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You need thick skin to be a criminal prosecutor, but when complicated technology comes at you hard, you have to grow a new layer. So it is for Joseph Alioto, a federal prosecutor in an attempted murder case pending in Oakland. After a tricky hearing that involved Stingray technology, Alioto had to deal with media reports that he didn’t know what he was talking about. In an age of fast-developing technologies, it’s a question every lawyer will face: How does this thing work, anyway?...

Sometimes you just need to switch it up, whether you’re getting a new pair of sneaks or ending a 28 year long business arrangement. In 2013, Nike, the massive shoe and apparel company, decided it was time to make a change when its retailers severed the relationship with Carter’s of New Bedford, a tiny, family-owned Massachusetts retailer. Carter’s wasn’t about to let Nike get away, however. Carter’s, alleging that Nike was turning its back on small businesses, sued the shoe company for breach of contract in Massachusetts court....

Should we be worried about the number of ineffective counsel claims that are making their way through the circuits this year? The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in yet another ineffective counsel case this week, finding that a petitioner had received the benefit of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel, even though his lawyer barely satisfied that standard. Rabe’s first beef with his court-appointed attorney, Michael Smith, was that Rabe gave Smith the names of Avalos, Avalos’s wife, and Diaz as potential alibi witnesses, but that Smith did contact any of them to testify at trial....

Security Services of America is not liable for damages caused by its security guard who burned down a subdivision he was charged with protecting, the Fourth Circuit ruled last Friday. A state law, the Maryland Security Guard Act, did not expand the company’s liability beyond traditional doctrines of respondeat superior. Aaron Speed was working as a security guard with SSA when he and several accomplices committed one of the largest arsons in Maryland history, burning down 10 under-construction houses and damaging 16 others....

When your company is sued for unlawful retaliation, it doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong. If you go to trial, what matters is how the situation looks to a jury. This week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals revived a former student worker’s retaliation claims against Hofstra University, finding that the student presented sufficient evidence to survive summary judgment. Things don’t look good for the University. Lauren Summa was a graduate student at Hofstra University from 2006 through 2009....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Getting to and from work can be a time-consuming, irritating and productivity-sucking endeavor. Indeed, time wasted in the car certainly could be used for more enjoyable and productive activities than countless annual hours behind the wheel. Where rush hour traffic consistently is bad, telecommuting should be actively explored for appropriate employees. TomTom has collected data in an effort to measure the worst rush hour traffic in 48 countries, and specifically within 390 cities in those countries....

In an action alleging that Defendant misused Plaintiff’s Internet domain names and website to promote his solo medical practice, judgment for Plaintiff is affirmed in part, where a reasonable jury could find that Defendant made misrepresentations in a copyright registration application; but reversed in part, where the District Court erred in determining that Plaintiff could not recover damages under both the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the Lanham Act. Read St....

Indonesian national’s petition for review of BIA’s denial of her application for asylum is denied where: 1) BIA’s finding that petitioner failed to establish the requisite nexus between the obviously traumatic incidents of armed robbery and bomb threats and her status as a Christian was supported by substantial evidence on the record; and 2) BIA’s decision denying petitioner’s claim for asylum on the basis of well-founded fear of future persecution was supported by substantial evidence....

Evolution does not always occur through survival of the fittest; sometimes it just occurs through the right fit. For Adam Cohen, it may have been a combination of the two. He was a BigLaw partner, but he had a passion for technology. In time, he evolved from legal advocate to white hat hacker. “With technology and business these days, everything changes so rapidly that you constantly have to be learning new things,” he told the ABA Journal about his change from law partner to managing director of an expert consulting firm....

In a prosecution of a defendant for violating the Hobbs Act and for carrying firearms in relation to a crime of violence after the FBI foiled a planned robbery of the Loomis Fargo armored car facility, district court’s judgment is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded where: 1) district court’s determination that defendant made the decision not to testify was not clearly erroneous; 2) given the significant downward adjustments, coupled with its refusal to depart further despite its authority to do so, defendant failed to demonstrate a reasonable probability that the district court would give him a lesser sentence; 3) district court’s grant of a judgment of acquittal for carrying an explosive grenade is reversed as co-defendants’ testimony was sufficient to establish that it was reasonably foreseeable to defendant that one of his co-conspirators would be carrying a hand grenade; and 4) district court abused its discretion in granting defendant’s motion for a new trial on the explosive grenade conviction....

