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Wealth Matters: Fertility Treatments Produce Heirs Their Parents Never Knew

While this may sound bizarre, posthumously conceived children can become a quandary for the rich and the not-so-rich alike. The problem is always about money. The rich worry about who will get their assets after they are dead, while people of more meager means have turned to the courts in the hope of collecting federal benefits.

“We’re going to see a flurry of activity on this, because new technologies are ballooning,” said Sharon L. Klein, managing director at Wilmington Trust and chairwoman of the trusts, estates and surrogate’s courts committee of the New York City Bar Association.

“You read about women in their late 20s and early 30s who are saving their eggs and want to focus on their careers and haven’t met the right partner yet,” she said. The woman’s eggs could be used to produce a child even if the woman never wanted the eggs used after her death.

The law is clear on one thing: when a trust document does not address the issue, Ms. Klein said, “children born with the new technology are entitled to inherit with the same rights as a natural-born child.”

Consider the example of a sick person who, before undergoing chemotherapy that will cause sterility, donates sperm or eggs to be frozen, in hopes of having children later. The patient intends to have the children after recovery. But should the patient die without something in writing stating this intent, the surviving partner could have a claim on that genetic material and could use it to produce a child.

Other possibilities exist. A couple who has embryos left over after having children through in vitro fertilization could, instead of destroying them, donate them to a woman, essentially giving her a child they created. That could have unintended consequences. “It’s not inconceivable now that if the father and mother of that embryo were to strike it rich, the child born of that other woman could say, ‘Those are my genetic parents,’ ” said John M. Olivieri, a partner at White & Case. And if the child says that, chances are he or she would ask for a share of the genetic parents’ wealth.

“Posthumous reproduction is the perfect storm of competing interests,” said Susan M. Wolf, professor of law, medicine and public policy at the University of Minnesota School of Law. “There’s the surviving partner who wants to reproduce, the interests of the deceased while they were alive or as they memorialized them, the pre-existing kids who don’t want their interest diluted and finally the kids who are brought into the picture but who may be financially most at risk.”

Several lawsuits have already tested this issue, and many more have been settled privately, lawyers said.

In 2007, the New York County Surrogate’s Court decided in the case In re Martin B. that two posthumously conceived children could benefit from a trust created by their grandfather, Martin B., for his two sons and any grandchildren. (Real names were not used in the suit to protect the children.)

The case was brought jointly by Martin B.’s wife and the widow of their son, whose frozen sperm had been used to conceive two children three and five years after his death. They wanted to know whether the posthumously conceived children were descendants for the purpose of the trust.

The answer decided whether tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars from the estate of Martin B. went to those children or if all of it was divided among the surviving son and his children.

What made this case even more intriguing was that Martin B.’s wife had the ability to divide the assets in the trusts her husband set up as she saw fit. Lawyers on both sides said even if her posthumously conceived grandchildren were not considered, she could have cut her living son out of his inheritance.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 30, 2013

An earlier version of this article included outdated information about the status of New York legislation that would set guidelines for the inheritance rights of posthumously conceived children. The state Senate did not take up the legislation in the most recent session, which ended in June; it is not awaiting Senate action in this session. 

Bits Blog: Children Lost in War Zones and Disasters Find Their Families With an App

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Its Viewers Are Graying, but Their Passion Pays for Fox News

Fox News continues to be near the top in cable television in terms of the number of viewers it attracts, but it is near the top in another category, too: the median age of its audience is among the oldest in television.

For most of the television business — the segment that relies on advertising — that would be serious cause for concern because ad sales are almost always based on a target age of 25 to 54, and Fox News, for the last two years, has had a median age of 65-plus in its ratings both for the full day and for prime time.

But up until now at least, Fox News has been more able than any other television entity to defy the tyranny of the demos, as they are known in the business. And the network, which has upturned traditions and expectations throughout its history, has earned consistently enormous profits, relying on the commitment and loyalty of its audience.

“I don’t think you can fully capture the value Fox News brings by looking at the Nielsen ratings alone,” said Craig Moffett, the longtime financial analyst who specializes in cable. Mr. Moffett, who heads his own firm, said that the key to Fox News’s continued financial strength has been “the level of passion and engagement” it inspires in its viewers.

That translates into big money because cable systems now pay Fox News one of the highest per-subscriber fees in television, 94 cents a month, topped in cable television only by a few networks, most of which have expensive sports rights to pay. (By comparison, CNN gets 57 cents a subscriber, according to SNL Kagan Research.) As Mr. Moffett put it, “There are a handful of networks consumers are deeply passionate about out of all proportion to Nielsen ratings, and distributors know if you don’t have those networks, then woe be to you.”

With close to 100 million subscribers in total, Kagan estimated Fox News will take in $1.11 billion this year from subscription fees before it ever sells a single commercial. Still, the network faces some significant questions as it goes forward: How old is too old? And when does the issue have to be addressed?

Fox News declined to make executives available for comment, but several recent signs — including changing personalities for some of its weekday programs — suggest the network may have decided the time has come to confront the issue of age.

Just how old is its audience? It is impossible to be precise because Nielsen stops giving an exact figure for median age once it passes 65. But for six of the last eight years, Fox News has had a median age of 65-plus and the number of viewers in the 25-54 year old group has been falling consistently, down five years in a row in prime time, from an average of 557,000 viewers five years ago to 379,000 this year. That has occurred even though Fox’s overall audience in prime time has actually increased three years in a row, from 887,000 to 1.05 million this year.

