quoted in “Teaching Teenagers About Harassment,” The New York Times (January 27, 2009)...

It?s Nuts

Posted on January 28, 2009
How do you make a bad thing worse? By ignoring it, that?s how. You may have heard about the tainted peanut butter that has been linked to a salmonella outbreak. Well, today the Washington Post reports that the Georgia plant linked to the salmonella outbreak should have known it had a problem...

Smoking gun emails and other business headaches

Posted on January 27, 2009
Yesterday morning at the crack of dawn I spoke to Rick Barber on newsradio 850 KOA - AM in Denver, Colorado about how to cover your “assets” at work, starting with company emails. To listen to the podcast click here.

Contain legal costs (part 3 of 3): Budgeting

Posted on January 24, 2009
Budgeting is something that is not taught in law school. As a result, there are too many lawyers who take the view that any given case or legal project will take whatever time it takes. They view their work product as art more than science and that perspective tends to lead to cost overruns and [...

?Yes we can? ? change that is

Posted on January 19, 2009
I’m taking a small break from my “Containing Legal Cost” thread in honor the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, who will be sworn into office tomorrow and the vintage railcar he rode to Washington, D.C. In the weeks and months ahead he promises to begin a process of change and breathe life into the words: [...

Contain legal costs (part 2 of 3): Consider alternate fee arrangements

Posted on January 13, 2009
The billable hour has been the Holy Grail of the legal profession for many years. It has always been under attack to some degree for promoting inefficiency. However, the attacks have been increasing and even large prestigious firms are taking note. Famous author/lawyer Scott Turow offered his thoughts on the subject in an article titled “The Billable Hour [...

Contain legal costs: Communicate goals

Posted on January 10, 2009
I hate legal bills. Reviewing them is one of my least favorite jobs. Lawyers bill based on time and material. Time is measured in six minute increments, in tenths of an hour. It’s ugly. This past week I reviewed a bill and found some “spread billing”...

Announcement: 2009 Legal Literacy Blog Survey

Posted on January 10, 2009
One of the purposes of the Legal Literacy Blog is to provide you with more resources to stay on top of your business legal risk and keep your business from turning into a litigator’s chew toy. I value your opinion and want to learn more about you and your legal concerns...

Winning Habits

Posted on January 07, 2009
According to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, ?we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.? As the first full business week of the New Year comes to a close and the holiday glow fades, dire economic news and the challenge of keeping your business afloat loom front and center...

Quote of the Year: 2008 in a nutshell

Posted on December 31, 2008
At their core, recessions are the ugly process of fixing imbalances that have come about because of unwise decisions by businesses, individuals or government leaders (or, often, all three). People tend not to make the exact same mistakes repeatedly, instead finding new ones to make...

Most Read Legal Literacy Blog Posts of 2008

Posted on December 16, 2008
It will be 2009 before you know it and I want to take this opportunity to thank my growing list of Legal Literacy fans. As you can see by the map in the lower right hand corner of this page, Legal Literacy’s reach is growing daily. In looking at the year in review I want to share with [...

Shop with Legal Literacy

Posted on December 12, 2008
If gift cards are on your holiday shopping list, you?ll want to shop with legal literacy. Yes, legal literacy. Gift cards are great. I love them. They?re convenient for the gift giver ? one size fits all. They?re convenient for the gift recipient ? you can buy want you really want or more of what you [...

Party with Legal Literacy

Posted on December 09, 2008
The holiday season is cranking up as the year is winding down and we all know what that means – it’s PARTY TIME. We party with friends. We party with family. We even party with co-workers. What in the world do parties have to do with legal literacy? Well, office parties can be pretty tricky...

Trademarks and Your Business

Posted on November 28, 2008
My guest blogger posting at SCORE.org this week is on the staying power of trademarks. When used properly trademarks not only have staying power, they are valuable assets that appreciate over time. The more you use them the stronger they get. Think of them as little brand names, logos, slogans and trade dress, all pumping iron and working in tandem to [...

Giving Thanks 2008 Style

Posted on November 25, 2008
With the economy crashing down around us it may be hard to find a business bright spot to be thankful for. But I found inspiration in some recent news from Iraq. The headline read ?Premier of Iraq is Quietly Firing Fraud Monitors? and the article described how Prime Minister Nuri Kamal Al-Maliki was removing from office [...

Do Noncompete Agreements Really Work?

Posted on November 21, 2008
Sometimes managers wonder whether legal mumbo jumbo really makes a difference. After all, isn’t all boilerplate language the same? It’s just a contract. People sign it and do what they want anyway. Right? I understand that some people may feel that way...

Leadership Actions and Corporate Cultures

Posted on November 17, 2008
Actions speak louder than words. Yet how many business leaders try to change corporate culture with policy pronouncements and mission statements while conducting business as usual? I was reminded of that old adage today when I read Office Culture Can Determine Firm?s Success...

