Holland & Hart announced the addition of Sean Parnell, former governor of Alaska, to the firm’s Anchorage office.

In a release, the firm said Parnell’s public service career includes serving from 2009-2014 as Alaska’s governor. Parnell also served as lieutenant governor and is a former Alaska state senator and representative. As an attorney, Parnell’s decades-long experience in commercial transactions, natural resources, and litigation was developed in private practice, as in-house counsel, as director of state government relations for a major oil company, and in government service.

At Holland & Hart, Parnell will work with business clients, as well as new clients in energy and infrastructure development, the firm said.

“The extensive connections and relationships Sean has fostered at state, federal, and Western regional levels make Sean a valuable resource for clients undertaking infrastructure or natural resource exploration and development. Sean provides the firm’s energy and natural resources clients with a unique combination of experience as a former government leader, legislator, administrator, and legal advisor,” said Kyle Parker, administrative partner of the firm’s Anchorage office.

“Sean is a strong addition to our highly-regarded energy industry team,” said Liz Sharrer, chair of Holland & Hart. “His many years of leadership in public service and his commitment to economic development align with our firm’s goal to continue expanding service and support of Alaska-based clients.”

The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics will present its 17th Annual Compliance & Ethics Institute, October 21-24, 2018, in Las Vegas, with top industry experts and professionals from around the world.

At this four-day networking and educational event, participants will gain information they need to effectively manage their compliance programs and mitigate risk, the SCCE says on its website.

At the Compliance & Ethics Institute, participants will:

• Network with over 1,800 professionals from all industries and 40 countries.
• Choose from 10 learning tracks, 100+ sessions, and over 150 speakers.
• Get up-to-date on issues relevant to your current challenges, including global antitrust compliance, cyber security, anti-corruption, and harassment and discrimination prevention.
• Leave with practical solutions you can immediately put into practice at your organization.

This conference is for compliance and risk professionals and those who work with them in an advisory or partnership capacity. Positions include: in-house and outside counsel, audit managers and officers, consultants, corporate executives, human resource managers, privacy officers, researchers and policy makers, risk managers, staff educator and trainers, and more.

Get more information.

The American Arbitration Association has introduced the Streamlined Three-Arbitrator Panel Option to help parties in large cases lower the costs and escalate the speed of the dispute resolution process.

“When parties’ agreement calls for three arbitrators to hear and decide their case, the Streamlined Three-Arbitrator Panel Option allows them to utilize a single arbitrator for the preliminary and discovery stages of a case,” the AAA explains on its website. “The full panel of three arbitrators then participates in the evidentiary hearing and renders the final award—a more efficient and less expensive process.”

On its website, the AAA describes the three options and alternatives available.

Get more information.

Bloomberg Law is reporting that a former partner in Jones Day’s Silicon Valley office alleged in a suit June 19 that she was kicked out of the firm after raising concerns about its treatment of female lawyers.

The former partner, Wendy Moore, alleged that the firm’s leaders retaliated against her after she voiced misgivings about the firm’s alleged sexist culture, lack of pay transparency, and marginalization of female attorneys, according to reporter Stephanie Russell-Kraft.

“The firm’s male leaders often make sexist comments and rate the attractiveness of female attorneys, paralegals, staff, and officers of the firm’s clients,” Moore’s complaint complaint says. “Business development events, too, often center on degrading stereotypes of femininity and cater to a preference for sports and alcohol.”

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

The Merrill Lynch unit of Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay a $42 million fine under a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading brokerage customers about which firms processed their trades, according to a Reuters report.

Reporters Lisa Lambert and Jonathan Stempel write that Merrill “fell far short of the standards expected of broker-dealers in our markets,” preventing customers from making informed decisions about their orders and broker-dealer relationships, according to Stephanie Avakian, co-director of the SEC enforcement division.

“The SEC said the masking ran from May 2008 to May 2013, and that Merrill kept it hidden after it ended. It said Merrill falsely told customers that more than 15.8 million orders worth over $141 billion had occurred in-house,” according to the reporters.

Read the Reuters article.

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Dallas-based Texas Coastal Energy Company defrauded 80 oil and gas investors out of more than $8 million, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the stock market regulator.

