With Memorial Day weekend coming up, it’s time to think about treating yourself and your family to a much-needed vacation. It’s difficult to leave a busy practice behind for some lawyers, but it is really important to de-stress once in a while. You will feel rested and refreshed when you return to the office in a couple weeks. It used to be we would have to notify everyone of our absence and clear our schedule....
Every circuit gets its 15 minutes of fame. The Tenth Circuit drew a lot of attention this year for being the first to rule on marriage equality. The Fourth and D.C. Circuits battled for headlines by releasing conflicting Obamacare subsidy opinions on the same day. And everyone is waiting on the Sixth Circuit, which could be the first to rule against gay marriage, which would likely lead to a Supreme Court showdown on the issue....
It looks like we lawyers aren’t the only ones concerned with Google’s streamlined privacy policy. Six European nations, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Britain, and the Netherlands are all preparing to take on El Goog (shouldn’t it be “Le Goog” in France?) over its refusal to budge on its service-wide privacy policy, reports the New York Times. In other words, your personal photos probably won’t end up on a billboard, but your YouTube video choices and email contents will lead to Google changing the advertisements that you see....
Sick and tired of counting your billable hours? The billable hour has long been a staple of the attorney lifestyle. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Most other professions don’t necessarily bill by the hour. If you go to a dentist, he doesn’t bill you for every hour he spends extracting that cavity. Instead, he bills you for the value of his services as a whole....
Petitioners, a family of Bangladeshi citizens, sought review of a final order of removal issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals, only to have their petition for review denied by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The Hasan family is now facing deportation. In 2007, the family was called to appear before the immigration court. At that time, they conceded their removability and admitted to the findings of fact. Subsequently, in 2008, the family filed individual applications for cancellation of the removal, where they testified at the hearings that their daughter, a U....
Last week, the top BP supervisor on the Deepwater Horizon rig lost his appeal to avoid testifying in the upcoming civil case about the 2010 explosion that devastated the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans’ WWL-TV reports. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 3 that Donald Vidrine must comply with a district court order to submit to a medical examination and provide his medical records and reports to a court-appointed doctor....
Violating the Americans with Disabilities Act is a simple way to end up on the losing end of a lawsuit. Fail to comply with ADA public accommodation requirements and you could find yourself sued for counters that are too high, aisles that are too narrow, and now, even websites that are inaccessible to people with disabilities. The Department of Justice announced way back in 2010 that it was revising ADA regulations to ensure accessibility and nondiscrimination on the Internet....
An aggressive confidentiality policy could find you on the wrong side of a host of laws. An employment agreement that limits what information employees can share with investigators may constitute unlawful “pretaliation,” according to the SEC. Even severance agreements that explicitly allow for certain disclosures can violate Dodd-Frank’s whistleblowing rules. And that’s not all. According to a recent article in Inside Counsel, your company’s confidentiality rules could also be unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act if they limit workers’ ability to talk to each other about internal investigations – even if your workplace is not unionized....
U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf is giving up on blogging – again. Judge Kopf’s “Hercules and the Umpire” blog had gained notoriety over the years for what some see as a breach of judicial decorum – telling Congress to go to hell, for example, or commenting on female lawyers’ bodies. Many, however, became fans of Judge Kopf, praising his candor and accessible writing style. This is at least the second time Judge Kopf has “hung up his keyboard” and it might not be the last....
The federal government is woefully behind the times when it comes to protecting the private data of users who accessible genetic profiles. The lack of privacy protections allow third parties to easily access genetic information. This invasion of privacy, which potentially affects millions of people, could almost certainly change the business model of insurers and hiring. When young Jacqueline Stokes went online to check the results of a take-home paternity test, she hardly expected that with the switch of a few letters in the URL she’d basically have access to 6,000 other people results....
Did you know that your firm is sending out a message without even realizing it. It is through your online presence. Whether your firm has invested heavily in building a web presence or if you are new to the scene, you can tune into this webcast to find out how to stand out from the crowd and attract qualified clients through improving online marketing and enhancing the firm’s website. Location: Online...
With the huge amount of habeas corpus claims that inundate courts, the First Circuit recently released an opinion that commented on the issue. And, in an interesting turn, instead of criticizing state courts for short, sometimes arguably unclear opinions, the First Circuit instead took issue with federal reviewing courts (yes you, District Court of Massachusetts). In Hodge v. Mendonsa, the First Circuit had to determine whether the Massachusetts Appeals Court (“MAC”) rejected an argument on its merits when the MAC did not expressly discuss the argument by name, and whether a theory is procedurally barred when addressed in a footnote....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Are hackers still out there causing mischief on the Internet? You bet! Indeed, our own Federal Reserve reported that one of its internal websites had been breached by hackers last week, according to Reuters. The Reuters article notes that this follows an assertion that hackers associated with the activist group Anonymous had gained access to personal data relating to more than 4,000 bank executives....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Like nomads searching for oases, we roam in our quest to find Wi-Fi hotspots from which to connect to the wireless world. Unfortunately, these cozy areas where everything seems so right actually can be black holes where our private data can be siphoned away. To prove its point, Watchdog itself implemented equipment easily available on the Internet to hijack wireless traffic at a number of hotspots....
When it comes to law firm management, wouldn’t it be great if there were an app for that? Actually, there are dozens of software programs and management systems that you could employ. In a few years, a robot will be able to take over firm management. But what about you? This post is about managing yourself and understanding that self-management leads to better firm management. It’s a little old-school lesson in self-discipline:...
It’s been almost 25 years since Microsoft launched PowerPoint – it’s official birthday is May 22nd, 1990 – and since then, the program has pretty much taken over the world. It controls virtually the entire presentations software market, with an estimated 350 PowerPoint presentations given every second. But, like many programs we use frequently, we often get used to one version. That means you might still be operating on a PowerPoint program that is five, even eight years out of date....
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is asking the First Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a 2010 district court finding that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. DOMA, which defines a marriage as limited to a husband and wife, was enacted in 1996. Until DOMA, state marriage determinations controlled for purposes of all federal laws and programs. Last year, a district court granted summary judgment to the Commonwealth in Massachusetts v....
It’s here! It’s finally here, and you’ll no longer have to switch between Apple’s iWork Suite on your iPad and Microsoft Office on your desktop! The rumors hit yesterday afternoon, and this morning, at a press event in San Francisco, Microsoft announced a brand new variant of its Office suite for the iPad, something many have been begging for for years. Now that it has been officially announced, you’re probably wondering: what’s the catch?...
For many lawyers, marketing means handing out a few business cards, maybe setting up a website, and that’s it – if you build the firm, they will come. And once you’ve established a practice and a reputation, this might be enough to keep you afloat. But it’s rare to find a lawyer who doesn’t want (or need) more clients. And with a smarter, better-informed marketing plan – one that accounts for online and offline trends, and one that is customer service-focused – you will get more clients....
An ordinance in West Palm Beach, Florida, prohibits using amplified sound within 100 feet of the property line of any health care facility. Sounds neutral, but the real purpose of the law is to prevent anti-abortion protesters from using megaphones outside of abortion clinics. The appellants in this case, Mary Susan Pine and Marilyn Blackburn, are two such protesters. They sued the city for an injunction on First Amendment grounds. The U....
