Insights

Washington, D.C. – January 19, 2016: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce the publication of its fourth annual "Litigation Forecast 2016: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know in the Coming Year," and its second annual "Regulatory Forecast 2016: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know in the Coming Year."

Washington, D.C. – March 9, 2015: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce the firm's partnership has elected Angela B. Styles, partner and co-chair of the firm's Government Contracts Group, to succeed Kent A. Gardiner as chair of the firm. 

Since the economic downturn in 2008, the legal market has been in a constant state of change. Companies are demanding budget predictability, shared risk and reward, improved efficiency, more transparency, and a new way to define value, and law firms have rushed to respond. Firms cannot rely on the billable hour as they once did. This development has led to the rise of Pricing Departments whose job it is to manage value-based billing arrangements, profitability, and legal project management. Law firms and in-house counsel need to understand each type of alternative fee arrangement, its strengths and weaknesses, how to accurately scope and budget an engagement, and how to manage it once it has begun.

A recent court ruling illustrates the significant value of Federal Rule of Evidence 502 for preserving privilege in a cost-effective and expedient manner. In Chevron v. Weinberg Group, Misc. Action No. 11-409 (D.D.C.), Magistrate Judge John Facciola entered a Rule 502(d) order that allows the defendant to knowingly produce purportedly privileged materials without waiving any privileges applicable to those materials. In entering the order, the court expressed dismay that the defendant had "just now discovered Rule 502(d), the use of which may have prevented the protracted litigation and discovery battles that have plagued this case for the past two years."

Crowell & Moring LLP's second annual Advertising & Product Risk Management seminar is featured in Bloomberg BNA Product Safety & Liability Reporter in a piece titled, "Planning, Coordination, Consistency Urged In Talks Geared to Business and Its Counsel." According to the piece, "A holistic approach to risk management, integrating legal and business concerns, works best for companies throughout the life cycle of their products."

Contract negotiation skills and contract dispute experience are two great things that work even better together.  Some common contract provisions frequently generate litigation, either because they are unclear as drafted, or because they operate in an unexpected and undesirable way.  At Crowell & Moring, our corporate lawyers and our commercial litigators take a collaborative approach, using integrated corporate and litigation strategies to draft and structure contracts to reduce the likelihood of disputes.