Posts

Burglary may be a common law concept, but when it comes to sentencing enhancements, there’s plenty of case law on what constitutes “burglary” for federal sentencing. The Fifth Circuit added to that line of cases in U.S. v. Guerrero-Navarro, affirming that Washington state’s definition of burglary isn’t overly inclusive for federal sentencing purposes. What was Guerrero-Navarro’s argument? Guerrero-Navarro was appealing his sentencing from a Texas federal district court because he felt that the Federal Sentencing Guidelines were being misapplied in his case....

As lawyers scrambled to save his life, John David Battaglia prepared to die. The attorneys asked any court that would listen to arguments that Battaglia was delusional, mentally incompetent, and shouldn’t be executed for fatally shooting his two young daughters. They were nine and six years old. The last-minute appeals didn’t work. They usually don’t in Texas. Third Execution Texas has put three men to death in the last 30 days, accounting for all the executions in the United States so far this year....

National Flex Day: It has (nearly) nothing to do with fitness. What is National Flex Day? It’s a day meant to encourage employers to recognize and consider flexible working arrangements, such as telecommuting, flex time (instead of 9-to-5, employees choose their own start and end times), or compressed work weeks (more hours per day, but fewer days). Why is flex important? And why should your company encourage it? It Increases Nearly Every Measure of Job Satisfaction When you think of flex time, you probably think of working mothers....

Alien Smuggling Conviction Affirmed In US v. Mata, No. 09-41092, the court affirmed defendant’s sentence for transporting an undocumented alien for financial gain, holding that 1) the district court did not err by applying the reckless-endangerment enhancement under section 2L1.1(b)(6) of the Sentencing Guidelines; and 2) the district court did not commit plain error by impermissibly delegating to a probation officer its judicial authority to determine whether defendant should be required to participate in a mental-health program as a condition of her supervised release....

If contemplating code theft at your company keeps you awake at night, there’s news in the Goldman Sachs code theft case that may help you sleep. Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. computer programmer Sergey Aleynikov can be charged under New York law for stealing code from the global finance giant, Reuters reports. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Aleynikov’s source code theft conviction, noting that the code was “highly valuable,” but “not designed to enter or pass in commerce, or to make something that does....

The practice of law is not easy. It doesn’t help that the legal field is becoming increasingly competitive. To stay on top, it’s important to get back to the basics by focusing on the skills that make you a success. No matter what area of law you practice, having these five skills will help you to thrive in your day-to-day life as a modern attorney. 1. Logic Being able to think logically should be left unsaid, but unfortunately, an abundance of caution forces us to highlight logic here....

In a stunning court decision, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the AT&T - Time Warner merger can move forward. And to help put some of the controversy to rest and actually allow the merger to happen, Judge Richard Leon strongly cautioned the government against seeking a stay. The $85 billion deal came under heavy fire, not just from the traditional media that usually questions every big corporate merger, but also by President Trump, which, naturally, resulted in additional controversy due to CNN being owned by Time Warner and one of President Trump’s so called “fake news” outlets....

While the world of litigation funding is often castigated into the realms of the seedy boardrooms of evil banking corporations, litigation funders are taking big risks, particularly given that third party litigation funders are prohibited from having any say in the actual litigation. Not every third party funded case is Peter Thiel paying for Hulk Hogan’s litigation against Gawker. Recently, there have been public concerns over litigation funders having dubious motives, beyond just maximizing investment profits, as well as some proposed legislation....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. The Internet has made life easier in so many ways, including the ability to shop and conduct financial transactions online. Of course, just like in the world of bricks and mortar, criminals also lurk in Cyberspace, seeking to steal identities, data and money. While Cyber criminals, of course, are responsible as a matter of criminal and civil law for their own wrongdoing, the question arises as to whether others also can be deemed responsible for the harm suffered as a result of this illegal conduct....

You can get married in Klingon, use Google in Klingon, and even stage Hamlet in Klingon. But can you copyright Klingon? CBS and Paramount seem to think so, and they’re suing a fan film that makes use of the language, first invented in 1984 for “Star Trek.” Now, a group of linguists is stepping into the legal fight, arguing that Klingon, and other “constructed languages,” are real, living forms of communication exempt from copyright law....