The network also has been faced with a recent string of nightly wins in that 25-54 audience by CNN, which had been hopelessly behind in recent years.

“The numbers indicate they haven’t been replacing the younger viewers,” Mr. Moffet said of Fox News. Many of the loyal viewers the network has always had are simply aging up beyond the 54-year cutoff for many ad buyers. The result is an audience edging consistently above that 65-plus number.

News audiences always trend old, and the viewers of Fox’s competitors are hardly in the full flower of youth. MSNBC’s median age for its prime-time shows this year is 60.6; CNN’s is 59.8.

In terms of the rest of television, Fox News also is quite a bit older than networks considered to have a base of older viewers. CBS has frequently been needled for having older viewers, but at 56.8, its median viewer is far younger than Fox News’s. (Viewers at Fox News’s sister network, Fox Broadcasting, have a median age of 50.2; at ABC, the median is 54.4; at NBC, it’s 47.7.)

App Smart: Smartphone Tools Have Their Place in the Wild

Planning a camping trip can be complex because there are so many different things you may need to take with you. The Camping List Pro, $2 for iOS, can help. It’s a list-making and organizing app specially set up for camping, with categories from shelter to personal hygiene. You can add your own things to the list as well. It’s easy to use and attractively designed, and its preloaded lists may help you remember to pack some useful items you may have overlooked, like air pumps and Ziploc bags.

Camping Trip Planner, $1 for Android, is similar. Simpler than Camping List Pro and graphically more spartan, it may suit your tastes. A list-based interface is straightforward, though I wish for a button on the main display to add entries rather than having to tap through the menu first. The app doesn’t suggest items for you, but it does have a model list with over 200 useful camping items to jog your memory.

After you’ve planned your trip, the next step is finding a campsite. On iOS and Android, the popular Camp and RV app is packed with comprehensive information for campsites across the United States and Canada — nearly 25,000 of them, from private sites to military campgrounds.

The app is based on a map interface. You search for a campsite or simply navigate to the region you’re interested in exploring, and see what icons pop up on the map. Tapping one of the icons brings up a message with more information on that site.

From there, you can bring up an information page that includes data like a Web site URL, contact details and even photographs. The $10 price tag is high, but it is kept current by its developers and will work offline, which may be really useful if you’re on the road. You can also opt for just the Camp and Tent version or the RV version, depending on your needs, and they’re just $5 each.

If you’re planning some sightseeing walks on your trip, then Columbia’s GPS Pal, from the Columbia Sportswear Company, may become your best outdoor digital friend. Using the GPS technology in your phone, it automatically logs your trek, including elevation data, so you can see later where you went. You can also add notes, photos and video to specific GPS location tags to record something memorable. It’s on iOS and Android and is free, which is impressive. But there’s one important issue common to all GPS apps: using them will eat up your battery life. That’s something to remember if you’re planning to use them to find your way back to where you started.

Knots are always handy to know, whether or not you’re camping — I even put my old Scouts knot training to use the other day while putting up a hammock. Many apps can help you learn knots, but a great one on iOS is What Knot to Do, also from Columbia Sportswear. It’s free and no-nonsense, listing 70 knots sorted by category, including knots like hitches or “stoppers.” The app includes a short description of each knot category and what individual knots are useful for, and you can save your favorites for easy reference later.

It walks you step by step, with images, through tying each knot. But if you’re a complete novice, you may get a bit lost among all the options and knotty jargon, with phrases like “a loop on the bight” and “fair the knot.”

The Android app Knots Guide is a great alternative, with a simple interface that divides knots into categories like “fishing” or “decorative.” It’s not the best-looking app ever, and the knot-tying diagrams sometimes need close examination. But it is free.

Compass apps are useful for trekking, or even pitching your tent relative to prevailing wind directions. Commander Compass on iOS is a graphically attractive compass that also packs in an inclinometer, GPS tracker and speedometer. If its $4 price is too much for you, you might try Apple’s simpler built-in compass app instead. On Android, the Compass app from Catch.com is a rough equivalent to Commander Compass and it’s free.

When you are out in the countryside, remember to use these and other apps only when you need them. The view of the real world around you is probably far better than the one on your touch screen.

Quick Call

Crayon Physics Deluxe has long been a big hit on iOS, thanks to its clever physics-based game and cute graphics that make your on-screen crayon drawings come to life to solve puzzles. It has finally been released as an Android app on Google Play, costing $3.

Dell Products Make Their Way, Circuitously, to Syria

The disclosure of the computer sales is the latest example of how the Syrian government has managed to acquire technology, some of which is used to censor Internet activity and track opponents of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

According to internal company e-mails, cash transfer statements, sales receipts and shipping documents, the computer equipment was sold by BDL Gulf, which is based in Saudi Arabia and is a large distributor of computer equipment in the Middle East. It is an authorized dealer for Dell in the Middle East and Africa, and is also a reseller for other computer brands, including Samsung and Acer.

BDL sold the equipment to Anas Hasoon Trading, a Damascus-based company with contracts to provide computers to the Syrian government, according to billings records and e-mail exchanges between the companies.

Jess Blackburn, a spokesman for Dell in Round Rock, Tex., confirmed that BDL was an authorized reseller. He said the company was recently made aware of a possible shipment of Dell equipment to Syria by an anonymous source.

“We are investigating an allegation we received recently that BDL was involved in a possible transaction involving Syria,” Mr. Blackburn said in a statement. “Dell requires its resellers to follow U.S. trade requirements, just as Dell does. Resellers of Dell products and services are contractually prohibited from selling or shipping any technology to a customer in a restricted country.”

