Make More Rain : pricing, economic outlook

Bankruptcy Practices at Odds with the "Story of the Year"

BoYancey — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:48:00 GMT

Bankruptcy lawyers have been quite busy this past year, and firms have enjoyed exceptionally high billing rates for many pieces of work . This isn't surprising; in the wake of last year's economic crisis, many companies have sought protection...(read more)

RFPs: A Necessary Evil

Admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:58:00 GMT

As we’re all aware, in today’s economic climate there is a big focus on cost reduction. It’s no surprise, then, that RFP’s are being used with even greater frequency by purchasers of legal services. The concept is not new, but the extreme focus on price across a large percentage of those companies probably is. For law firms, this is not a happy consequence. Law firms incur significant expense by simply responding to RFP’s, with no guarantee of work at the end of the process. Of course, a primary reason for companies using RFP’s to begin with is to get the lowest price across all parties—which means that the “winner” of the RFP may not be getting profitable work. In an RFP process, it’s not a guarantee that the lowest price will get the business, but it’s nearly certain that “bidders” with pricing substantially above the lowest prices will be eliminated quickly from consideration.

...(read more)

Tax Reform Up For Grabs

Admin — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:00:45 GMT

With the tax cuts enabled during the Bush administration coming to an end soon, lobbyists and tax attorneys are lining up to offer their opinions on how the tax code should be reformed.

According to an article in the National Law Journal (Firms Gear Up For Critical Tax Polcy Changes), "[a]bout $4 trillion worth of tax revenue provisions are expiring, the most in the history of the U.S. tax system":

"The next president has some ticking time bombs to address," said Jim Miller, a tax attorney who last month moved to Winston & Strawn's Washington office from Hunton & Williams. "There's now the greatest potential for tax reform certainly since 1986".

How is this important to you? Consider this:

"Tax issues will be the key driver for political and economic activity for the next half-dozen years," Mike T. McNamara (a Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal partner) said. "All of our clients are trying to look at how tax policy will drive or hinder their business plans."

It isn't just your clients who need to watch the tax policy. Your firm needs to pay close attention to how tax policy is addressed so that you may draft your own business plan that take the new policies into consideration.

Alan J. Auerbach, Jason Furman, and William G. Gale wrote an essay on possible approaches to tax policy titled Facing the Music: The Fiscal Outlook at the End of the Bush Administration.

The tax foundation has a summary of each of the Presidential Candidates' tax plans that can be accessed by clicking here.

If you want to talk about "perfect storms", consider the effects on your business of expiring tax cuts and a struggling economy. How tax policy is approached in the coming year(s) will be telling on how well our economy rebounds from this (at least so far) minor contraction.