Now that the dust has settled on the Russia hack in the presidential election two years ago, we can all go back to our regularly scheduled programming. Right? After all, the next presidential election is two years away, so who cares! It’s not like Russian spies care about what’s going on at your office. Right? Echo Hack Endgadget reported that Chinese researchers figured out how to use Echo to eavesdrop remotely....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. While the Internet provides many obvious advantages to people in this digital age, it can also enable a dark side for those intent on mischievous and criminal online behavior. “Revenge porn” is part of that dark side. So, what is revenge porn? It usually consists of a nude photograph or video which is publicly shared online (most frequently by an ex-lover of the nude subject) for the purpose of spiteful humiliation....
Thinking about going solo? There are certainly a bundle of pros to come with the idea of running your own practice – there’s no one barking orders at you, you can work on whatever schedule suits you, and best of all, you call the shots. With that said, here are some things to consider before you delve into those waters. Most sole practitioners will tell you that they definitely do not spend all of their time practicing law....
As a mother of a little girl, I came across Goldieblox in my search for un-pink toys. The company’s goal is to inspire a new generation of engineers to equalize the playing field as only 11% of engineers are women, worldwide. As someone also raised on late ’80s – early ’90s hip hop, when I saw their commercial set to the tune of the Beastie Boys’ “Girls,” I had one more reason to be a fan....
We’ve all wished that there were more hours in a day. Some lawyers, however, have gone ahead and added their own – at least in their bills. It’s not unheard of for lawyers to pad their hours so extensively that they are charging 26 hours of work – in a single day. But while bill padding might bring in an extra dollar or two in the short term, it’s generally a bad idea to fleece your clients....
Perhaps you’re feeling good about last month’s bar exam and you’re certain that you passed. Should you take that job with the mid-size firm or should you go solo? Well, the latter choice is a little hard to pin down. Incomes are such a touchy thing these days. How much do solos make? More than you’d think, apparently. But hold it – what does “make” mean, anyway? May as Well Be a Garbage Worker?...
Ramadan is coming. And for those that fast, this is probably the worst time of year for Ramadan. With daylight hours clocking in at almost 15 hours of the day, Ramadan (always difficult) is especially hard during summer. So, as an attorney that is working at a fast pace for much of the day, how do you fulfill your religious obligations, while also fulfilling your professional and ethical obligations? 1. Get Up Early The last thing you want to do is start a 14+ hour-fast hungry....
Meat processing giant AFA Foods has filed for bankruptcy-court protection due to controversy stemming from “pink slime,” a ground beef filler. The company says the pink slime bankruptcy was brought on by slumping sales. Pink slime is ammonia-treated boneless lean beef trimmings that is often added to ground beef. It has been approved for use for years by the USDA, the Los Angeles Times reports. However, any in-house counsel worth their salt knows that even if something is deemed okay by the government, that alone isn’t reason enough to do nothing....
Do you sometimes wonder who will take over your practice when you become incapacitated or pass away? The Wisconsin Board of Governors has addressed that problem recently by approving a succession planning registry. As it stands, nothing mandates that lawyers within the state participate, but the working group charged with attacking the succession problem has recommended that a mandatory registry ought to be created sometime in the near future. Impetus for the Succession Registry The Board of Governors directed the staff of Wisconsin’s State Bar to work on a registry for succession planning in the event that a principal died or became incapacitated....
Excessive work demands took an extra blow the other day when a Pennsylvania court ruled that the widow of a worker who died during a 14 hour shift was entitled to death benefits. The employer was liable for working the man to death, the court ruled. A Long Day Followed by a Heart Attack Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Act allows for death benefits, also known as fatal claims, for the families of workers who have died on the job....
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a Florida teacher who was fired after admitting that she became pregnant out of wedlock can bring a pregnancy discrimination claim against her former employer. Fourth grade teacher Jaretta Hamilton was fired shortly after she told her boss at Southland Christian School that she planned to take maternity leave. While being pregnant was not cause for termination at the school, Southland Principal John Ennis, said that he dismissed Hamilton because “she had sinned by engaging in premarital sex, and “there are consequences for disobeying the word of God....
