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In-house counsel needs to be mindful of the consequences of employee discipline, particularly when it comes to unpaid suspensions. While counsel doesn’t always play the role of disciplining employees, it’s very important to do a periodic review of Human Resource policies to make sure that legal concerns are adequately addressed. So, what should you tell HR when it comes to unpaid suspensions? For starters, HR needs to understand that the difference in the employee’s status as exempt or non-exempt could have an important role in how the employee is disciplined....

When the district court issued a sweeping injunction that promptly stopped an order to require 85,000 people to report to suspicionless drug testing, it was too broad, the Eleventh Circuit said last month. They did mention that the Supreme Court of the United States has held that suspicion-less drug tests by the government are an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. However, SCOTUS did not strike through suspicionless testing entirely, but rather limited it to a balancing test that looked at many exceptions, particularly when state employees had to carry weapons, operate heavy machinery, and were involved in any other safety-sensitive positions....

A federal appeals court threw out claims that Gerber deceived consumers about its baby food, but said the plaintiff may sue for unfair competition. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded Bruton v. Gerber Food Products. The appeals panel said the company’s labels were not likely to deceive the public about the quality of its baby food. However, the plaintiff may have a claim that the labels violated California’s Unfair Competition Law....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Sadly, we lost David Bowie last week. Most of us remember his songs – so many, and so varied across the decades. And, of course, there is no way to forget Bowie’s ever-changing image over the years. But not to be lost in the shuffle is the fact that Bowie was such an innovator, he also anticipated the full impact of the Internet....

Still adjusting to market downturns and evolving technologies, law firms need to make changes in their practices that also change the way they bill for services. If they don’t adapt, reports say, they will not survive. The 2017 Report on the State of the Legal Market says that the death of the billable hour has been “one of the most potentially significant, though rarely acknowledged, changes of the past decade.”...

Only in Detroit would you expect to find a law firm with a self-driving car practice. America’s traditional car capital is also home to Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, a law firm with 300 attorneys. They are a long way from Silicon Valley, where autonomous car research is progressing, but the lawyers plan to pass the competition with their first-of-its-kind practice group. “The establishment of an Autonomous Vehicle Industry Group made perfect sense for us given our tremendous experience working with clients in the automotive, technology, regulatory, manufacturing and privacy/data sectors,” said David Foltyn, Chairman and CEO of Honigman....

Snapchat recently disclosed it paid $157.5 million to an ousted founder, a relatively small price to pay for a company that was valued at $25 billion when it went public. The disclosure prompted speculation about “why Snapchat gets sued so much.” But is that really true, or is that an example of muddy downstream media – recycled mainstream media stories sprinkled with a little speculation? It’s hard to say, but we know that Snapchat is no Uber when it comes to lawsuits....

Judicial interpretation of what constitutes a “violent felony” when determining whether a defendant qualifies as an armed career criminal is a frequent issue in appellate litigation, and this week was no exception. Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Florida prior for false imprisonment triggers armed career criminal status. Police busted Appellant Carl Schneider in 2009 on gun and drug charges. Schneider accepted the underlying convictions, but appealed his armed career criminal sentence enhancement....

Boy, the FBI just has an answer for everything, doesn’t it? If the FISA court doesn’t grant your top-secret warrant for wiretapping (which is unusual because it almost always grants warrants), you just shrug your shoulders and issue a National Security Letter instead. And if some people insist that your cellphone-deceiving surveillance technology is illegal, you just say you don’t need a warrant. Problem solved! The cellphone-deceiving technology is the Stingray, a secretive little box that we’ve blogged about before....

We’ve been aware for some time that Attorney General Eric Holder was eyeballing drug sentences as a target for reform – he said so at last year’s American Bar Association annual meeting. But, one burning question in sentencing law has been whether these drug reforms are or will be retroactive? With the Fair Sentencing Act (crack sentencing reform), the issue sprung up repeatedly, clogging the dockets of appeals courts. Earlier this week, Holder again spoke up about sentencing reform, this time announcing that the U....

Are you in the process of starting up a solo practice? If so, do you have a plan? Or do you even know where to start? Whether you plan to focus on tech startup clients or low level criminal defense, if you don’t have a detailed plan, you might want to go back to the drawing board. With more and more attorneys going solo these days, and legal tech starting to suck up some potential clients, competition among small firms and solos has never been fiercer....

Ambien and firearms don’t mix. Considering that Drugs.com warns that patients who use the popular sleep aid should wait at least four hours – or until fully awake – before driving or doing anything that requires one to be awake and alert, most people would conclude that operating firearms while under the influence of Ambien is a poor life choice. But if everyone reached that conclusion, we might not have today’s employment and defamation decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals....

The legal industry is one of the least racially diverse professions in America. And even though more women than ever are graduating from law schools, men still dominate the legal practice in terms of pay and partner positions. When it comes to the law, the good old boys’ club remains strong. This isn’t news. The legal industry has long struggled to address the lack of diversity in its ranks, with mixed results....

In a case that wrestles with an individuals’ free speech rights balanced against a government’s obligation to be transparent, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the city of South Portland could not prevent two city employees from running for the school board. In a 5-1 decision, the court said the rights of the employees outweigh the city’s interest in preventing hypothetical conflicts of interest. However, because the court felt the government’s concerns were legitimate, the force of the decision is actually quite limited....

A recent report has found that Philadelphia law firms are the biggest spenders in the United States. Unfortunately, some law firms are spending more money than they are bringing in. That is a troublesome ratio. Law firm expenses are going to need a makeover to improve the odds. We are seeing higher expenses this quarter according to a report by Citi Private Bank. The study looks at 166 law firms across the nation, and compared how much law firms are spending....

So long as you’re doing plaintiff work, being a civil rights attorney is about the most noble calling a private attorney can answer. But that’s not to say that practicing in the area is not without its pitfalls. Below, you’ll find a short list of some of the pros and cons attendant to being a civil rights plaintiffs’ lawyer. Pro 1: (Almost) Everyone You Meet Loves You Seriously, you will be the center of attention at parties and gatherings....

In-house counsel, beware of the MAC. No, we’re not talking about the computer. We’re talking about the deal-breaker clause in a merger. It’s not always easy for an investor or a potential buyer to walk away from a deal. But with material adverse change, or MAC, there is a loophole for the buyer in a deal to walk away. Gores Group was locked in a $1 billion deal to acquire Pep Boys....

The advertising blitz began this morning. The major tech players, PRISM-related or not, created a blandly-named campaign (Reform Government Surveillance) and took out ads in a number of major newspapers, all asking that the NSA stop doing what the NSA does (hacking into the companies’ databases, bulk data collection, use secret courts, etc.), reports The Wall Street Journal. The roster of freedom fighters? It includes a Who’s Who of alleged PRISM-participants (AOL, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!...

If you hand your computer over to Best Buy’s Geek Squad for repairs, you might get more than just a quick fix. You might get reported to the FBI. That’s because the FBI pays Best Buy technicians who discover and report child pornography to the agency, according to a lawsuit in California. But when the Geek Squad snoops on behalf of the government, are such searches legal? The case, which is currently before U....

When lawmakers and government officials write the requirements for the number of days permitted between court procedures, it’s almost certain they don’t consider how confusing it is to work that out on a calendar. But other people have caught on to it given the variety of docketing and calendaring apps available for your smartphone. The question now: which one is the best? It depends on your jurisdiction and how you like to handle your scheduling, but we’re pretty sure at least one of these apps will work for you....