The United States has barred the sales of most American-made goods to Syria for nearly a decade and has repeatedly tightened sanctions against the government. An executive order by President Obama, dated April 22, 2012, specifically addresses the sale of computer technology to Syria, barring Americans from helping the Iranian and Syrian governments engage in human rights abuses, including monitoring and tracking of dissidents.

United States officials charged with enforcing sanctions against Syria would not comment on the possible violation of export sanction laws but did say that exporting technology to Syria was illegal unless the sale would promote the free flow of information between the Syrian people and the outside world.

Asked about the evidence of shipments to Syria, a manager at BDL said the company had hundreds of customers and did not keep track of their locations.

“We cannot know if they are from Pakistan, Egypt or Morocco; we just sell in Dubai,” said RamaNarayan Singh, who is listed as BDL’s sales manager for the United Arab Emirates, Africa and Iran. “I’m just an employee doing my duty. I don’t know if a company is from Syria.”

But e-mails between Mr. Singh and a representative from Anas Hasoon Trading show that the Syrian company made it clear to him that it was working on behalf of the Assad government. Mr. Singh signed several invoices that listed a Syrian address for the trading company. Mr. Singh said he did not recall the e-mails or the invoices.

The records, which were provided to The Times by an individual who was briefed on the transactions, showed that BDL sold hundreds of laptops, tablets and desktop computers to the Syrian company.

In e-mails sent between Mr. Singh and Yahya Rifai, who was listed as a purchasing manager for the Anas Hasoon Trading company, Mr. Rifai mentioned several times that he was working to buy the computers for the Syrian government.

The companies dealt mainly in cash, records showed, after transfers from Syrian banks to banks in Dubai were rejected because of financial sanctions against the country.

In an e-mail to Mr. Singh dated Sept. 2, 2012, Mr. Rifai wrote about his difficulties in using bank transfers to pay for the computers because of the sanctions.

“Dear Ram, my problem is how to get money from Syria to you? As you know I’m working on tenders deals with the government which required many documents and approvals!!” he wrote.

“Try please do not worry,” Mr. Singh wrote in response. “I will support you whatever best for you.”

Barred by banks from making electronic transfers, Mr. Rifai made several large cash deposits into the bank account of BDL to purchase the computers, the documents show. Asked last month about the purchases, Mr. Rifai responded in an e-mail: “We are Syrian company so we don’t care about the rules America put, its only for American companies not us.”

Last year, the Syrian government made similar purchases of computer equipment from a reseller of Hewlett-Packard. The equipment, according to various news reports, was used to monitor the e-mail and Internet use of opposition forces. Hewlett-Packard said its computers were sold without its knowledge.

In 2011, Internet-blocking devices from Blue Coat Systems, of Sunnyvale, Calif., were shipped to Syria from Dubai. Blue Coat thinks the gear was sold to the Iraqi government.

“It’s a pattern that we’ve seen across the Middle East from governments trying to avoid democratic changes — using proxies to bypass sanctions and buy equipment to stifle dissent and track Internet activity,” said Charles Dunne, a former National Security Council official and director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Freedom House, a Washington nonprofit group that promotes democratic change. “The U.S. government and companies need to do a better job of making sure this equipment does not end up in the hands of governments like the Assad regime.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 3, 2013

An earlier version of this article and an accompanying picture erroneously identified Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia as the owner of BDL Gulf. Representatives of Prince Alwaleed said that neither he nor his senior advisers are aware of any connection between the prince and BDL Gulf.

Some Schools Urge Students to Bring Their Own Technology

Officials at the schools say the students’ own devices are the simplest way to use a new generation of learning apps that can, for example, teach them math, test them with quizzes and enable them to share and comment on each other’s essays.

Advocates of this new trend, called B.Y.O.T. for bring your own technology, say there is another advantage: it saves money for schools short of cash.

Some large school districts in Central Florida and near Houston and Atlanta have already signed on, and they are fielding calls and providing tours to administrators from hundreds of other districts that are considering whether to follow their lead.

But B.Y.O.T. has many skeptics, even among people who otherwise see benefits of using more technology in classrooms.

“The schools are hoping, hoping there’s going to be a for-free solution because they don’t have any money,” said Elliot Soloway, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan who consults with many school districts about the use of computers to promote learning.

“If you look at initiatives in public education, this has the momentum.”

But Mr. Soloway also said he was “frightened” by the notion of schools using B.Y.O.T. as a quick budget fix because there was no evidence that a classroom full of students using different personal devices would enhance learning. Roy Pea, a professor of learning sciences at Stanford University, also has doubts. He is the co-author of a White House-backed National Educational Technology Plan published in 2011 that advocates for technology-centric classrooms.

But he said the B.Y.O.T. approach could be counterproductive if teachers were forced to build lessons around different devices — in effect, subverting curriculum to technology.

“Why are they so happy to have these devices when just a few years ago they didn’t want them in the classroom?” Dr. Pea asked about school administrators.

The Volusia County School District in Central Florida, bordering Daytona Beach, is one of the places that used to have signs around its schools that admonished students: no cellphones allowed. But the signs have been replaced over the last two years with new ones that read: B.Y.O.T.

Volusia school officials say that they realized they should take advantage of, rather than fight, students’ deep connections with their devices. At the same time, the district found that the cost of providing and maintaining computers for students was becoming prohibitive.

Since the change, Volusia officials say, they have not encountered many tech support problems or complaints from teachers. Rather, students are more engaged, they say, and the only problem that regularly crops up is that students forget to charge the batteries in their devices.

