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The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney’s stock fraud conviction on Tuesday, rejecting arguments that evidence was improperly admitted during the trial. The attorney, Phillip Offill, Jr., is considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Offill advised David Stocker, a securities lawyer who represented penny stock companies, on how to issue stock without completing the securities registration process. The plan involved coordinating trades to drive up the market price of the stocks before “dumping their shares on the public for millions of dollars in profits,” according to Thomson Reuters News and Insight....

The Fifth Circuit is set to hear arguments next month in the lawsuit over President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, the court has announced. Each side will be given an hour for their arguments which will take place April 17th, in New Orleans. The case, Texas v. United States, challenged whether the president had the power to prioritize, and deprioritize, immigration enforcement. Several states, lead by Texas, sued the U.S. in order to halt Obama’s immigration plan, winning in district court....

Starting January 1st, the strongest equal pay law in the country goes into effect in California. The state’s Fair Pay Act, signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown in October, is designed to strengthen existing equal pay laws and provide robust new protections for workers. Among the law’s mandates are a requirement for equal pay for “substantially similar” work, a whole lot of protections for discussing wages, and stronger legal recourse for employees denied equal pay....

Shooting down a motion to strike, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lyrically laid out a case between a hunter and an international sport hunting club. The court told the story of Dr. Lawrence Rudolph, who was once an award-winning member of the Safari Club. He rose to the top of the 50,000-member club, but then was exiled for allegedly breaching his duties to the organization. “That’s when the season opened,” wrote Judge Richard Seeborg in an opinion notable for its many hunting references as much as its ruling....

Running a law practice costs money, and business expenses are often deductible from one’s taxes. But if you’ve entered into a partnership, as many lawyers do, beware that your partnership agreement could greatly restrict your ability to deduct routine business expenses. Attorney Peter McLauchlan learned that lesson the hard way. The Fifth Circuit recently ruled against him in a tax dispute after he deducted items that seemed routine (advertising, contract labor, wages) but were not listed as reimbursable in his partnership agreement....

Donald Trump will be inaugurated in just over two weeks and will begin to implement his promised policies. That includes potentially significant changes to the tax code. We know, every presidential candidate in your lifetime has pledged to reform the tax code, but those promises rarely bear fruit. But Trump, backed by a Republican-controlled House and Senate, might actually be able to get his tax plan passed. Here’s what could change and what it could mean for lawyers like you....

Who’d have thought that lawyers would be popular again – especially in New York?! After attorneys were caught on video in racist rants in the Big Apple last year, it turns out that legal services are back in demand there. According to a new report, New York is leading the country in corporate legal spend. Corporations in the state are spending 12 percent more over last year, but the survey says legal departments are spending more everywhere....

BIA and IJ’s conclusion that petitioner’s marriage was fraudulent is supported by evidence Pena-Beltre v. Holder, 09-2072, concerned a petition for review, brought by a citizen of the Dominican Republic, of a final order of removal issued by the BIA. In denying the petition, the court held that the evidence of marriage fraud is so overwhelming that it hardly needs detailing, the government has more than met its burden of proof, and the BIA’s and IJ’s conclusions are amply supported by the evidence....

To contribute or not to contribute–that is the question. The 2012 presidential race is in full swing, and dozens of local and state positions are currently up for grabs. As the races heat up, you will undoubtedly grapple with the issues surrounding political donations. Even though you are an attorney, campaign contributions are your constitutional right. But should you exercise that right? Or abstain in favor of protecting your reputation and practice?...

Tell your clients they don’t need to be afraid of employment agreements. A well-crafted, finely-drafted employment agreement can allow employers to recruit top talent, safeguard their business interests, and protect against unexpected litigation, whether they’re for executives or the rank and file. The key, however, is in the drafting. Here are some tips and best practices for putting together the best employment agreements for your clients. If your client wants an employment agreement, it’s likely they want it to contain provisions for arbitration and private dispute resolution....

