Author Archives: Library Relations

Free One-Hour Briefing on Legal Issues for Startups: What Non-Lawyer Entrepreneurs Need to Know

April 24, 2014, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (E.D.T.)

Early stage companies (startups) are critical to economic growth. But startups face complicated legal issues because of their limited financial resources, the dynamic phase of product development, their hiring requirements, and their pursuit of investment. Put simply: startups always have legal questions and never have money; attorneys have answers, but always cost money.

With a conversation that will speak to both non-attorneys (startups) as well as attorneys, please join Charles Belle (Executive Director at the Institute for Innovation Law at UC Hastings) and attorney Ken Priore (General Counsel of Grindr) as they provide an overview of the legal issues startups face from launch to Series A funding.
Specific topics include:

  • Understanding the lifecyle basics of a startup, from bootstrapped to Series A
  • Critical legal needs startups need to be aware of
  • When lawyers over lawyer: what startups don’t need
  • When startups should be charged for services and when not
  • Practical steps startups should consider in their funding options as they develop
  • The impact of the new crowdfunding legislation as a funding mechanism

Mark you calendar and don’t miss this important Free Briefing!

PLI Course Handbooks Published in March 2014

Listed below are the PLI Course Handbooks published in March 2014:

Commercial Law and Practice

Corporate Law and Practice

Intellectual Property Law

Litigation and Administrative Practice

New York Practice Skills

Real Estate Law and Practice

Tax Law and Estate Planning

If you have any questions or would like to order a title, please email the PLI Library Relations Department or call 877-900-5291.

PLI Treatises Updated in March 2014

In March 2014, PLI updated the following Treatises:

If you are on standing order for any of these titles, the releases have already been shipped. If you would like to place an order, please email PLI Library Relations or call 877-900-5291

PLI Course Handbooks Published in February 2014

Listed below are the PLI Course Handbooks published in February 2014:

Corporate Law and Practice

Intellectual Property Law

Litigation and Administrative Practice

New York Practice Skills

Tax Law and Estate Planning

If you have any questions or would like to order a title, please email the PLI Library Relations Department or call 877-900-5291.

Federal Bail and Detention Handbook 2014

Federal Bail 2014“The savings in time alone, as you try to prepare for an initial or detention hearing, makes the Handbook a bargain.”
—Defense Magazine

The Federal Bail and Detention Handbook 2014 is now available.  This soft cover treatise has been published to help readers find answers in a hurry and its size makes it convenient to be carried to and from the courtroom.

The Bail Reform Act of 1984 and its legislative history are lengthy and complex. Yet all federal court participants–lawyers, judges, and others–are required to understand the Act thoroughly and apply it swiftly and effectively, often under the pressure of a detention hearing.

Authored by the Honorable John L. Weinberg, this title provides the busy practicing lawyer or judge with a quick and clear reference to the Act and all of the relevant statutory language, legislative history and appellate case law.

Judge Weinberg has included “Practice Pointers”, which are designed to provide defense counsel and Assistant U.S. Attorneys with strategic suggestions for dealing with the Act.  The Handbook’s Table of Cases lists every federal appellate decision of significant precedential value that interprets or applies the Act.

The paperback format of this 2014 edition has been tailored to help readers find answers in a hurry. Its size permits it to be carried conveniently to and from the courtroom.

The book is $185.00 per copy, not including shipping charges of $7.50 per title, per consignee location.  There is a discount rate of 20% for 3 or more copies and of 33% for 100 or more copies.  To order a copy, contact the PLI Library Relations Help Desk or call 877-900-5291.

New Release for International Corporate Practice Published in February 2014

International Corporate PracticeIn February 2014, PLI pulished International Corporate Practice Release # 8.

If you are on standing order for this title or have a Standing Order Plan with PLI, this release has already been shipped to you. If you would like to place an order, please email PLI Library Relations or call 877-900-5291

AALL Reviews PLI’s FASHION LAW AND BUSINESS Treatise

fashionFashion Law and Business, PLI’s new Treatise, has been getting rave reviews!  Check out the latest review from AALL here and below.  If you have any questions or would like to order the book, please email the PLI Library Relations Department or call 877-900-5291.

Book Review: Fashion Law and Business: Brands & Retailers

BY: Andreea Alexander | February 14, 2014 at 10:56 AM

Lois F. Herzeca & Howard S. Hogan.  2013. Fashion Law and Business: Brands and Retailers.  Practising Law Institute: New York.  847 pages.  $185 from publisher; $145.48 from Amazon.com

While the subject hasn’t yet garnered the broad name recognition of practice areas like sports law and entertainment law, those familiar with the actual study and practice of fashion law understand that it’s about more than whether you should match your shoes to your belt (or even the Louboutin red soles case).   Fashion law encompasses a broad range of issues such as corporate law, international trade, labor and employment, real estate, and of course intellectual property.  And now, with Fashion Law and Business: Brands & Retailers, Lois F. Herzeca and Howard S. Hogan take fashion law a little further into the mainstream legal world.