“It’s almost like bringing your homework,” said Jessica Levene, manager of learning technologies for the Volusia district, where 21 of 70 schools are using B.Y.O.T. “Make sure you have your device and that it’s charged.”

She conceded that students could text each other more easily now but said the school was keeping them busy on their devices. And while district administrators worried initially that poorer students would not own devices, they discovered something of “an inverse relationship” between family income and the sophistication of their devices, particularly smartphones, said Don Boulware, the district’s director of technology services.

At Woodward Avenue Elementary School in the Volusia district, fifth-grade teacher Dana Zacharko said her students tended to bring in smartphones or iPod Touches. She said she had found apps that allowed her to teach all kinds of subjects.

White-Collar Boutiques Find Their Niche in a Crowded Market

For more than a decade, the provenance of white-collar defense work has been shifting away from boutiques to large corporate firms that have wooed prominent former prosecutors and built strong white-collar practices.

Nevertheless, boutiques continue to form, prompting many in the defense bar to ask whether there's enough white-collar work to go around.

In interviews with the New York Law Journal, a few white-collar defense lawyers said they felt the field was getting crowded, but others said there is a role for boutiques that find a niche and develop an expertise.

"There are many more fish chasing the same business," said Gordon Mehler, who started his own firm in 2000. While he said he thought older, established lawyers like himself would survive, younger lawyers entering the field in boutiques "will have a rough time."

There are more small firms focused on white-collar practice than there were five years ago, Mehler said. "The dynamics have dramatically changed" among the boutiques, he added.

One partner at a white-collar boutique who did not want to be identified said that "the practice area now feels to me very crowded and it seems unlikely that there's enough work to go around."

"As work has slowed down for big firms, you see more lawyers at top firms competing with boutiques to represent individuals," the partner said. "For the people who want to get into it, it's a tough market to crack."

Others are more optimistic.

"You don't need to do any more than open the newspaper and see that there's another investigation," said Steven Molo, a partner of boutique MoloLamken. "The opportunities have increased for boutiques in several ways."

Increased government enforcement and regulation have propelled the growth of the white-collar practice. In just one example, the Securities and Exchange Commission said that in fiscal year 2012 it filed 734 enforcement actions, including those against insider trading, broker-dealers, delinquent filings and other actions, just one shy of the record in 2011. The government said the last two years reflect the highest numbers of total actions brought by the SEC.

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White-Collar Boutiques Find Their Niche in a Crowded Market

For more than a decade, the provenance of white-collar defense work has been shifting away from boutiques to large corporate firms that have wooed prominent former prosecutors and built strong white-collar practices.

Nevertheless, boutiques continue to form, prompting many in the defense bar to ask whether there's enough white-collar work to go around.

In interviews with the New York Law Journal, a few white-collar defense lawyers said they felt the field was getting crowded, but others said there is a role for boutiques that find a niche and develop an expertise.

"There are many more fish chasing the same business," said Gordon Mehler, who started his own firm in 2000. While he said he thought older, established lawyers like himself would survive, younger lawyers entering the field in boutiques "will have a rough time."

There are more small firms focused on white-collar practice than there were five years ago, Mehler said. "The dynamics have dramatically changed" among the boutiques, he added.

One partner at a white-collar boutique who did not want to be identified said that "the practice area now feels to me very crowded and it seems unlikely that there's enough work to go around."

"As work has slowed down for big firms, you see more lawyers at top firms competing with boutiques to represent individuals," the partner said. "For the people who want to get into it, it's a tough market to crack."

Others are more optimistic.

"You don't need to do any more than open the newspaper and see that there's another investigation," said Steven Molo, a partner of boutique MoloLamken. "The opportunities have increased for boutiques in several ways."

Increased government enforcement and regulation have propelled the growth of the white-collar practice. In just one example, the Securities and Exchange Commission said that in fiscal year 2012 it filed 734 enforcement actions, including those against insider trading, broker-dealers, delinquent filings and other actions, just one shy of the record in 2011. The government said the last two years reflect the highest numbers of total actions brought by the SEC.

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Michael Cronan, Who Gave TiVo and Kindle Their Names, Dies at 61

The cause was colon cancer, said his wife, Karin Hibma, with whom he founded the marketing firm Cronan in the early 1980s.

Mr. Cronan, who studied art in college, had many corporations and cultural institutions as clients, but he was most remembered for the pair of brand names he came up with a decade apart.

In the spring of 1997, he was asked to forge a name and an identity for a new device, a digital video recorder developed by a company called Teleworld that offered more sophisticated television recording choices than the videocassette recorder.

“We reviewed probably 1,600-plus name alternatives, seriously considered over 800 names and presented over 100 strong candidates to the team,” Mr. Cronan told Matt Haughey for his blog PVR (the letters stand for personal video recorder) in 2005.

“We spent the early meetings trying to place a cultural context on the product,” he said. Among the possibilities were Bongo and Lasso, which never got far.

Believing that “we were naming the next TV,” Mr. Cronan recalled, “I thought it should be as close as possible to what people would find familiar, so it must contain T and V.”

“I started looking at letter combinations,” he added, “and pretty quickly settled on TiVo.” (The “Vo” portion, he said, had a connection to the Latin and Italian words for vocal sound and voice.) Then came the search for a mascot that Mr. Cronan hoped “would become as recognizable as the mouse ears are to Disney.” He created a TV-shaped smiley character with the name TiVo inscribed on its face, rabbit ears suggesting an early TV set and large, splayed feet. Teleworld changed its name to TiVo Inc.