The SEC alleges the company, its co-founder, Jefferey Gordon, and his sales representatives misrepresented the company’s finances, exaggerated a geologist’s background and inflated the reserves and expected production of its wells in Texas and Kansas, according to reporter Jeff Mosier.

“In an offering fraud, people who seek to steal investors’ hard-earned money will often use cold calls and inflated promises to carry out their schemes,” said Shamoil T. Shipchandler, director of the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office. “Their self-serving statements are no substitute for an investor’s due diligence.”

Read the Dallas News article.

By Richard Hunt
Hunt Huey PLLC

The latest iteration of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines became effective with the publication of version 2.1. on June 5, 2018. The newest version adds an additional 17 success criteria for compliance with WCAG, 12 of which are part of success level 2, the level that has become a de facto standard for the ADA. I’ve shared my thoughts on how this may change the ADA litigation landscape elsewhere. In this blog I’d like to consider the deeper questions posed by this revision: Who gets to decide what discrimination means?

It is worthwhile to start with a look at the stated purpose of the ADA itself. The declaration of policy in 42 U.S.C. §12101 never uses the word “accessible” and refers to “access” only with respect to public services. The focus of the ADA is discrimination, and standards for accessibility are only part of Congress’ intent to “to provide clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination against individuals with disabilities.” (42 U.S.C. §12101(b)(2)).

The first of these standards concerned physical accessibility and took the form of the ADAAG, a set of construction requirements that are “as precise as they are thorough” according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The original standards were replaced and expanded by the 2010 Standards now in effect, but a facility built when the old ADAAG were in effect still meets the requirements of the ADA. If you do it right the first time, you don’t have to keep re-doing it as standards for accessibility change.

This is notable because it is an example of the kind of compromise built into the ADA. Not making a facility accessible according to statutory standards is “discrimination” as defined in the ADA, but the statute was not intended to require that businesses perpetually update their physical premises as standards change. There are other compromises as well. The required door widths, slopes, and so forth are all based on what is accessible to most disabled individuals; not all. Those compromises were worked out over many years through the regulatory process with input from disability rights advocates, technical experts and the affected businesses. More recently adopted standards for ATM’s, movie theaters and the like were worked out the same way, balancing the degree of access with the cost of existing technology. In every case businesses were allowed lead times of many years to adapt to the new standards. No one was expected to become accessible overnight.

Until, that is, the Department of Justice decided that the internet should be accessible and that the ADA was the means to enforce that accessibility. DOJ prosecuted internet access cases long before it had begun work on accessibility standards for the internet, and then deep sixed regulations that were almost complete for political reasons. The business community, usually not anxious to be regulated, is now trying to persuade Congress to force DOJ to publish regulations in order to end the chaos brought on by a lack of standards.

In the meantime, we have the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, now in version 2.1. They are published by the World Wide Web Consortium, a private organization made up of tech companies and academics from around the world. The Guidelines were developed with input from experts in accessibility, but not, it appears, members of the business community most affected by the Guidelines; that is, people who sell things on the internet or use web sites in support of ordinary physical businesses. The Guidelines were intended to be private and non-binding, so naturally they do not take into directly into account either the time or cost of implementation; after all, if there were no ADA a business could take as long as it needed to implement them, and could limit its implementation if cost were an issue. They are being used as government regulations without the process and compromises that such regulations ordinarily require.

This is not the fault of W3C of course. It is merely fulfilling its mission of providing web standards, with accessibility standards being just one such standard. It is disturbing though that an international NGO with no political or financial accountability has been delegated the job of regulating American business by the political paralysis of DOJ and the Congress and the willingness of the Courts to entertain website accessibility lawsuits. For businesses the only effective response is to assume that WCAG 2.1 will be the basis of a new round of lawsuits claiming that the definition of “discrimination” under the ADA was changed overnight by the publication of WCAG 2.1, and to begin updating their websites accordingly.

You can learn more at accessdefense.com or by contacting the author.

Winston Maxwell and Gauthier Vannieuwenhuyse of Hogan Lovells point out that we are living in the era of constant technological progress, and then ask the question: As smart contracts emerge, why not think about totally automated arbitration?