Layoffs and Confidentiality

Posted on November 13, 2008
It used to be called downsizing or rightsizing, but in today’s economy it’s also been called streamlining, employee simplification, re-engineering, and cost improvement. If business necessities are requiring reductions in your workforce you’ll want to carefully examine and document the criteria you used in establishing the short list...

SCORE a double dose of Legal Literacy in November

Posted on November 07, 2008
This month, in addition to reading about Legal Literacy at this website you will be able to read even more at http://www.score.org. SCORE describes itself as “Counselors to America’s Small Business.” It is a nonprofit association dedicated to ”educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide...

Stereotypes + Decision Making = Discrimination?

Posted on November 04, 2008
Today is Election Day in the United States. Those participating in democracy by casting their vote for president will be making history today. We will either have the oldest president to take the oath of office or the first African-American president...

Quote of the Day: Trick or Treat and the Presumption of Guilt

Posted on October 30, 2008
“The question was put to respondents: Is the company guilty or innocent? More than two-thirds presumed the company was guilty, even with no facts.” (emphasis added) Steptoe and Johnson partner Jim Moorhead, co-chair of the crisis management practice, discussing the results of a study done by Daimler about how the public would react to a corporate [...

Major League Lessons for Little League Baseball Teams?

Posted on October 25, 2008
“Read this and let me know if they can really do it,” my assistant said as she handed me the front page of the local paper. The headline: “MLB says kids teams can’t adopt nicknames.” We’re in the middle of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays and the headline makes [...

ANNOUNCEMENT: Legal Literacy featured in Business Week?s ?Smart Answers? Podcast

Posted on October 22, 2008
I had the pleasure of recently speaking with Karen E. Klein, Business Week’s Smart Answers columnist. We talked about how small businesses and entrepreneurs can protect themselves against lawsuits and the three things they can do now before it’s too late...

Secret Trademark Violations

Posted on October 18, 2008
Centuries ago, when unscrupulous competitors tried to pass off their wares for the real deal merchant guilds began to affix “marks” to their goods to avoid confusion among customers and to prevent fraud. These “trademarks,” as they became known, let customers easily identify names they could trust and the origin of the goods they wanted to buy...

ANNOUNCEMENT: Legal Literacy featured by Small Business Professor

Posted on October 15, 2008
I had a delightful interview with Bruce Freeman, aka The Small Business Professor, who writes a syndicated column for the Scripps Howard News Service and is the accomplished co-author of Birthing the Elephant (Ten Speed Press), and president of ProLine Communications...

International Conflict Resolution Day ? Oct. 13th

Posted on October 13, 2008
Today is International Conflict Resolution Day and in honor of this important topic, today’s Blawg Review #181 is being hosted by Mediation Channel.com. No one likes to think or talk about conflict. It’s a lot like a pre-nup agreement being delivered to a wedding rehearsal dinner...

ANNOUNCEMENT: Bookshelf Recommendations

Posted on October 09, 2008
It’s frustrating when you’re trying to invest in your company’s success and improve your organization’s legal health and all you find is books that don’t have enough real world context to help you put their advice to good use...

The Congressional Jerry Springer Show

Posted on October 07, 2008
Richard S. Fuld Jr., the chief executive of Lehman Brothers Holding that owns the financially charred remains of a once formidable investment bank, didn’t look very happy answering angry questions from Henry A. Waxman’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday or when dodging the protesters waiting for him outside who hurled insults and held [...

Risk Management Central

Posted on October 04, 2008
The troubles on Wall Street have created a renewed and heightened interest in business governance, risk and compliance (GRC) issues. The Open Compliance and Ethics Group is a leader in this area and a great resource for those interested in strengthening their own corporate cultures...

Here Come the Suits

Posted on September 26, 2008
A week after Wall Street was forced to change its “evil ways” the first law suit was filed by broker-dealer Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. against mutual fund manager Reserve Fund for allegedly alerting institutional investors that Reserve Fund was holding close to $800 million of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc...

The Difference Between Law and Ethics

Posted on September 23, 2008
This morning I heard my husband complain about his English muffins. “When they pop up in the toaster I need something to pull them out with,” he moaned. “Could they make them any smaller?” What a coincidence. Today, I read a great article by Patricia J...

Breach of Trust

Posted on September 21, 2008
It’s hard to digest the Wall Street headlines of the past week: Lehman filed for bankruptcy, AIG got a huge loan and Uncle Same as a business partner, Merrill Lynch got a new home, and other bank merger talks were in high gear. It’s the latest after shock of the collapsed U...

Wall Street Pearls

Posted on September 15, 2008
By now you’ve probably heard the news that two venerable Wall Street firms hit the skids this past weekend. Merrill Lynch has a new Daddy in Bank of America and Lehman is the kid no one picked for their team. They’ve now filed for bankruptcy...