Virginia has this pretty onerous rule. If a medical service provider wishes to open a facility in a Virginia market, it has to first obtain a certificate of need. Not only does the certificate cost significant money, but it requires navigating a maze of bureaucratic processes to complete the approximately seven-month process. And if any person (including competing existing businesses) requests an “informal fact-finding” session, the process can take years....

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court announced changes to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which govern criminal prosecutions in federal courts. Those amendments would make it easier to serve summons on foreign organizations without a U.S. presence, reduce the time for responding to electronic service, and allow judges to issue warrants for remote searches of electronically stored information outside of their district. And it’s that last change which will likely have the biggest impact, removing a procedural barrier to government investigations and, critics claim, expanding the government’s hacking powers....

Willbros RPI, Inc. v. Continental Cas. Co., No. 08-20665, involved an action against an insurer seeking a declaratory judgment that defendant was required to provide defense and indemnity. The court of partially appeals affirmed the district court’s order of partial summary judgment for plaintiff, on the grounds that 1) conduct that clearly fell outside of the professional services exclusion provides an independent but for cause of the injury; and 2) indemnity issues must await resolution of the underlying suit....

As the owner of a small firm you know that what you do is so much more than lawyering – you’re running a business. If you’ve dabbled in marketing, then you’ve probably figured out that it’s actually much harder than it looks. Figuring out what outlets to use, and what your message will be is hard enough. But what about measuring the success of your marketing campaigns? That’s a whole science unto itself....

If your law firm isn’t on social media, you are simply missing out on some easy and free marketing that can be done in your downtime from anywhere. Every platform you want to be on has an app that will work on your smartphone, which you can peruse while watching TV, riding the train, or even while using the toilet. And when you like other people’s posts, comment, or make your posts on your law firm’s behalf, you’re actually marketing....

In a First Amendment action challenging a school’s prohibition on displaying the Confederate flag, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) defendants reasonably anticipated that visible displays of the Confederate flag would cause substantial disruption of, or material interference with, school activities; 2) the policy gave students adequate notice of what clothing was prohibited; and 3) plaintiffs failed to provide evidence that the ban was enforced unequally. Read A.M. v....

Last night, Google announced that the latest version of Android, “KitKat,” would roll out to owners of Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi) and 10 tablets, with the update coming to Nexus 4 and 7 (with mobile data) in the near-term. Of course, “roll out” means we’re hitting the “Check for Updates” button every twenty minutes, with no luck yet. This, my friends, is why if you’re going to Android, choosing one of Google’s own Nexus devices is worth considering: quick updates....

No surprises here, though there is a whole lot of new Apple crack for all you fanatics out there. Today, the company announced its long-awaited and much-rumored iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as the Apple Watch. With the two new phone models, Apple’s smartphone lineup expands to four options – 5c, 5s, 6, 6 Plus – and with the Apple Watch, the company will get in on the growing wearables category, challenging notable Android Wear entries from Motorola, Samsung, and LG....

The verdict is in: After barely two days of deliberation, a federal jury found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all of the 30 counts relating to his involvement in the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon, which killed three and injured over 200. Now that Tsarnaev has been found guilty on at least one of the 17 counts that carry the death penalty, the trial will now proceed to the sentencing phase, where the same jury will decide whether Tsarnaev should be given that sentence....

In an employment termination action, district court judgment is affirmed where: 1) the evidence was sufficient for a jury to conclude that protected conduct played enough of a role in plaintiff’s discharge to support the verdict that defendant was substantially motivated by an aim to retaliate; 2) the court did not abuse its discretion in failing to grant remittitur as substantial evidence allowed the jury to conclude that plaintiff likely could not have found a job earning substantial income; and 3) the court did not err in refusing to submit the question of punitive damages to the jury as there was no direct evidence that defendant acted in whole or in part to retaliate for the law suit....