“Big data and e-discovery can assist counsel in document management and reduce the risk of human error during discovery,” they write for an article for Bloomberg Law.

They discuss machine learning, predictive justice, and sophisticated programs that can even analyze the behavior of specific judges and arbitrators to predict their propensity to grant or deny certain motions and claims.

“This may open arbitration to new markets, such as low value disputes, whose players were traditionally reluctant to resort to this type of resolution,” they write.

“While it is possible to envision completely robotized arbitration taking place in a not-so-distant future, that sort of arbitration would not be recognized by state institutions. If the arbitration occurs in a self-contained, self-executing framework, then its nonrecognition by state institutions may not be a major obstacle,” the authors conclude.

Read the article.

Rent-A-Center, Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with Vintage Rodeo Parent, LLC, an affiliate of Vintage Capital Management, LLC, for Vintage to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Rent-A-Center common stock for $15 per share in cash. The transaction, which is not subject to a financing condition, and is expected to close by the end of 2018, subject to customary closing conditions including the receipt of stockholder and regulatory approvals, represents a total consideration of approximately $1.365 billion, including net debt.

Under the terms of the agreement, Rent-A-Center stockholders will receive $15 in cash for each share of Rent-A-Center common stock, which represents a premium of approximately 49 percent over the company’s closing stock price on Oct. 30, 2017, immediately prior to the announcement that the company’s board of directors initiated a process to evaluate strategic and financial alternatives focused on maximizing stockholder value.

The Rent-A-Center board has unanimously approved the transaction and recommends that stockholders vote in favor of the transaction. Upon completion of the transaction, Rent-A-Center will become a privately held company and its common shares will no longer be listed on any public market.

B. Riley Financial, Inc. and certain of its affiliates have committed to serve as equity and debt participants in the transaction.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Rent-A-Center and provided a fairness opinion to the Rent-A-Center Board of Directors. Winston & Strawn LLP is serving as legal advisor to Rent-A-Center, and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is serving as legal advisor to the Rent-A-Center Board of Directors.

B. Riley FBR, Inc. is serving as financial advisor and lead arranger and Guggenheim Corporate Funding LLC is serving as administrative agent and joint lead arranger. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation is serving as legal advisor to Vintage.

Boutique family law firm Orsinger, Nelson, Downing & Anderson, LLP, has added Taylor Mohr as an associate in the firm’s Frisco, Texas, office.

“Taylor is smart, talented, and dedicated,” said partner Jeff Anderson, who manages the Frisco office. “When we met Taylor, we knew we found the right person and the right fit for our clients.”

In a release, the firm said Mohr joins the firm with experience in complex family law matters involving divorces, modifications, enforcements and child custody matters as well as a background in estate planning and elder law.

“I’m looking forward to working with this talented group of attorneys,” said Mohr. “Orsinger, Nelson, Downing & Anderson is well-known for its work on complex family law cases, and I’m glad to be part of this team.”

Recognized in Super Lawyers magazine as a Texas Rising Star each of the past two years, Mohr also has earned selection to the National Academy of Family Law Attorneys’ Top 10 Under 40 in the Texas listing and the American Institute of Family Law Attorneys’ Top 10 Best Female Attorneys. She is a graduate of Baylor Law School and earned an undergraduate degree in history from Baylor University.

Richard A. Kirby and Beth-ann Roth have joined FisherBroyles, LLP as partners in the firm’s Washington, DC, office. The new partners work in compliance counseling, fintech and blockchain, political law, securities & private equity, and securities litigation, among others areas.

“We are thrilled to welcome Richard and Beth-ann to our firm and to our Washington office,” said Joel M. Ferdinand, FisherBroyles’ Litigation Managing Partner. “Both bring tremendous experience to our groups that serve clients concerning various litigation and transaction needs involving corporate, financial, political, risk, securities and other critical matters.”

Kirby said, “I am excited to join FisherBroyles in DC. I look forward to working alongside the firm’s other highly experienced partners, as well as offering my clients the value that the FisherBroyles distributed law firm partnership model offers.”

Roth said, “I believe my practice involving securities law, investment management, compliance and corporate governance are a great fit at FisherBroyles, which offers a unique platform for delivering a “Big Law” level of service to our clients across all practice areas and industries.”

