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In-House Counsel

Legal Literacy

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

Post Frequency: 0.5/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 23:25:34

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...

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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 [...

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