When Amazon prepared to introduce its first electronic reader in 2007, it turned to Mr. Cronan, who envisioned imagery reflecting the reading experience as an embryonic but rising technology.

Ms. Hibma said in an interview on Friday that in pondering a brand name, Mr. Cronan “wanted to create something small, humble, with no braggadocio,” while choosing an image that “was about starting something, giving birth to something.” He found the name, she said, by likening use of the new e-reader to “starting a fire.”

Michael Patrick Cronan was born on June 9, 1951, in San Francisco. He studied painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts), where he later taught, and received a degree in art from California State University, Sacramento. He was a founder and past president of the San Francisco branch of AIGA, the professional association for design.

Mr. Cronan and his wife expanded their focus in 1992 to create the Walking Man clothing collection, featuring loose-knit tops and pants. Mr. Cronan also designed a pair of 1999 postage stamps, one commemorating the 50th anniversary of NATO and the other promoting prostate cancer awareness, and painted portraits and watercolors.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Cronan is survived by his sons, Shawn HibmaCronan and Nick Cronan; a brother, Christopher; a sister, Patricia Cronan; and a granddaughter.

For all his devotion to marketing and branding, Mr. Cronan felt that sometimes the demands of commerce went too far, as in the often-changing corporate names attached to sports stadiums and concert halls.

“There was a time in American life where going to a sporting event or a concert was sort of magical, because a lot of these places had these fun names,” he told The Denver Post in 2010. “But these days, with the amount of people craving advertising exposure, the sponsors have found a way to sell everything. They’re selling our nostalgia, and it’s sad.”

Some Companies Seek to Wean Employees From Their Smartphones

Atos, an international information technology company, plans to phase out all e-mails among employees by the end of 2013 and rely instead on other forms of communication. And starting in the new year, employees at Daimler, the German automaker, can have incoming e-mail automatically deleted during vacations so they do not return to a flooded in-box. An automatic message tells the sender which person is temporarily dealing with the employee’s e-mail.

No one is expected to be on call at all hours of the day and night, and “switching off” after work is important, “even if you are on a business trip,” said Sabrina Schrimpf, a Daimler spokeswoman, referring to the company’s recently released report, “Balanced! — Reconciling Employees’ Work and Private Lives.”

Disconnecting can be more challenging for business travelers who frequently work across time zones.

And there is a ripple effect, said Leslie A. Perlow, a professor of leadership at Harvard Business School and the author of “Sleeping With Your Smartphone.” “These guys fly in the middle of the night and send e-mails back to colleagues” who wait up, ready to respond.

A study conducted last spring by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that while mobile phones were valued as a way to stay productive, there were downsides to being available at all times. The nationwide survey of 2,254 adults found that 44 percent of cellphone owners had slept with their phone next to their bed and that 67 percent had experienced “phantom rings,” checking their phone even when it was not ringing or vibrating. Still, the proportion of cellphone owners who said they “could live without it” has gone up, to 37 percent from 29 percent in 2006.

Sam Chapman, chief executive of Empower Public Relations in Chicago, said he used to feel phantom vibrations and frequently read and sent e-mail on his BlackBerry in the middle of the night. He slept poorly, did not feel refreshed in the morning and considered himself addicted. “I wanted to make sure that what happened to me didn’t happen to my employees,” he said.

So Mr. Chapman adopted what he called a BlackBerry blackout policy. He and his staff of about 20 turn off their BlackBerrys from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on weekdays and completely on weekends for all work-related use, with rare exceptions. “When I’m well rested, I show up to work ready to go,” he said.

He maintains that regimen while traveling, and said the policy had increased company productivity.

Professor Perlow agreed that companies could improve their bottom line by encouraging employees to disconnect at times. “Being constantly on actually undermines productivity,” she said.

But it is not always easy. In early 2012, when Michelle Barry, Mark Jacobsen and a third partner created Centric Brand Anthropology, a Seattle-based company that advises clients on brand strategy, design and culture management, they gave serious thought to the issue.

“A huge priority for us was to have a good balance between work-life,” said Mr. Jacobsen, Centric’s vice president and creative director. “Yet we have found that very difficult to do while working with large multinational clients,” which often require international travel and constant availability.

Being a start-up compounded those challenges. “Just because you can e-mail at 2 a.m., doesn’t mean it’s a good thing,” he said.

Centric encourages employees to prepare a week before a trip, designating a colleague as backup, informing clients about their travel plans, and trying to avoid deadlines immediately after they return. Employees are also encouraged to take spouses or partners on longer assignments and to build in downtime, said Ms. Barry, the company’s president and chief executive. When traveling, she said, “I make a commitment to myself not to stay up all night answering e-mails.”

Experts say there is no firm data for how many companies have policies restricting the use of electronic devices outside the office. “The companies I know actively encourage workers to stay connected after hours and on weekends,” said Dennis J. Garritan, a managing partner of the private equity firm Palmer Hill Capital and an adjunct professor at Harvard Business School.

Maxim Magazine Focuses on Military, Veterans and Their Families

Maxim, a testosterone-fueled magazine featuring adolescent humor and plenty of scantily clad actresses, has become for today’s Army what Esquire was to soldiers fighting in World War II and Playboy was during the Vietnam War.

“They’ve got hot chicks, guns, cars, trucks, a little bit of everything,” said Christopher May, a 38-year-old master sergeant in the Marines based at Camp Pendleton in California. He decided to compete in the contest, sponsored by the magazine, to enhance his credibility with younger officers who are die-hard Maxim fans.