On Tuesday, the first execution since the botched, torturous death of Clayton Lockett seven weeks ago went through without a hitch. After apologizing for his actions, Marcus Wellons was executed for the rape and murder of his neighbor, 15-year-old India Roberts, reports The New York Times. However, a concurrence in the denial of a last minute stay by the Eleventh Circuit highlighted an unanswered question that remains for Georgia and other states with capital punishment and secretly sourced lethal injection drugs....
Billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam has been found guilty of fraud and conspiracy by a federal jury in New York. He will likely face up to 15-1/2 years in prison, according to Reuters. His conviction - and the government’s push for use of wiretap evidence against Rajaratnam in trial - will have repercussions in securities law, and the way securities violations are prosecuted. “It’s a historic verdict. It’s a dramatic verdict. It will likely set the stage for a dramatic change not only in the way that the Wall Street insider-trader activities are investigated and prosecuted, but most likely this will have a chilling effect on individuals and companies that trade,” says Bill Singer, a securities lawyer with Gusrae, Kaplan, Bruno & Nusbaum to Reuters....
After the 2008 financial meltdown, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) was enacted to reform our crumbling financial services industry. After languishing for several years because of hastily drafted imprecise wording, The Wall Street Journal reports that a requirement of the Act may soon be taking effect: disclosing the gap between CEO compensation and “rank-and-file employees.” (Subscription only). The Washington Post reports that Mary Jo White, SEC Chairwoman hopes the rule will be finished by September and stated: “We are very much as a staff and commission focused on that rule-making....
Before 1936, the United States had a long history of public executions. Rainey Bethea was the last person to be hanged publicly, when he was put to death that year for murdering and raping a 70-year-old woman. But that “carnival in Owensboro” led to a banning of public executions in America. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, changed that when he requested a public execution in 2001. Doyle Lee Hamm wanted next, and a federal judge wanted to give it to him....
The paperless office. Like the flying car and the sassy robot sidekick, it’s something we’ve been promised for years, but something science has consistently failed to deliver. Lawyers are up to their ears in paper as much as they ever were, and while our tablets and iDevices let us browse stuff without paper, we’ve got to cram all those documents in there somehow. That’s where a scanner comes in – but what kind should you get?...
District court’s application of sentence enhancements on a defendant, a registered nurse convicted of tampering with a consumer product, obtaining controlled substances by deception and subterfuge, and making false statements to federal investigators looking into her drug tampering, is affirmed where: 1) the district court properly concluded that defendant in fact served in a position of public trust and that she had abused her position of trust in applying the enhancement; 2) the district court’s application of the vulnerable victim enhancement was proper; and 3) the district court did not err in splitting the counts in two groups as those who faced the risk of receiving adulterated vials and the hospital itself were sufficiently different from a skin-patch victim to take that into account at sentencing....
The ABA Journal recently reported that a new online lawyer referral service “recently received $690,000 in angel investor funding.” But that’s not what grabbed our attention … it was the company’s name, Lawdingo. Lawdingo? What’s a Lawdingo? It sounds like a character out of a Dr. Seuss book, but we assure you, it’s not. Attorneys pay $92 month to be listed on the Lawdingo website, which includes the ability for attorneys to create profiles, declare availability for consultation calls, and specify practice areas....
In plaintiffs’ action under the Truth in Lending Act against defendant for refusing to refund a $500 deposit plaintiffs’ demanded after they attempted to exercise their right to rescind prior to closing on a loan to refinance their house, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed as a consumer cannot exercise the right to rescind created by 15 U.S.C. section 1635(a) until after consummation of a consumer credit transaction. Read Weintraub v....
Women lawyers are taking 25 percent of the governance roles in top law firms, nearly double the amount in the last decade. That is the brightest spot in a new report on the promotion and retention of women in American law firms. Otherwise, the National Association of Women Lawyers’ survey shows little change for female lawyers in the top jobs. “While the number of women equity partners has increased from 16 percent in 2007, it remained largely unchanged in the last 10 years,” the 2017 report says....