BLAWG REVIEW #176

Posted on September 08, 2008
Today, September 8th, is International Literacy Day. We typically think of the 3 Rs (reading, writing and ‘rithmetic) as a minimum requirement for literacy yet millions of people throughout the world are still denied this basic education. To address the problem the United Nations issued a General Assembly resolution ushering in the United Nations Literacy Decade and reaffirming every individual’s [...

Three Ways to Avoid Lawsuits

Posted on September 05, 2008
To help bridge the gap between business and law, I’m pleased to announce that the US Chamber of Commerce has included an article titled Three Ways to Avoid Lawsuits in the September 2008 edition of US Chamber Magazine.com. Click here to see the full article...

Spoiled and Smokin?

Posted on August 29, 2008
A recent Cnet article and the comments posted to it illustrate a mistaken belief some people hold with respect to their role in preserving electronic evidence in lawsuits. The comments also highlight misunderstanding about some key differences between civil and criminal cases...

Quote of the Day: A Contractual Life

Posted on August 26, 2008
The contracts are here not to guide my steps through the world, but to warn me against straying.Verlyn Klinkenborg writing about the multitude of contracts we encounter on a daily basis. Actually, contracts do both. They create rights as well as duties...

Tarnished gold or how grandma got run over by bureaucracy

Posted on August 21, 2008
The Olympic Games in Beijing have showered us with heart stopping as well as heart breaking performances, new world records, and moments of intense national pride. But the shadows of the Birds Nest hide a dark truth about China’s developing rule of law that holds a valuable lesson for corporate governance and compliance...

What happens when your supplier changes suppliers?

Posted on August 13, 2008
Whole Foods was recently caught up in a ground beef recall after illnesses were linked to the beef originating from a slaughterhouse in Omaha and distributed by Coleman Natural Beef ? a Whole Foods supplier.Although Whole Foods along with four other regional grocery chains were participated in the recall, it was a bigger black eye [...

ANNOUNCEMENT: Battle of the Forms

Posted on August 10, 2008
I’m pleased to announce that the current issue of American Executive includes an article I wrote about standard form contracts and how often they are anything but. To read about the Battle of the Forms, click here. In case you missed my previous American Executive articles, you can read the Slippery Slope and how the right incentives are critical [...

Quote of the Day: Government Rescue of Freddie Mac

Posted on August 06, 2008
It basically worked exactly as everyone expected — when things got bad, the government came to the rescue; but, we didn’t expect it would come at the cost of a new regulator who now has the power to burrow into our business forever. Former high-ranking Freddie Mac executive as quoted in NY Times on August 5, [...

The Last Lecture, the Yellow Brick Road, and the Wizard of Oz

Posted on July 31, 2008
Last week the world mourned the loss of Last Lecture professor, Randy Pausch. His final lecture at Carnegie Mellon University was intended as a collection of life?s lessons for his children ? a beautiful gift of love. But as the inspiring lecture spawned a best selling book and touched the lives of millions of people [...

Why Did the Marketer Cross the Bridge?

Posted on July 20, 2008
“Marketers can’t focus on those things” I was recently told at a conference when I raised a question about a potential legal pitfall in a marketing plan. “If I did,” said another, “I’d never get anything done...

Quote of the Day: Hard Work

Posted on July 18, 2008
“Clearly it’s taken us time and a lot of hard work from Martha and everybody else to right that ship.” Charles Koppelman, chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and former music executive on why MSLO’s business performance needs to be looked at from the perspective of what the company was on the verge of becoming before [...

Who?s Knockin? At Your Door?

Posted on June 11, 2008
No one likes being sued. It means that you, or your company, are under attack. You feel threatened and the adrenalin starts pumping. Even scarier is having a grand jury subpoena land on your desk. Today, however, in an excellent article appearing in Texas Lawyer, Greg Saikin and Sara Tubbs, provide some guidance on what [...

Fess Up When You Mess Up

Posted on June 05, 2008
No one likes to get sued. It’s expensive. It’s time consuming and nobody really wins, except maybe the lawyers. Apologizing may sound like a totally a counter-intuitive move. However, some academic medical centers have discovered they can substantially cut their litigation costs by acknowledging preventable errors and apologizing for their mistakes instead of making excuses and denying them...

How Many Lawyers Does it Take to . . . ?

Posted on June 04, 2008
Fed up with lawyers who overlawyer, Jason Mendelson, a lawyer turned venture capitalist, struck back . He vented his frustration with a blog posting and it generated a lot of feedback. Interestingly, the feedback was positive from entrepreneurs and negative from law firms...

Buyer Beware

Posted on May 21, 2008
Bad experiences often lead to bad legal language. Every strange warning label you’ve ever seen on a product is the result of a lawsuit. Even “warnings” that sound like common sense, such as “do not iron while wearing shirt” are the result of folks seeking common “cents...

