International Arbitration

Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  Time To Consider Percentage Rental Agreements For Lawyers

  

  It has long been the law that attorneys cannot use percentage rental agreements because doing so would constitute an impermissible sharing of fees with nonlawyers, but such arrangements can help lawyers match expenses with revenues in lean times like now, say Peter Jarvis and Trisha Thompson at Holland & Knight.

• Auto Cos. Should Ramp Up Their Supply Chain Vetting

  

  Automotive companies procuring from new sources because of the pandemic or adapting to new requirements of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement can minimize their compliance risks by implementing full-spectrum, know-your-source due diligence and documenting every aspect of their vetting process, say Gregory Husisian and Jenlain Scott at Foley & Lardner.

• 'Settle And Sue' Malpractice Cases Have New Clarity In Calif.

  

  A California state appellate court's recent decision in Masellis v. Law Office of Leslie F. Jensen provides a road map for proving causation and damages in settle-and-sue legal malpractice cases — an important issue of long-standing confusion, says Steven Berenson at Klinedinst.

• A Midyear Look At Key US Sanctions Developments

  

  During an active first half of 2020, the Office of Foreign Assets Control strengthened its sanctions programs, issued new guidance documents and announced several enforcement actions, underscoring that even during a pandemic, sanctions compliance is indispensable, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

• What You Say In Online Mediation May Be Discoverable

  

  Mediation conducted online with participants in different states makes it harder to determine where communications were made, increasing the risk that courts will apply laws of a state that does not protect mediation confidentiality, say mediators Jeff Kichaven and Teresa Frisbie and law student Tyler Codina.

• 10 Tips For A Successful Remote Arbitration Hearing

  

  As I learned after completing a recent international arbitration remotely, with advance planning a video hearing can replicate the in-person experience surprisingly well, and may actually be superior in certain respects, says Kate Shih at Quinn Emanuel.

• UK Appellate Rulings Clarify Arbitral Choice Of Law

  

  Two recent U.K. Court of Appeal decisions have changed the operation of the choice-of-law test for arbitration — a resolution as significant as changing the test itself because it affects the implied choices of the contracting parties, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

• Opinion

  To Achieve Diversity, Law Firms Must Reinvent Hiring Process

  

  If law firms are truly serious about making meaningful change in terms of diversity, they must adopt a demographically neutral, unbiased hiring equation that looks at personality traits with greater import than grades and class rank, says Thomas Latino at Florida State University College of Law.

• What Hong Kong Policy Shift Means For US Finance Cos.

  

  Now that the U.S. no longer considers Hong Kong autonomous from China, stateside financial services companies should monitor public company audit reporting, non-U.S. futures and swaps trading, and international capital reporting, say Matthew Kluchenek and Matthew Bisanz at Mayer Brown.

• USMCA's Labor Dispute Tool Raises Hurdles For Mexican Cos.

  

  The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s new mechanism for ensuring compliance with Mexico’s labor reforms poses unique challenges for Mexican companies, which now bear the burden of demonstrating that workers' rights are effectively protected, say attorneys at Akin Gump.

• Cybersecurity Steps For Law Firms Amid Heightened Risks

  

  With large swaths of the population indoors and primarily online, cybercriminals will be able to exploit law firms more easily now than ever before, but some basic precautions can help, says Joel Wallenstrom at Wickr.

• Opinion

  It's Time For Law Firms To Support Work-From-Home Culture

  

  Now that law firms are on board with fully remote work environments, they must develop policies that match in-office culture and align partner and associate expectations, says Summer Eberhard at Major Lindsey.

• Opinion

  Republicans Keep Confirming Unqualified Judicial Nominees

  

  What emerges from the group of 200 federal judges confirmed by the Senate under President Donald Trump is a judiciary stacked with young conservative ideologues, many of whom lack basic judicial qualifications, says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• Tips For Crafting The Perfect Law Firm Alert

  

  As lawyers have had more time to write in recent weeks, the number of law firm alerts has increased massively, but a lot of them fail to capture readers and deliver new business, says Richard Torrenzano at The Torrenzano Group.

• Sanctions Order May Accelerate Decline In US-ICC Relations

  

  President Donald Trump's recent executive order authorizing sanctions against participants in the International Criminal Court investigation of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan may be intended as a warning, but could become another point of contention for EU states that are increasingly frustrated with U.S. sanctions policy, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.