On a recent December day in Crawfordsville, 20 miles west of Memphis, as he sat at a barracks table littered with Maxim magazines and cleaned his .45-caliber Remington pistol, he said that Maxim was “the most common magazine hanging around” during his eight deployments. That popularity isn’t an accident. The magazine has focused on the military, veterans and their families as a source of growing readership.

In 2013, Maxim hopes to turn its annual “Salute to the Military” issue — which includes content like how to approach dating after losing a limb in combat and highlights of celebrities who have served in the military — into a quarterly publication. Maxim will continue to work with the U.S.O. on military-sponsored events. It also will continue to run the Maximum Warrior contest, and will use videos from the event online and on the Maxim Xbox app.

The unabashed celebration of the military sets Maxim apart from many mainstream publications. Matt Willette, a 42-year-old special operations manager for ATK Tactical Systems — Blackhawk, provided the uniforms for the Maximum Warrior competition because he said the company wanted to reach military consumers who often buy their own gear. Mr. Willette, who served in the Army from 1988 to 1996, also likes Maxim’s pro-military approach.

“Most guys in the military have not been treated well by the media,” Mr. Willette said. “So when we do find one like Maxim, we want to embrace it.”

When the editor in chief, Dan Bova, meets members of the military, he says, they have read the magazine so thoroughly that they quote back to him the magazine’s jokes and photo captions. They send letters thanking Maxim for cheering them up during hospital stays as they recover from losing limbs. They also have sent photographs posing with Maxim in a claustrophobic snow cave near the Arctic Circle, in a combat zone while wearing night-vision goggles, and outside Saddam Hussein’s bombed-out palaces.

In the January issue, Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Dyk submitted a photograph of himself and his fellow soldiers in Afghanistan with the following note: “Would have liked to have gotten a better angle showing the valley, but we’d been engaged by Taliban that day and couldn’t really stand up to get a better shot!”

Maxim still lags behind Men’s Health, the fitness bible, which was the top-selling magazine year to date at Army and Air Force exchanges, but Maxim has been very successful at penetrating the broader military culture.

Three-quarters of Maxim’s surveyed readers say they have friends or family who are serving in the military or are veterans, according to data tracked by Fresh Intelligence, a market research firm, and the magazine sells particularly well around military bases.

Karl Erickson, host of the Maximum Warrior series and a retired member of the Army’s Green Berets, who served from 1985 to 2010, said that Maxim’s cheeky humor and attractive women resonated with soldiers better than any other magazine.

“Overseas, you’re living in your body armor and you’re within arm’s reach of your weapon at all times,” Mr. Erickson said. “Any chance you can relax and put a smile on your face, you jump at it, and Maxim magazine does do that better than anyone else.”

A Bar of Their Own: Korean-Americans Stand Up in Atlanta

Korean-American Bar Association members include, clockwise from lower left: Sara Hamilton, Alex Shin, Steve Park and June Towery.
John Disney, Daily Report

In a sign that Atlanta's Korean-American legal community is gaining critical mass, a group of lawyers of Korean descent has launched the Korean-American Bar Association of Georgia.

One impetus for forming the new bar association is to mentor younger lawyers, said Jeong-Hwa Lee "June" Towery, a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, who helped organize the group.

"For a few years I have been wanting to put the Korean-descent attorneys together for mutual support, information exchange and networking," said Towery, who is KABA Georgia's president.

"The main thing is the mentoring," she added. "Typically these are the first attorneys from their families and they don't have the exposure to lawyers. They can have a hard time adjusting to the big firm environment."

Towery said about 45 lawyers and law students came to KABA Georgia's first meeting in late August. About half the lawyers who attended were small practitioners serving Korean individuals, she said, and the other half work for corporate firms.

"The response was incredible," she said, noting that a lot of law students attended, including some who had driven to Atlanta from the University of Georgia in Athens.

Towery estimated that there are more than 100 lawyers and law students of Korean descent in the Atlanta area, with about 50 Korean lawyers in Gwinnett, where there is a large Koreatown, and another 30 or more in corporate Atlanta firms.

"There is a general feeling of trying to help people out," said Han Choi, a partner at Ballard Spahr, who is the new group's vice president. "We're trying to make sure younger Korean-American lawyers get some opportunities to meet people."

He and Towery said major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Washington and Chicago already have KABAs.

In Atlanta, the Georgia Asian-Pacific American Bar Association has been around since 1992, but until now there has been no bar association specifically focused on the growing Korean legal community.

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Stocks Lose Their Spark

Stocks on Wall Street rose Monday at the start of a new quarter after data showed strength in the American manufacturing sector, but a broad rally lost some fizzle late in the day.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was up 0.3 percent by the close, and the Dow Jones industrial average was ahead 0.6 percent. But declines in technology stocks helped pull the Nasdaq composite index down 0.1 percent.

The indexes trimmed their gains somewhat after Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, in a speech in Indianapolis, delivered a broad defense of the Fed’s bond-buying stimulus plan, saying it was necessary to support a flagging economic recovery.

Mr. Bernanke pushed back against accusations that the Fed’s policy is laying the groundwork for inflation, enabling the government to run large budget deficits, undercutting the dollar and hurting savers.

Earlier, the Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity rose to 51.5 from 49.6 in August, topping expectations for 49.7, according to a Reuters poll.

It was the first time since May that the index has been above the 50 threshold that indicates expansion in the sector.

