Many lawyers chose to transition from firm to in-house practice for the wrong reasons. Often, private practitioners are enticed to go in-house because of the misconception that company lawyers earn more with less work. However, the role of legal departments is expanding as companies try to take on more legal work internally in order to reduce cost. With this expanded role come varied and recurring challenges. Some of the notable challenges can be summarized as follows: Limited Budget – every year a general counsel deals with the problem of managing the legal department’s limited resources and budget. The challenge becomes even more pressing when industry-specific laws, regulatory requirement

In 2015, close to 200 nations negotiated the Paris Agreement on climate change. Less than a year later, it was ratified by 113 nations. The agreement went into effect on November 4, 2016, a development so fast that it even caused surprise among the member nations themselves. The agreement seeks to limit “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.” In contrast to the now-defunct Kyoto Protocol, which operated with a top-down legally binding mandate, the Pari

2016 was an uneventful year for the IPO market. The year saw the lowest number of deals since 2009 and raised less than $19 billion, the lowest level of proceeds since 2003. According, to data from Renaissance Capital, there were 96 offerings of companies with a market value of more than $50 million in the United States, down 41 percent from 2015. There were several geo-political and financial events that affected the growth of the IPO market last year. These include the market freefall (steep slide in the equities market), the Brexit and the Presidential elections. Renaissance Capital stated in their 2016 IPO review, that there has been a drought of technology IPO’s. But with recent high-gr

Most business law students find it difficult to transition from student to practicing business lawyer. As a former associate and now law firm partner, I have interviewed dozens of law students from the best law schools around the country and many of them ask for suggestions about what they can do to prepare themselves for a successful transition to practicing law. The truth that most of us know is that law schools traditionally do a poor job of preparing students for the practical challenges of the real world. Yet, there are some basic things that can be done to make the transition more seamless. First, carefully choose your coursework. If you want to be a business litigator, you should