Lori Tripoli

Say what you will about the legal profession, mighty CEOs no less than newly minted college graduates need educated fighters who dicker and bicker and shout and squabble so they don’t have to. The conventional wisdom is wise indeed: Nobody likes lawyers until they need one.

There's something ironic listening to lawyers grouse about their paralegals: Legal assistants can't keep track of their time...they couldn't find the courthouse even with a GPS...they're just sort of dense.

Making the leap from four acres and a 5,000-square-foot house to 20 acres and a mansion that's double in size involves more than just a proportional increase in lawn care and upkeep bills. With a vast property, security might be a concern, animals (horses) might need to be fed, and someone will probably need to oversee the whole shebang, area professionals in the real estate business said.

After submitting its report to Congress assessing the quality of sediments in U.S. rivers and other waterways last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now focusing on developing a management strategy plan that will focus on how the agency can address contaminated sediment problems by using its existing authority. The strategy, which will be publicly available, should be complete in few months, according to James Keating, an environmental scientist in EPA's Office of Water.

The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997, P.L. 105-115, which was signed by President Clinton on Nov. 21 following a three-year battle in Congress, seems likely to remain controversial, as consumer groups castigated the new law and the regulated community endorsed it. Hailed by the White House as "the first major food and medical products reform legislation in 35 years," the new law "includes numerous initiatives championed by the Clinton administration that will ease the regulatory burden on industries, protect consumers and cut red tape, making government operations faster and more efficient," a statement issued by the White House Office of the Press Secretary asserted.

I once met a woman on a cross-country train trip who mentioned that en route to the station, to which she had walked while rolling her suitcase behind her, she had prayed to God to clear up the rain so she wouldn't get wet. I wondered at the time whether it was OK to ask for higher intervention for matters so mundane, whether it was possible to use up one's share of universal good will, whether a request submitted to the top shouldn't be saved for matters more substantial. Fifteen years later, I was praying I could find my way around Queens.

I was sitting at a rubber-chicken event, dressed in a ball gown and chatting with the woman next to me. It turns out we were about the same age, had attended the same graduate school, are mothers living in Westchester, juggling jobs and home, and wondering whether we are doing any of it well. Our talk turned to children, scheduling, schoolwork, peer pressure and summertime. We engaged in easy conversation, curious about when the children would ask about the facts of life, giggling over how we would handle that discussion.

Getting ready for his elementary school graduation, my son and I paid a visit to a nice children's clothing store, where I persuaded him that pleated pants and a button-down shirt would be more appropriate for this final grade school event than the basketball shorts and T-shirts he's become accustomed to wearing to the institution. I was standing outside the dressing room with another parent, who seemed to be on a similar mission, when my son came out and modeled his number. "Looks great," I glowed as he turned and went back to change into his day-to-day uniform. "Now if only I could convince him to wear a tie," I muttered to the dad standing next to me, who smiled in acknowledgement. Then his son came out...

It may be true enough, as Jane Austen wrote, that, “We do not look in our great cities for our best morality,” but we just might look in them for our best sustainability. After all, more than 1,000 local leaders have signed on to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and promised to meet or beat targets for reducing global warming pollution established by the Kyoto Protocol. They’ve also agreed to encourage the federal government and state ones to enact programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, a 2009 survey by New York City-based Living Cities, a collaborative of 21 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions, found that four out of five big cities identified sustainability among their top five priorities.

"A kitchen is a wonderful place to make a personal statement," Paul Leuthe, corporate marketing manager at Sub-Zero Freezer Company Inc. in Madison, Wis., said. Yet those with more culinary inclinations might be seeking a visually appealing kitchen that is also of restaurant caliber.

While lawyer bashing is practically a recreational sport, prudent financial advisors have realized that teaming with an attorney in a variety of professional ways can yield a mutually beneficial relationship. Working in tandem, both the advisor and the attorney gain an opportunity to obtain more and better clients who are pleased with the full-service attention they are receiving. And everyone knows that a satisfied customer is that much more apt to throw even more business the team members’ way.