The Markit Manufacturing index, however, fell to 51.1 points in September from 51.5 in August, and averaged 51.4 in the third quarter. Both the monthly and quarterly readings were the lowest in three years. Still, a reading above 50 indicates expansion.

Euro zone manufacturing put in its worst performance in the three months to September while Asia’s manufacturers are continuing to struggle in the face of tepid demand from the United States and Europe, flagging a return to recession for the euro zone and a seventh straight quarter of slowing growth in China, business surveys showed.

But European markets gained, with stock indexes up more than 1 percent. The DAX in Frankfurt finished 1.5 percent and the CAC 40 in Paris added 2.4 percent. The FTSE 100 in London rose 1.4 percent.

Equity markets were being supported by expectations of support from central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, which are offsetting weak data, according to Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in New York.

“The market focuses more on future results than on what’s happening today,” he said.

Wall Street finished lower on Friday but recorded its best third quarter since 2010 after a series of central bank actions sparked a bullish reversal in equity markets, but signs of weakness in the economy drove stocks lower for the week.

As Economic Crisis Drags On, Firms in Spain Reshape Their Practices

Call it a sign of the times. In May the Spanish government announced the results of its beauty contest for legal work on a €35 billion emergency fund designed to reduce regional government debt. Bidders for the work, which involved setting up the legal framework for the banks to disperse the funds to unpaid suppliers, included Spain's three largest firms --Cuatrecasas, Goncalves Pereira; Garrigues; and Uria Menendez -- and at least one Magic Circle firm, Clifford Chance. While it wasn't surprising that Cuatrecasas, one of the oldest operating law firms in the Iberian market, ended up winning the work, what is shocking is the firm's suggested fee: €1.

That wasn't a fluke. Uria Menendez also volunteered to do the work for €1, and Garrigues and Clifford Chance offered reduced fees in an effort to land the prestigious assignment, which could lead to more work from the Spanish government. "Given the economic situation, we felt it was the right thing to do as a service to the government," says Cuatrecasas corporate partner Federico Roig. (Uria declined to comment. Garrigues and Clifford Chance confirmed that they offered a reduced fee, but say that it was a reasonable one.)

The economic crisis in Spain is now in its fifth year and shows little sign of abating soon. The country's banking system, which accounts for 20 percent of Spain's $1.49 trillion GDP, is on the brink of insolvency and will require up to a €100 billion ($123 billion) bailout from the European Union. And in order to comply with the E.U.'s conditions for the bailout funds, in July Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy proposed an austerity plan that would raise the Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services by 3 percent -- increasing it to 21 percent -- while also cutting unemployment benefits and reducing civil servants' pay. Although the Spanish government clearly needed to take action to reduce the country's deficit, the measures could stifle consumer spending and thus deepen the recession.

The prolonged downturn has affected law firms in the Iberian market, particularly those whose client base is primarily comprised of large Spanish companies. Although there's been an uptick in labor, tax, litigation and insolvency work in Spain and Portugal, financing and mergers and acquisition work has slowed ­dramatically.

At the three biggest Spanish firms, revenues from 2010 to 2011 increased only incrementally. Garrigues, the largest of the triumvirate, posted revenue of €355 million ($495 million) last year, up just 1 percent from 2010. Cuatrecasas' revenue saw a meager 0.4 percent increase during the same time period, with revenue of €241.7 million ($321 million) in 2010 and €242.6 million ($338 million) in 2011. And Uria Menendez reported a 1.5 percent increase last year, with revenue of €188 million ($262 million).

This year, things are looking even bleaker. Garrigues, the only firm in the region whose fiscal year ends on August 31, expects that its revenue will be down 2 percent to 3 percent for 2012. Global firms that work in the region, such as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker & McKenzie, Clifford Chance, and Jones Day, have been affected as well. While none of these firms disclose revenue figures for Spain, lawyers at the firms nonetheless admit that the crisis has affected their practice in the region.

In order to compensate for the loss of revenues from lucrative practice areas like M&A, firms have had to make critical changes: reducing operating costs, more actively managing their lawyers' practices, restructuring compensation plans, and -- in some cases -- reducing their head counts. "We increased our numbers [between 2000 and 2008] because the economy was booming and we thought it would continue," says Garrigues managing partner Fernando Vives. "So now we've had to reduce and adapt our workforce."

Although the 10 lawyers interviewed for this article were publicly stoic about Spain's economic crisis, in private conversations they were clearly worried about the effects of a continued downturn on their firms and their country. Nearly all expressed hope that the economy had bottomed out and would begin to turn around this fall. "We are facing the crisis more optimistically now, but not naively so," says Freshfields' managing partner for Spain, Inaki Gabilondo.

From the late 1990s until 2007, Spain had the fastest-growing economy in the European Union. The country experienced a decade­long real estate boom; at its peak in 2007, construction accounted for 16 percent of the GDP. The thriving real estate market, coupled with a high volume of leveraged buyout and M&A deals, attracted U.S. and U.K. law firms to the region, and spurred the growth of domestic firms within Spain and abroad. Spanish M&A activity more than doubled from 2003 to 2007, and the value of the deals peaked at $194 billion in 2007. But then came the downturn, fueled by the collapse of the real estate market in 2008, which in turn resulted in the crash of the cajas, the small Spanish savings banks that were heavy on home mortgages and have little access to capital since they aren't publicly traded.