A member of the firm’s Securities & Private Equity, Political Law and Litigation, Securities Litigation, and FinTech and Blockchain practice groups, Kirby litigates complex corporate, securities, bankruptcy and administrative law issues at all levels of the federal court system, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also represents clients before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Justice Department, and state and self-regulatory organizations, as well as in enforcement investigations and parallel private securities fraud and derivative actions. Kirby has experience representing victims of Ponzi schemes, in representing clients in Securities Investor Protection Act liquidation proceedings and in defending SEC fraud and market manipulation investigations, insider trading, and violations of SEC securities offerings rules. In addition to his SEC litigation practice, he counsels companies on managing risk in connection with transactions in cryptocurrencies, including initial coin offerings.

Most recently, Kirby was a principal at Baker & McKenzie, and previously was a partner at K&L Gates. He also served in the Office of the General Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, where he briefed and argued more than 50 major securities law cases in the federal courts of appeals.

Kirby received his J.D. from Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and his Bachelor of Science from Lehigh University.

Roth is a member of the firm’s Compliance Counseling, FinTech and Blockchain, Litigation & Risk Management, Securities Litigation, and Securities & Private Equity practice groups. She has experience in securities and investment management law (1940 Acts), corporate governance, shareholder advocacy and impact investing. She has represented clients before the SEC and state securities regulators, and has provided legal, operations and compliance guidance to funds, investment advisers, broker-dealers, transfer agents, and economic development organizations, as well as to their service providers. Roth also assists alcoholic beverage importers and wholesaler/distributors with operational guidance as well as federal and state compliance issues.

Most recently, Ms. Roth was an attorney and partner at Capital Fund Law Group. Previously, she served on the staff of the SEC, as associate general counsel of Calvert Investments, and as deputy general counsel of Finca, an international financial development organization where she oversaw legal departments in 21 countries. She was a member of the Investment Funds and Investment Companies practice groups at Dechert, LLP; Katten Muchin & Zavis; and Rosenman & Colin. In addition, Ms. Roth was an associate professor at George Washington University Law School, and a registered lobbyist on Capitol Hill.

Roth received her J.D. with highest honors from Shepard Broad College of Law at Nova Southeastern University. She also holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Arts, both from Columbia University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts from Douglass College of Rutgers University.

Littler has added Yusra Siddiquee as a partner in the firm’s Toronto office. She joins from Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP where she led the business immigration and international mobility team in Toronto.

“Yusra’s experience will be of tremendous value to our Canadian and multinational clients for whom the seamless hiring of foreign workers or transfer of employees to foreign locations is critical to their business operations,” said Sari Springer, Toronto Office Managing Partner. “She will be a terrific addition to our team in Toronto and will work closely with our colleagues across the globe, including Jorge Lopez, who chairs Littler’s Global Mobility and Immigration practice, to provide clients with strategic counsel on immigration-related matters.”

The firm said Siddiquee – who is multilingual – works with Canadian and international companies on corporate immigration strategies, including developing immigration compliance policies and facilitating the temporary and permanent entry of employees to global destinations. With experience in immigration law, Siddiquee advises employers on alternate jurisdictions to relocate key employees who are unable to secure immigration status. She also advises employers on the employment and termination of foreign workers, as well as the human capital costs for international projects, and provides training to companies on immigration policies and processes. Siddiquee’s clients span a wide range of industries, including engineering, telecommunications, information technology, health sciences and energy, the firm said.

“Canada’s entry programs for highly skilled foreign workers provide companies with a competitive advantage in attracting top global talent,” Siddiquee said. “I’m excited to work with my new colleagues in Toronto to counsel companies on their immigration matters, as well as to leverage Littler’s global platform and top-notch technology to further expand my practice and the services offered to our clients.”

Siddiquee received her LL.B. from the University of British Columbia and her B.A., with honors, from McGill University. She has been recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Canada for Nationwide Immigration, the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory in Immigration Law, Who’s Who Legal for Corporate Immigration and The International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers.

Glenn C. Colton and Michelle J. Shapiro have joined Arent Fox LLP in its Government Enforcement & White Collar practice as partners.

