Property

Expert Analysis

• Biz Interruption Insurance Considerations After Texas Storms

  

  Businesses that have suffered losses from the snow and utility interruptions in Texas should consider the broad range of commercial property insurance policy triggers that may apply, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes and Boone.

• An In-House Counsel's Guide To Better Work Management

  

  Amid economic uncertainty and increasing pressure on corporate legal departments to do more with less, work management processes should be aimed at tracking legal teams' every contribution, including routine matters that can be reallocated to nonlegal staff, says Aaron Pierce at LexisNexis CounselLink.

• Building A Law Firm Knowledge Bank For Thought Leadership

  

  Marketing professionals often do not have firsthand knowledge of current legal trends and client issues, so law firms need to commit to an ongoing knowledge extraction process — a series of steps to draw out attorney insights that can help marketers create effective and frequent thought leadership content, says Michelle Calcote King at Reputation Ink.

• Let's Emerge From The Pandemic As Legal Innovators

  

  The pandemic forced a digital reckoning on the legal profession — which switched to remote workforces, paperless workflows and digital signatures seemingly overnight — and law firms and corporate legal departments can keep up the innovation momentum with three guiding principles, says Kevin Clem at HBR Consulting.

• This Black History Month, Law Firms Should Challenge Norms

  

  With so little progress made in the diversification of the legal industry, Black History Month is a good time for law firms to adjust their organizational cultures, ensuring that diversity and inclusion goals are transparent and measured in the same way billable hour and other core targets are — through written, enforceable policies, says Paulette Brown at Locke Lord.

• Law Firm Penalties On Departing Partners Just Got Riskier

  

  A D.C. appeals court's recent decision in Jacobson Holman v. Gentner sharply limiting the ability of law firms to financially penalize departing partners continues a clear trend among court rulings and bar ethics opinions, and should encourage firms to review their partnership agreements for any ethical land mines, says Alan Kabat at Bernabei & Kabat.

• Tips For Protecting Privilege When Working With Outside PR

  

  As lawsuits stemming from companies' COVID-19 responses grow and businesses hire public relations firms to manage the fallout, companies and their counsel should consider strategies to best protect themselves in court — and in the court of public opinion — without stepping on a privilege land mine, say Daniella Main and Mia Falzarano at Alston & Bird.

• An OFAC Compliance Checklist For Ransomware Payments

  

  As the U.S. government heightens its scrutiny of ransomware payments, victims that pay extortion demands can follow 12 steps to help establish the requisite mitigation and due diligence to avoid penalties from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, says cybersecurity consultant John Reed Stark.

• Remote Bar Exams Pose New Learning Disability Challenges

  

  New bar exam formats necessitated by the COVID-19 crisis — going from paper to computer, in-person to remote, human to artificial intelligence proctoring — may exacerbate shortcomings in disability assessments for learning-disabled test takers seeking accommodations, says Rebecca Mannis at Ivy Prep.

• Don't Let Lies Infiltrate The Mediation Process

  

  The pandemic-era rise in mediation brings about the increased risk that participants will engage in dishonest behavior with the expectation that settlement negotiations will be kept confidential, but lawyers should beware that state confidentiality protections differ, and that courts have applied ethical rules in the mediation context, say Jennifer Gibbs and Amanda Rodriguez at Zelle.

• Judges On Race: Lack Of Data Deters Criminal Justice Reform

  

  Many state courts' failure to gather basic data on sentencing and other important criminal justice metrics frustrates efforts to keep checks on judges’ implicit biases and reduce racial disparities, say Justice Michael Donnelly at the Ohio Supreme Court and Judge Pierre Bergeron at the Ohio First District Court of Appeals.

• Law Firms Should Note GCs' Growing Focus On Biz Strategies

  

  Amid the challenges of the pandemic, a shifting digital landscape, and increasing calls for diversity and inclusion, general counsel responsibilities are expanding into six new areas, highlighting the need for both in-house and outside counsel to serve as strategic and empathetic business leaders, say Wendy King at FTI Consulting and David Horrigan at Relativity.

• Economic Loss Is Key To Pandemic Insurance Suits

  

  Decades of case law distinguishing between economic loss and property damage may support commercial property insurance policyholders in litigation with insurers who argue that COVID-19-related losses do not constitute physical damage, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes and Boone.