If your library purchases only one book on fashion law, this should be it.  Now, admittedly, there are only a handful of books explicitly dedicated to fashion law currently in print, so the options are fairly limited.  But in my opinion, this book is by far the most helpful for students and practitioners alike.  As one might deduce from the publisher, the Practising Law Institute, this text is targeted more toward practitioners, and was in fact written by two attorneys who Co-Chair their firm’s Fashion, Retail and Consumer Products Practice Group.   The authors explain in the introduction, “[T]his book is structured on the presumption that fashion law can be best examined in the context of an understanding of the business and operations of the fashion industry.”  This is not a casebook, and it’s not written to be a textbook (although it would be helpful in a fashion law course).  It is the most comprehensive guide to fashion law that has been published so far, with 847 pages (more than twice the pages of the next longest text on fashion law), and accurately captures both the large and small issues of the subject.

Other in-depth examinations of fashion law feature chapters written by different scholars and practitioners on various topics; this leads to some redundancy as similar ideas are reiterated in different contexts.  Fashion Law and Business benefits from a unified tone thanks to the treatment of each topic by the same two authors.  The finding aids are excellent, including a detailed table of contents, a 36-page index, and a table of authorities allowing the reader to focus on specific cases or statutes.  Cases are not reprinted but are discussed in some detail, and the authors wisely chose to incorporate not only overtly fashion law-oriented cases but also cases that do not involve fashion but are critical to understanding a given topic in fashion law; for example, the grey market is a major issue in fashion law, but a basic understanding of the grey market would be incomplete without John Wiley & Sons v. Kirtsaeng.  Fashion Law and Business includes an explanation of that case alongside more clearly fashion-oriented cases like Abercrombie & Fitch v. Fashion Shops of Kentucky.

If I have one quibble with Fashion Law and Business, it’s that references are grouped at the end of each chapter as endnotes, instead of in footnotes on the relevant pages; flipping back and forth is a little bit bothersome for someone accustomed to the reference style of law reviews and journals.  But this is a minor issue, and the benefits of this text far outweigh that small irritation.  It’s also a comparatively good bargain—other fashion law texts are published in paperback and cost upwards of $80; at about $145 (prices via Amazon.com), this hardcover text delivers more content and promises to be more physically resilient.

I’ve followed the recent publication of fashion law books with great interest, and this is the first one I felt I could unreservedly recommend for the libraries of both law schools and law firms.  It is thorough, well-written, and may help your library’s patrons see that “fashion law” means something more than “leggings aren’t pants!”
Andrea Alexander is a reference librarian and assistant professor at Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law’s Taggart Law Library.  She never wears leggings as pants.

PLI Course Handbooks Published in January 2014

Listed below are the PLI Course Handbooks published in January 2014:

Commercial Law and Practice

Corporate Law and Practice

Intellectual Property Law

Litigation and Administrative Practice

Real Estate Law and Practice

Tax Law and Estate Planning

If you have any questions or would like to order a title, please email the PLI Library Relations Department or call 877-900-5291.

Our Free Library One-Hour Briefing on Changing from Two to One Legal Database Vendor is Now Available On-Demand!

35336PLI and LLAGNY have teamed up to offer free one-hour audio briefings for librarians, researchers, attorneys, and allied professionals. Last month we offered a session on moving from two legal database vendors to one, which is now available on-demand!

Our new economic world continually requires cost savings as a constant standard. Law Firms, Legal Departments and Government Libraries have subscribed to multiple major legal vendors since the 1980s. But currently, there are questions as to whether this should remain the standard. Can legal research be effectively performed with only one database? If a choice has to be made, how will that affect the efficacy of legal research?

Lecture Topics:

  • Responding to the new normal: How many legal databases can/should we provide?
  • Learn what steps should be taken in making the decision to select one vendor.
  • Review your usage and content to maximize the offerings in your contract.
  • What issues may you face after the decision has been made to go to one vendor?

The program faculty members are: Nancy Hancock of CURRENT ISSUES: A Library Service; Susan van Beek-McKenna of Budd Larner, P.C.; and Tanya Whorton of Crowell & Moring, LLP.

This briefing, featuring instruction from experts in library management, was conceived and created in cooperation with the Law Library Association of Greater New York (LLAGNY) and Practising Law Institute (PLI). This briefing is chaired by Janice E. Henderson, Patricia Barbone and Jill Gray.

Click here to listen to the on-demand program.