The majority of the 45 cajas were forced to merge -- there are now just 14 -- and this helped generate enough work for big firms in Spain to weather the recession. But that work is drying up, and over the past five years M&A activity has declined steeply. "It's not a good time for corporate transactions. There aren't any takeovers or acquisitions," says Jose Maria Alonso, the head of Baker & Mc­Kenzie's dispute resolution team in Madrid and the former managing partner at Garrigues. Alonso cites two large deals that have been put on hold because of the crisis: the privatization of Spanish airport operator Aeropuertos Espanoles y Navegacion Aerea (AENA), and the initial public offering of lottery operator Loterias y Apuestas del Estado (LAE), which would have been the largest IPO in Spanish history.

As Economic Crisis Drags On, Firms in Spain Reshape Their Practices

Call it a sign of the times. In May the Spanish government announced the results of its beauty contest for legal work on a €35 billion emergency fund designed to reduce regional government debt. Bidders for the work, which involved setting up the legal framework for the banks to disperse the funds to unpaid suppliers, included Spain's three largest firms --Cuatrecasas, Goncalves Pereira; Garrigues; and Uria Menendez -- and at least one Magic Circle firm, Clifford Chance. While it wasn't surprising that Cuatrecasas, one of the oldest operating law firms in the Iberian market, ended up winning the work, what is shocking is the firm's suggested fee: €1.

That wasn't a fluke. Uria Menendez also volunteered to do the work for €1, and Garrigues and Clifford Chance offered reduced fees in an effort to land the prestigious assignment, which could lead to more work from the Spanish government. "Given the economic situation, we felt it was the right thing to do as a service to the government," says Cuatrecasas corporate partner Federico Roig. (Uria declined to comment. Garrigues and Clifford Chance confirmed that they offered a reduced fee, but say that it was a reasonable one.)

The economic crisis in Spain is now in its fifth year and shows little sign of abating soon. The country's banking system, which accounts for 20 percent of Spain's $1.49 trillion GDP, is on the brink of insolvency and will require up to a €100 billion ($123 billion) bailout from the European Union. And in order to comply with the E.U.'s conditions for the bailout funds, in July Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy proposed an austerity plan that would raise the Value Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services by 3 percent -- increasing it to 21 percent -- while also cutting unemployment benefits and reducing civil servants' pay. Although the Spanish government clearly needed to take action to reduce the country's deficit, the measures could stifle consumer spending and thus deepen the recession.

The prolonged downturn has affected law firms in the Iberian market, particularly those whose client base is primarily comprised of large Spanish companies. Although there's been an uptick in labor, tax, litigation and insolvency work in Spain and Portugal, financing and mergers and acquisition work has slowed ­dramatically.

At the three biggest Spanish firms, revenues from 2010 to 2011 increased only incrementally. Garrigues, the largest of the triumvirate, posted revenue of €355 million ($495 million) last year, up just 1 percent from 2010. Cuatrecasas' revenue saw a meager 0.4 percent increase during the same time period, with revenue of €241.7 million ($321 million) in 2010 and €242.6 million ($338 million) in 2011. And Uria Menendez reported a 1.5 percent increase last year, with revenue of €188 million ($262 million).

This year, things are looking even bleaker. Garrigues, the only firm in the region whose fiscal year ends on August 31, expects that its revenue will be down 2 percent to 3 percent for 2012. Global firms that work in the region, such as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker & McKenzie, Clifford Chance, and Jones Day, have been affected as well. While none of these firms disclose revenue figures for Spain, lawyers at the firms nonetheless admit that the crisis has affected their practice in the region.

In order to compensate for the loss of revenues from lucrative practice areas like M&A, firms have had to make critical changes: reducing operating costs, more actively managing their lawyers' practices, restructuring compensation plans, and -- in some cases -- reducing their head counts. "We increased our numbers [between 2000 and 2008] because the economy was booming and we thought it would continue," says Garrigues managing partner Fernando Vives. "So now we've had to reduce and adapt our workforce."

Although the 10 lawyers interviewed for this article were publicly stoic about Spain's economic crisis, in private conversations they were clearly worried about the effects of a continued downturn on their firms and their country. Nearly all expressed hope that the economy had bottomed out and would begin to turn around this fall. "We are facing the crisis more optimistically now, but not naively so," says Freshfields' managing partner for Spain, Inaki Gabilondo.

From the late 1990s until 2007, Spain had the fastest-growing economy in the European Union. The country experienced a decade­long real estate boom; at its peak in 2007, construction accounted for 16 percent of the GDP. The thriving real estate market, coupled with a high volume of leveraged buyout and M&A deals, attracted U.S. and U.K. law firms to the region, and spurred the growth of domestic firms within Spain and abroad. Spanish M&A activity more than doubled from 2003 to 2007, and the value of the deals peaked at $194 billion in 2007. But then came the downturn, fueled by the collapse of the real estate market in 2008, which in turn resulted in the crash of the cajas, the small Spanish savings banks that were heavy on home mortgages and have little access to capital since they aren't publicly traded.

The majority of the 45 cajas were forced to merge -- there are now just 14 -- and this helped generate enough work for big firms in Spain to weather the recession. But that work is drying up, and over the past five years M&A activity has declined steeply. "It's not a good time for corporate transactions. There aren't any takeovers or acquisitions," says Jose Maria Alonso, the head of Baker & Mc­Kenzie's dispute resolution team in Madrid and the former managing partner at Garrigues. Alonso cites two large deals that have been put on hold because of the crisis: the privatization of Spanish airport operator Aeropuertos Espanoles y Navegacion Aerea (AENA), and the initial public offering of lottery operator Loterias y Apuestas del Estado (LAE), which would have been the largest IPO in Spanish history.