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The state of California, mired in a months-long budget stalemate, finally began issuing IOUs instead of cash for some of its obligations earlier this month. The IOUs, officially known as "registered warrants," will mature later this year, and in the meantime will accrue tax-free interest. Many major banks in California are now declining to accept the warrants, leaving many warrant-holders in a temporary cash crunch, looking for ways to trade or sell their warrants now in exchange for cash.

Now comes word that the federal government has stepped in to regulate warrant trading. The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, an entity overseen by the Securities and Exhcange Commission, stated its opinion late last week that the California warrants are "municipal securities" subject to certain federal securities laws.

On this blog, I try to pass along tips for running a small law firm.  Essentially, ways to plan and operate your firm so that you will meet your goals (the blog is called the "Strategist," after all).

Well, here's one Florida attorney whose story offers an example of a strategy not to pursue.

Cheney Mason went on Dateline and offered a million dollars to anyone who could prove that his client, Nelson Ivan Serrano, was actually able to travel across two states and kill four people in the time that prosecutors had alleged.

You work hard to make your money, especially in tough times when business can be hard to come by.  The last thing you want is for a partner or employee to steal money from the cookie jar while you're concentrating on representing your clients.

Unfortunately, if you're a small firm or solo attorney, it's much more likely to happen to you than it is to a large or mid-size firm.

There's been much discussion about student loans ever since the economy tanked.  Many students leave school with debt payments they find impossible to stay current on with their postgraduate salaries.  This phenomenon only increases in tough economic times as recent graduates take jobs they are overqualified for, or are unable to find work altogether.

Some feel that the rising cost of higher education, and the consequent increase in the amount of student loan debt the average student is forced to shoulder, is an unfair burden for those seeking to enhance their education with a college or advanced degree.

Last Friday, the New York Times published a great article that examined the plight that most law firms have found themselves in lately, as seen through the lens of one law firm, White & Case.

As the article explained, many of law firms' current woes spring from the fact that banks have ceased to lend money as freely as they once did and are calling in previously issued loans.

As a follow-up of sorts to my previous post titled In a Down Market, Lawyers Must Think Like MBAs, I'd like to direct your attention to an article in the New Jersey Law Journal about using financial metrics to help your firm thrive. 

I know, I know - we became lawyers because numbers are scary and mean and make our heads hurt.  The article makes some very good points about how to establish baselines that you can use create goals and measure progress, though, and it explains the concepts involved in a very simple way.  Even a lawyer can understand them - I'm living proof.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a case to determine whether judges can award extra attorney's fees to reward what they see as exceptional lawyering. 

The case, Perdue v Kenny A., involved a challenge to Georgia's foster care system.  The U.S. district court judge added extra money for the plaintiffs' attorneys' fees onto the original award because of the extraordinarily positive results that the attorneys achieved.  The 11th Circuit declined to overturn the decision.