Do you feel like you can't leave the office without turning on a "nanny cam" to monitor your employees and make sure they aren't slacking off? One challenge for firms is to juggle staff workloads while building in some wiggle room -- either for the inevitable "drop everything" rush jobs or to give a staffer some necessary downtime before the next crunch. Without resorting to the extreme measure of cameras, here are some options to help monitor, and increase, office productivity.

Raising the subject of an expanded C-suite that features a sustainability officer may well initiate a discussion in which participants have diametrically opposed views. Some see chief sustainability officers as absolutely vital to large corporations. To others, the position of CSO, if there is one at all, should be of limited duration: Bring the sustainability message to the corporate masses and then fall away after the workers have incorporated sustainability’s principles into their daily jobs.

As much as many of us blame our mothers for our madness, it turns out that mom’s exhortations to go out and play were just what we needed. Some psychologists are finding that an improved connection between the self and the natural environment can actually be good for both the person and for the planet. Sustainability: The Journal of Record managing editor Lori Tripoli interviewed Portland, OR-based psychologist Thomas Joseph Doherty about the emerging field of ecopsychology, how even city kids can come to appreciate the great outdoors, and whether worshipping Mother Nature is replacing organized religion.

Mangia bene! That's what attendees of charitable galas are doing, planners say. Given the number of social events to choose from during the season, distinctive menus could make all the difference in whether a potential patron chooses to participate in or pass on a function.

Hot-shot lawyers and top-notch law firms might have spent the last years of the va-va-voom, dot-com-boom '90s branding, niche-marketing, perfecting their Power-Point pitches and developing multipaged Web sites with really cool yet appropriately serious graphics, but, for all the marketing mania the Clinton ("it's all about the spin") years brought us, the overblown and too early celebrated millennium has gotten off to a slow start.

“The best thing a financial advisor can do to drum up business is . . . work through lunch,” says financial writer Joseph Finora, a former assistant vice president for corporate communications at Royal Alliance who is now based in Laurel, N.Y. AdvisorMax.com asked experts for their ideas for drumming up new business in as little as an hour.

Those of us with BlackBerry wireless devices can now sleep easily thanks to Research in Motion Ltd.’s $612.5 million settlement of a patent infringement suit. But the resolution of that banner case hardly closes an era in intellectual property litigation.

Mention of green cards and visa issues may conjure up images of gardeners and cleaning ladies, but immigration is just as much a way of life for business people who need to relocate. Thanks to the globalization of the economy and the pressing needs of multi-national corporations for skilled employees from every part of the globe, professionals in boardrooms and C-suites throughout the world are hiring immigration lawyers.

Timely and engaging, Contemporary Law Office Management comes to life through actual examples of issues that managers handle every day. This comprehensive overview of today’s work environment prepares paralegal students to take on the responsibilities and challenges of law office management with confidence.

Plans by Entergy and Starbucks show how adaptation is now key for firms with vulnerable supply chains, but experts lament that more of them aren't moving

When Mark Coker decided to set up his own public relations agency, he was advised by his lawyer not to tell his boss about his decision. Coker, now president of Dovetail Public Relations, Los Gatos, CA, decided to be up-front and informed him of his plans. To his dismay, 'before I packed up they brought me a letter warning me about recruiting their clients,' he says. According to Coker, his boss drove to one client's office and threatened to sue if it signed with him. Though the client soon dropped the agency, it didn't sign with Coker either.

WORD THAT INVESTMENT BANKS, which had underwritten initial public offerings for offshore online gaming sites, had been subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice1 left some wondering whether these actions, combined with the recent arrests of former directors of offshore electronic cash processor Neteller, would have a negative long-term impact for the online gaming industry.

What corporations and higher education are— or should be—doing

I was still lingering over my son's cauldron of Halloween candies when I smashed headlong into the holiday season. I had contentedly continued to concentrate on my quota of candy corn when I was confronted with even sweeter distractions. No sooner had my favorite coffee bar begun pushing gingerbread in the form of a latte than I discovered I could top off my own coffee with some whipped cream and pumpkin pie spice. Seemingly just minutes after I packed up my "scary Alice" costume, I found myself planning my next big event while maintaining my sugar high.

