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General Practice

Monday, August, 31, 2009

Change You Have No Choice But To Believe In—"Changes" In Government Contracts

The first lesson you learn in contracts during law school is that contracts require offer and assent, consideration and performance. Once you have your deal, you pretty much have to stick with it unless you want to try and renegotiate, or unless you want to breach. And that's where the casebook begins, with breach. Well, in an era where, more and more, the counterparty to your client's contract may be the federal government, that casebook doesn't exactly apply. And while we've delved into various aspects of government contracting in this year's newsletter, one area we haven't touched upon is the differing concept of "change" in a government contract.

Now sometimes, there are bilateral changes to government contracts that are negotiated just like any other commercial contract. But the government being the government, other times, it might come to your client and say, "Change," and your client pretty much has to say, "Did you say, 'Jump?' How high?" And there are reams of rules covering when and how the government can do that. So if you have clients whose bottom lines are being stimulated in some way by government projects of one kind or another, it behooves you to know how this tricky aspect of contracting works. How do you roll with the changes when you don't know from where they're coming?

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Tuesday, April, 21, 2009

The Time To Set Aside Childish Things: On Being A New Partner

Toolbox didn't quite understand the President's inaugural exhortation to put aside the childish. The chattering classes took it as a broadside against petty bickering along party lines. Phew. Toolbox was concerned it meant that we should stop spending so much time on PlayStation 3 or Wii or, heaven forbid, avoid those false teeth toys that make you look like a vampire. Maybe the President meant something else altogether. Toolbox used to play with vampire teeth as an associate (but didn't bicker with fellow associates), which while not impacting the road to partnership, certainly didn't augur well for it. Though, come to think of it, if you can graduate to partner and wear vampire teeth without hurting the firm...well, either you're starring in Devil's Advocate or very talented. But let's assume (for argument's sake only) that your first action as a new partner isn't to rush off to the gag store. What exactly do you do now that you've officially left "childhood" behind?

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Tuesday, March, 31, 2009

Mish-Mashup Is No Hodge Podge: Virtual Reference And The Law Firm Library

The first time someone asked Toolbox about mashups, all Toolbox could think of was potatoes. Though still not completely clear on the concept, Toolbox has come a long way toward understanding in light of this week's first download, Virtual Reference as a Marketing Tool, by Andrea Specchialo (SydneyPLUS). Perhaps Toolbox is so behind the curve because the last time it had to use a full-fledged law library, the place took up an entire floor, which consisted of 99.9% books and .1% computer terminal. Nowadays, Toolbox gathers that the virtual library occupies more and more space, with the physical occupying less—that brings Toolbox to Specchialo's piece, which she presents in the context of arguing for the future of the actual law library, or the Information Center, as it is now called.

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Posted at 5:17PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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