Most states have no employment protection for transgender discrimination; that is, an employee can be fired or not hired merely for being transgender. Last year, the U.S. Senate voted to extend the Employment Non-Discrimination Act’s protections to gender identity or sexual orientation; the House hasn’t acted yet. Nevertheless, is transgender employment discrimination a thing? And can it subject your company to liability? Price Waterhouse and Gender Nonconformity As “The Simpsons’” Reverend Lovejoy has opined, “Short answer, ‘yes’ with an ‘if....

The cost of litigating in appellate courts will soon increase. The Judicial Conference of the United States recently adopted a new court fee schedule in response to inflationary expenses. Court filing fees were last increased in 2003. Fee increases will become effective November 1, 2011. Judiciary fees allows it to reduce the branch’s annual appropriations request to Congress. Fees in appeals, district, and bankruptcy courts are affected. The increase is expected to yield an estimated $10....

If we lived in the Black Mirror world, we could be condemned by our memories. That’s because authorities in the sci-fi drama can see memories just like we can watch a DVD. Press rewind to the time of the crime, and your life is literally on display. Thank goodness (or too bad, depending on your perspective) that kind of forensic evidence is just for television. Or is it? Brain Scanning When a hair or a drop of DNA can link you to a crime, the future may be closer than you think....

Did you ever look at a glass of beer and imagine what it would be like to start a brewery? Many entrepreneurs have started that way – not necessarily when they were drinking, but when they turned a pastime into a business. The process began with an idea, like a bubble that turns to foam in a glass. Candace Moon, a brewery attorney, started like that. She’s an example of how to turn your hobby interest into a law practice....

In 2013, Bitcoin was inescapable. The strange little cryptocurrency had morphed from an internet oddity, where Bitcoin-backers celebrated exchanging 10,000 Bitcoins for two (bad) pizzas, to a serious phenomenon. After a whole lot of stumbling blocks, Bitcoin has continued to grow, with the digital currency valued at over $1,000 a coin today. (That makes those pizzas worth $10 million.) But the real story behind Bitcoin isn’t Bitcoin, it turns out. It’s the blockchain, the technology that makes Bitcoin possible....

We now know that, as a judge, you can’t be a comedian. But how about leading a religious ministry? Does it make a difference if that ministry is for-profit and judicial resources are used to promote the ministry’s products? Leon County Judge Judith Hawkins, a Florida judge making $140,000 annually, is also the founder of Gaza Road Ministries, an organization that, according to its website, seeks “timeless Bible truths for today’s applications....

Award-winning Judge Brian MacKenzie, of Novi, Michigan (a Detroit suburb) is back in the news again, and just like last time, it’s because of misconduct allegations. When we last caught up with Judge MacKenzie, he had just lost control over his entire docket, due to allegedly ignoring the law, handing out illegal sentences, hiding and sealing case files, and tweaking court transcripts to avoid the problem of having prosecutors present during sentencing....

The de Blasio administration announced yesterday that it was beating its affordable housing goals, but if you’re a New York City resident, you might be forgiven if you haven’t noticed. Rents continue to skyrocket in NYC, and if you’re a legal professional, that means more than just struggling to find an affordable apartment this side of Jamaica, Queens. The rental market in New York has led to a host of landlord and tenant issues, from disputes over gentrification to disputes over short-term rentals....

The U.S. Copyright Group, through Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver, has sued individuals for downloading movies online. The law firm represented the producers of several big films, including Oscar-winning “The Hurt Locker.” They sued thousands of copyright defendants for using BitTorrent to download copyrighted materials and demanded settlements. In response, attorney Graham Syfert set up a series of self-help forms designed to assist those who were being sued. The self-help forms were sold for $19....

My stepfather likes to say that he learned more about life and leadership from watching the Godfather than from four years of high school. For me, I grew up watching a different organized crime leader: Tony Soprano. From wise cracks to wise guys, from managing his “family” to dealing with his family, there were a lot of lessons to be learned from The Sopranos. Here are a few of our favorites:...