If only the press had stuck to the old mice-in-soda cans story, maybe things would have been different. Instead, this past summer, company executives, consumers, lawyers, and stockholders woke up to this:

There's been a significant change in how South Florida lawyers now market their services. In the early 1990s, when Of Counsel visited Miami, indefatigable business developers were talking about how they were going to open an office in Havana just as soon as Castro was dethroned. Cuban clients and prospective clients just loved it. The lawyers may even have been serious. After all, these were the days when the Soviet regime and regimes throughout Eastern Europe were dying on the vine. Fidel Castro couldn't possibly survive much longer.

Don’t know how big, or even where, your company’s environmental footprint is? Good news: 1.) You’re not alone. 2.) There’s help. A recent study showed that many companies are thinking about sustainability but haven’t started doing anything about it, observes Daniel Mahler, a partner in the sustainability practice of A.T. Kearney’s New York City office. While 58 percent of large companies surveyed in 2007 by A.T. Kearney and the Tempe, AZ-based Institute for Supply Management (ISM) have a corporate sustainability strategy, a whopping 42 percent don’t.

Selling sustainable consumer goods would probably be a whole lot easier if all prospective buyers bought-in to the importance of environmentally responsible purchasing. The sad fact remains, however, that they’re a niche. A large chunk of the population isn’t necessarily attracted to green products, doesn’t want to be confronted with green-product propaganda, and is uninterested in paying a premium for a product that might do more for the environment while doing a little less for the consumer. But that vast segment is exactly the one that Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble is targeting with its “future friendly” products. Sustainability: The Journal of Record editor Lori Tripoli talked to Peter White, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK-based director of global sustainability at P&G, about capturing the mainstream consumer, being an early adopter of sustainability—even before the word was attached to the activity—and the progress P&G has made in its efforts.

It takes a village to sustain a big-box store. Take, for example, the interesting trajectory of Home Depot. Today, the company has been named one of Fast Company’s “Fast 50” for its forest-friendly construction, is lauded for selling certified wood, and is the recipient of one of the King Center’s Salute to Greatness Awards—for its commitment to social responsibility in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This past Earth Day, Home Depot gave away one million compact fluorescent light bulbs—and, if that weren’t good enough, a foundation Home Depot started has been working with Brad Pitt to build sustainable housing in New Orleans. It wasn’t always this way.

Rather than facing off in a courtroom, M.B.A.-toting business people and earth-friendly environmentalists are doing what some might once have thought impossible: working collaboratively to clean up the environment. A major hotel, paired with a foundation, charges its own customers to clean up a neighboring beach owned by the state. An organic coffee company partners with a nonprofit that provides livestock and other quality-of-life improvements to the farmers working the bean fields. A one-time critic of the plastics industry works with a chemical company to promote science education. Businesses and environmental groups together are seeking greater regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Seemingly following the maxim to keep your friends close but your enemies closer, the corporate and nonprofit sectors are not only teaming up—they’re benefitting from the effort.

AS WITH SEEMINGLY EVERY OTHER SECTOR last year, reports on the financial performance of the gambling business grew increasingly grim. Las Vegas’ casino revenues were down. Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut announced the layoff of 700 workers. Mohegan Sun stopped construction on a $925 million expansion in eastern Connecticut. The Wall Street Journal reported that Tropicana Entertainment LLC, Greektown Holdings LLC, and Legends Gaming filed for bankruptcy protection. Bond prices for other casino companies dropped. Bloomberg reported that Atlantic City casinos last September had experienced the biggest monthly decline in revenue since gambling began there in 1978, dropping 15 percent.

The Law Simulation Series: Business Organizations is part of a series of simulated, experiential learning environments designed to provide students with an interactive law office environment suitable for the development and refinement of competencies needed for the real-world legal workplace.