The Government Enforcement & White Collar team is joining the firm a few months after the arrival of former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Robert L. Capers.

“Glenn and Michelle have distinguished themselves as one of the top white collar teams in the country,” said M. Scott Peeler, who co-leads the Government Enforcement & White Collar practice. “We are a destination for companies and individuals in need of representation in connection with government and internal investigations, compliance, and white collar litigation. Glenn and Michelle’s incredible insight and nearly 50 years of combined experience will bolster Arent Fox’s already impressive bench of counselors and litigators.”

“Glenn and Michelle are highly regarded by their peers,” said Capers, who co-leads the Government Enforcement & White Collar group. “Enforcement is on the rise and our clients need guidance on these increasingly complex issues. Glenn’s and Michelle’s wealth of experience is a great addition.”

In a release, the firm said Colton, a former federal prosecutor in New York City, counsels companies and individuals through all phases of government and internal investigations. During his career, he has advised on investigations conducted and actions brought by the US Department of Justice, US Attorneys’ offices, State Attorneys General, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Internal Revenue Service.

Colton, with nearly 10 years as an assistant US attorney in both the criminal and civil divisions of the Southern District of New York focuses on white collar criminal and complex civil litigation. In his white collar criminal practice, Colton advises Fortune 500 companies, small and midsize companies, and individuals on investigations ranging from insider trading, health care fraud, the foreign corrupt practices act, insurance fraud, and tax fraud. In civil litigation, Colton represents clients in constitutional, commercial, intellectual property, employment, and tort cases. Additionally, he has represented numerous clients in high-stakes securities, consumer, and privacy class actions.

The firm said Colton has handled numerous appeals in criminal, regulatory enforcement, and civil cases, as well as in an amicus capacity, in cases before the US Court of Appeals for the Second and Eighth Circuits, and state level appellate courts.

In addition to his litigation practice, Colton regularly advises companies in the burgeoning fantasy sports industry on a wide variety of issues including gambling law, compliance, and intellectual property. For his work on the successful landmark “bet the industry” litigation over the right to use player names in fantasy sports games, Colton was inducted as one of fewer than 20 members of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association Hall of Fame.

The firm said Shapiro is a career white collar criminal defense attorney. She has spent nearly 20 years representing individuals and companies in investigations and criminal proceedings by federal and state prosecutors and regulators, related to myriad high-stakes issues, such as alleged corruption; insider trading; money laundering; tax, health care, securities and accounting fraud; anti-trust violations; and cyber and other crimes. She also conducts internal investigations of potential misconduct by corporate officers, employees, and agents, including multifaceted transnational investigations for Fortune 500 companies.

Recently recognized by Crain’s New York Business as one of 2017’s “Leading Women Lawyers in New York City,” Shapiro counsels global companies on how to prevent and detect violations of the FCPA and other applicable anti-corruption laws. She helps organizations design, enhance and implement customized compliance programs to address their particular risk profiles, conducts compliance trainings, assists with third-party screenings, conducts pre- and post- acquisition anti-corruption due diligence and advises on remediation efforts and other ongoing compliance obligations.

Shapiro has worked with issues in more than 20 countries. The firm said she frequently tackles complex and often conflicting data privacy and attorney-client privilege regimes. Shapiro is a frequent speaker and author on white collar criminal issues, and serves as the Co-Chair of the Development Committee of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association.

Image by Mike Mozart

Bloomberg is reporting that Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay a combined $100 million to 42 U.S. states to resolve a probe into fraudulent conduct tied to interest-rate manipulation that affected financial instruments worth trillions of dollars.

The states had alleged Citigroup misrepresented the integrity of the Libor benchmark to state and local governments, not-for-profit organizations and institutional trading counterparties, sometimes to protect the bank’s own reputation, reports Erik Larson.

“The accord is the latest development in probes by governments around the globe into manipulation of benchmark interest rates, one of the key scandals that led to a cultural overhaul of the industry over the past decade,” Larson writes. “Global fines have topped $9 billion. In October, Deutsche Bank paid 45 states $220 million in penalties and disgorgements to resolve U.S. and U.K. probes.”

Read the Bloomberg article.