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this week in a dispute involving nursing home union designations, reports Legal Newsline. Lakeland Healthcare Associates, LLC appealed a NLRB decision finding Lakeland in violation of sections 8(a)(5) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act for its refusal to bargain with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1625. While Lakeland admitted that it refused to bargain with the Union, it argued that its refusal did not violate the Act because the Union was improperly certified in the underlying representation proceedings....

Anyone who thought that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were done suing Facebook needs to think again. The Winklevi are now taking their Facebook lawsuit from the 9th Circuit to the area that is the responsibility of the 1st Circuit. Perhaps they think they stand a better chance in the First Circuit. Given the trajectory of the last case that made it all the way up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, we can likely expect this case to reach the First Circuit Court of Appeals as well....

The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has yet again deflected another free speech argument from a coalition of doctors who have opposed Florida’s notorious ‘Docs vs. Glocks’ rule and upheld that state’s law on grounds that it failed to satisfy strict scrutiny review. The Firearms Owners Privacy Act, originally intended (we think) by the Florida legislature to get doctors to mind their own business has resulted in this bizarre tug-of-war between the First and Second Amendments....

Lawyers are still relatively new to marketing. While Sears and Coca-Cola have been reaching out to the public since the pioneer days, attorneys have had just a few decades to refine their marketing craft. Yet, even in such a short time, several marketing myths have developed. Like all myths, they seek to explain something hard to understand. But don’t get lost looking for El Dorado, or whatever certain riches marketing myths promise....

Get ready to do some math, in-house counsel, or at least to call up the accounting department. The Securities and Exchange Commission has finally adopted a CEO pay ratio disclosure rule, five years after Dodd-Frank imposed the disclosure mandate. The new executive pay ratio rule is complicated and, for some companies, sure to be embarrassing. But, the SEC promises, it will help shareholders have a “say on pay” and might delay – or ignite – the coming income inequality-inspired revolution everyone from Thomas Piketty to billionaire hedge fund managers are warning about....

Palmyra Park Hosp. Inc. v. Phoebe Putney Mem. Hosp., No. 09-11818, involved an action by a hospital claiming that defendant-hospital leveraged a state-granted monopoly in certain medical services to tie favorable insurance reimbursement rates for those services to a refusal to include plaintiff, which competed with defendant for the other medical services, in insurance companies’ provider networks. The court of appeals reversed summary judgment for defendant, on the ground that plaintiff had antitrust standing because it alleged that defendant’s exclusivity arrangements forced insurers who would otherwise prefer to deal with both defendant and plaintiff to instead deal with only defendant....

Some judges were just born to write. Take Judge M. Margaret McKeown’s recent opinion in the USA v. Max Spatig case. The opinion opens with this humdinger of a zinger: What’s This Case About? The short, catchy opener actually does a good job of summarizing the case. Basically, Max Spatig ran a business that required him to have a large amount of paint and other chemicals on hand. At one point, personal matters required him to stop running his business, and he ended up bringing home quite a bit of these hazardous materials to store in his yard....

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the Second Amendment right to bear arms has its limits, particularly with regard to a person under a domestic violence order. Applying intermediate scrutiny, the Fourth Circuit upheld a federal law that prohibits the subject of a domestic violence order from owning or possessing a firearm or ammunition. In the case, the defendant who challenged the law was bound by a domestic violence order stemming from a gun-related incident....

Warren said that she would designate the companies as “platform utilities,” and then break them apart “from any participant on the platform.” Basically, she wants to cut up any monopolies the tech giants may have going. It may be too late for that, however. If Facebook could vote, 2.27 billion users can’t be wronged. “Break Up Big Tech” Warren broke out her plan on a blog post – not on Facebook or Google, of course....

A former in-house lawyer for Vanguard group has a friend in the SEC in his wrongful termination battle against the giant mutual fund. It is a great example of the sort of whistleblower situation that no lawyer should wish on another. This is one more case in a recent series of relator suits against large financial institutions that’ve been accused to tax-shenanigans. In-House Lawyer, Whistleblower David Danon was an in-house lawyer for Vanguard when he secretly filed a complaint in a New York state court, shining a light on Vanguard’s underpayment of state and federal taxes to the tune of about $1 billion....