At a moment when the financial industry is reeling, when some big-box stores like Circuit City are declaring bankruptcy, when the domestic automotive industry is seemingly self-destructing, and major retailers are closing stores, one can’t help but wonder whether corporate sustainability programs will be the next to fail. Are budgets being drastically reduced? Are companies opting for cheaper but less recyclable packing in an effort to trim expenses? Should sustainability professionals be in panic mode?

The start of a new year marks the time when many firms welcome a new class of partners into the fold. Armed with stipends to decorate their offices, many of these individuals want to make changes to reflect their new status. But the rules are changing. The idea that partnership comes with a larger office and a generous allowance with which to decorate it isn't quite as true as it once was.

The oil and gas industry is undoubtedly one that is easy to dislike. There is Chevron's legal mess in Ecuador concerning pollution of the Amazon that's been chronicled in everything from 60 Minutes to Vanity Fair. There's lingering oil contamination in Prince William Sound from the Exxon Valdez. The remaining oil is almost as toxic as it was when the spill occurred in 1989 --despite two decades of cleanup and monitoring, according to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, which was formed to oversee the restoration of the area. Just last month, the U.S. EPA announced it had ordered Texaco to assess soil and groundwater contamination at the Pacific Coast Pipeline Superfund Site, which formerly operated as a refinery, in Fillmore, CA. A Gallup poll of Americans' images of industry reported last summer that the oil and gas industry has the lowest approval rating, with only 21 percent of respondents having a positive impression. Even the banking business did better (with 28 percent).

The law firm Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, & Eberz PC, which has offices here and in New York City, is the subject of a grievance filed by a well-known local architect, who for years had used the firm for both personal and professional matters, and then learned it was representing plaintiffs in a suit against him.

IN THE VERY MONTH that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was signed into law by President Bush, a Web security company reported a 40 percent increase in U.S.- based traffic to gambling-related Web pages. “Given the recent . . . legislation, we had anticipated a drop in visits to gambling sites” in October 2006, said Dan Nadir, vice president of product strategy at ScanSafe, a Web security service company in San Mateo, Calif., that helps companies reduce online security risk. Despite the passage of the new law, “we actually saw an increase in Web requests from the U.S. for online gambling sites,” said Nadir, whose company filters about 6 billion Web requests a month.

Partnering with students and others, explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s grandson restocks oceans through his new nonprofit, Plant A Fish

Federal prosecutors yesterday charged that two former Ogilvy & Mather executives who worked on the White House's national anti-drug ad account undertook an "extensive effort to falsify timesheets" in a conspiracy to defraud the government, and that "hundreds of Ogilvy employees were instructed to lie" about the hours they billed.

Over the course of the last year, the practice of environmental law has shifted and, in the view of some, slowed down. Some lawyers say the change has occurred as major Superfund cases are resolved and as the Environmental Protection Agency and its state counterparts move away from a command-and-control approach to enforcement; others assert that clients are simply handling more of the routine work in-house. Of course, the decrease in environmental work that is occurring now is quite different from the overall downturn many law firms experienced in the late 1980s following the stock market crash. Today, business is booming and the market is relatively healthy, yet some environmental lawyers are not quite as busy as they'd like to be, and wise practitioners need to position themselves now to avoid tough times ahead. Flexibility and sensible marketing plans should help environmental lawyers survive reductions in their workload, experts say.

Hazel Chambers's suit against major New York publishers couldn't come at a worse time for defendants answering charges that an innocent victim has been hounded by the media. The case features all the fundamental issues that define this area of practice.

Practical and engaging introduction to Law Office Management for paralegals. This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the basics of law office management in today's legal environment.

Why lawyers need to care about sustainability

Tourist boards might want you to think that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But what’s happening in Vegas is pretty much happening everywhere these days. From senior citizens carrying bags of quarters to Hollywood stars entering poker tournaments and soccer moms wagering over George Clooney’s Oscar prospects, everyone indulges in a little recreational gambling now and then. Between traditional casinos, state lotteries, Indian casinos, shipboard gambling, and other venues, Americans are wagering $1 trillion a year, estimates Robert Jarvis, a professor at Nova Southeastern University Law Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and co-author of a casebook on gaming law.