A company’s human resources department has only one criterion for a candidate for an in-house position, but “fit” isn’t the real issue, suggests an Above the Law columnist identified as “a harried in-house counsel at a well-known company that everyone loves to hate.”

Using the pseudonym of “Kay Thrace,” the author recalls her days in Biglaw, when the firm HR team carefully culled thousands of résumés of the ivy elite and organized perfectly balanced recruiting lunches.

“[I]n Biglaw, every single one of us knew that we were only as good as last year’s talent pool, so we had to strive to get the best and brightest. In-house? Not so much.”

It’s different in the business world, however, because “apart from a few basic qualifications (do you have a law degree, are you in good standing, have you killed someone in this state in the last five years, etc.), HR has nothing else to hang their hats on other than fit.”

Forget fit, she writes: “Do you know when you’re being patently misled by the business and are you gracious about rectifying the situation and guiding it to a satisfactory, risk-mitigating conclusion? Yes? You’re freaking hired.”

Read the Above the Law article.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius lawyers, writing in the firm’s Tech & Sourcing blog, discuss the typical ways that parties can use contracts to determine intellectual property ownership.

“In the context of negotiating an agreement where intellectual property rights are addressed, most parties will readily agree that those intellectual property rights owned by a party before the effective date of the agreement or developed outside of the agreement (commonly referred to as background rights) should be owned by that party,” write Vito Petretti and Cindy L. Dole.

Their article discusses the common allocations of foreground IP rights.

Read the article.

Drew York, writing in Gray Reed & McGraw’s Tilting the Scales blog, offers some advice on how to “failsafe” electronic agreements with employees.

He describes a scenario in which a company requires its employees to electronically acknowledge receiving, reviewing and agreeing to abide by the company’s employee handbook. One of the workers later is injured on the job, and the company wants to invoke the handbook ‘s arbitration agreement.

“In several recent cases, employees have disputed that they electronically acknowledged an agreement with their employer,” writes York. “This raises an intriguing question: how do employers prove that an employee ‘signed’ an agreement when there is no written signature?”

Read the article.

A divided panel of the Texas Court of Appeals in Houston has held that the 2014-2015 drop in oil prices is not a force majeure for purposes of general force majeure contractual protection, reports Liskow & Lewis in its Energy Law Blog.

Jackie E. Hickman explains that the court addressed a dispute between ConocoPhillips Company and TEC Olmos over a farmout agreement that required Olmos to commence drilling by a specified date.

“During the interval between execution of the agreement and commencement of drilling, however, changes in the global supply and demand of oil caused the price of oil to drop significantly. As a result, Olmos was unable to secure financing for drilling and informed ConocoPhillips that it would be unable to meet its drilling obligations. ConocoPhillips filed suit against Olmos and the guarantor of the contract, Terrace Energy Company, for breach of the farmout agreement. The lawsuit sought $500,000 in liquidated damages,” Hickman writes.

Olmos invoked the force majeure clause of the farmout agreement to excuse its inability to perform, but the court agreed with ConocoPhillips.

Read the article.

Compliance Week will present a webcast titled “Compliance and Contract Management –The Right People, Process & Technology” to highlight effective strategies and considerations to maintain compliance with contractual agreements in the U.S. and abroad.

The event will be Wednesday, June 27, at 2 p.m. EDT.

“While relying on both outside counsel and third-party legal services providers to meet standards and governing party obligations, competitive organizations enlist effective digital strategies where appropriate and seek to automate as many tasks as possible,” Compliance Week says on its website. “As we explore the people, processes and technology that aid compliance and contract management, we’ll discuss e-Communications monitoring, digital learning services, open source software and trending technology such as block chain contracts, and other tools.”

Register for the webcast.

Recent breaking news about the potential union of Dallas’ Winstead and Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders is another example of how the media can quickly become a factor in private law firm mergers, writes Bruce Vincent in a blog post for Muse Communications.

“While it remains to be seen whether the media interest will impact any eventual union between Winstead and Troutman, the way the news became public provides key insights for other law firms that may be considering a merger,” he writes.

Vincent outlines some of the most important steps to take in such a situation. He discusses informing important audiences, such as clients; handling media requests; and the right way to follow up.

Read the article.