Beyond the Law of the Jungle

Posted on May 01, 2008
After a brief sabbatical, Legalliteracy is back; and what better day to return than today — May 1st — Law Day. While some people hiss and boo at lawyers and lawsuits and otherwise poke fun at a profession they think takes itself too seriously, let’s not forget that a mature legal system and rule of [...

From Lemons to Lemonade

Posted on February 21, 2008
It?s no secret that the U.S. toy industry has been wrestling with product liability issues associated lead based paint used by their foreign suppliers. Indeed, the health and safety of our children is so important that it has caused a shake-up at the Consumer Product Safety Commission and spawned pending legislation in Congress...

You Only Think You Know What I Mean

Posted on January 31, 2008
Reaching an agreement that everyone understands and a document that reflects a true meeting of the minds can be challenging. Besides the implicit and explicit legal meaning attributed to certain words, there are the individual eccentricities, regional differences and international/ cultural differences, as Jared Sandberg points out in a recent Wall Street Journal article that make [...

Quote of the Day: Social Pressures

Posted on January 28, 2008
The social pressures are huge, and some of the good risk procedures are thrown by the wayside. Richard Dunn, a former risk control chief at Merrill Lynch quoted in The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 25, 2008 about the $7.2 billion loss generated by the rogue trader at Societe Generale SA...

ANNOUNCEMENT: Legal Literacy Hits Amazon.com Top 3

Posted on January 16, 2008
I’m pleased to announce that my book, The Business Guide to Legal Literacy briefly hit #3 on Amazon.com’s Legal Guides list. It’s nice to see more folks getting proactive about managing their organization’s legal risks. Thanks to all who are helping to make this useful guide a success and keep spreading the word...

New Year, New Files

Posted on January 01, 2008
In with the new and out with the old. The start of the new year is prime time for making room in overstuffed file cabinets and e-mail folders. Getting organized feels great. But, don’t start purging documents before checking your company’s document retention policy...

BLAWG REVIEW #139

Posted on December 17, 2007
Product recalls for goods made in China have been making the news all year, and last week’s recall by Dollar Tree Stores of 300,000 Chinese baby bead toys and toy cars due to lead was yet more example of how the cheap business solutions are not always the least expensive...

Quote of the Day: E-mails and Bar Conversation

Posted on November 13, 2007
People send e-mails as though they were having conversations with someone in a barR. Scott Meece, global general counsel, senior vice president and secretary of CIBA Vision Corp as quoted by the Fulton County Daily Report The casual nature of e-mail banter is often a rich source of troublesome evidence...

Cookie Cutter Contracts

Posted on November 06, 2007
Standard form agreements simplify business transactions. But when was the last time you read all that tiny print written and sentences that go on forever? And, what about those sections that scream at you in all capital letters? Most clients make the assumption that these preprinted forms are “standard...

The Summer of Recalls

Posted on August 16, 2007
Product recalls are damage control mechanisms. They serve a useful function in keeping our supply chain safe but they are expensive. Last week?s recall by Mattel of 1.5 million toys due to lead paint is estimated to cost the company $35 million. No dollar amount has yet to be placed on Mattel?s recall of another 19 [...

Emperor?s New Clothes ? 2007 Style

Posted on June 27, 2007
The basic premise of Dov Seidman?s new book, ?How,? is that ?how you live your life and ?how? you conduct your business is more important than ever before given the fact that in today?s plugged-in world your actions are more transparent than ever before...

QUOTE OF THE DAY: World Bank Lessons

Posted on May 21, 2007
“I think it was a case of blind arrogance.” Former World Bank General Counsel Roberto Dañino on the Paul Wolfowitz scandal Dañino?s no holds barred interview with Corporate Counsel recounts how Wolfowitz did an end run around the general counsel to avoid advice he didn?t like...

INVESTORS SEEK LEGAL EDGE

Posted on May 11, 2007
Unlike accounting where numbers are tallied in tidy columns and finance where formulas generate rates of return, the law offers no such precision in quantifying its impact on business profitability. But just because the connection is tough to quantify doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, or that it’s not worth tapping...

HAPPY LAW DAY

Posted on May 01, 2007
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established May 1 as Law Day back in 1958. It’s a good to remember the importance the rule of law plays in our free market economy. The rule of law codifies cultural norms. It etches ethics in stone. It establishes boundaries of right and wrong and in so doing creates certainty and establishes a [...

TWO UNIVERSITIES AND A SHOCK JOCK

Posted on April 17, 2007
Yesterday’s tragic shooting at Virginia Tech as well as last week’s dismissal of criminal charges against the Duke University lacrosse players and the firing of radio shock jock Don Imus all contain valuable lessons for business leaders interested in building a culture of legal compliance...