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FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. A recent study just published by 250ok, an email analytics company, provides some apparent disturbing news – a whopping 62% of the top 100 global law firms currently fails to achieve the minimum level of email authentication to safeguard law firm staff and clients from phishing attacks. In its study, 250ok discusses Domain-based Message Authentication and Reporting Conformance (DMARC)....

Despite a trend towards more flat fee arrangements, most law firms still bill their clients by the hour. Associates must bill enough hours to pay their salary, overhead and make a nice profit for the firm. Firms often require 1700 to 2300 billable hours per year, leaving attorneys in a precarious situation. The more they bill, the more money the firm makes. Therefore, there is an incentive to work around the clock....

According to a survey of more than 200 lawyers, approximately 29 percent of lawyers responded that they would simply work more in order to make up financial holes in their retirement plans. In other words, their retirement plan was to not retire. Based on the results of the survey, one could probably infer that lawyer’s responses changed based on the direction of the stock market. To those long-term investors who got into the market during 2015’s sideways moves – we feel your pain....

Letting go is hard to do. And in an economy like the current one, layoffs have become a necessary evil–and even norm–for some companies. Being the recipient of bad news can be devastating, but being the messenger carries its own exacting toll. Companies are turning to in-house counsel to guide their executive and HR teams on how to conduct workforce reductions judiciously, expeditiously…and in accordance with state and federal law....

Is asbestos litigation back in the spotlight? Thomas Brown Jr., 48, was awarded the sum after he prevailed against Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) and Union Carbide Corporation. Brown was 16 when he began working in the oil fields in the late 1970s, and was 30 when he was diagnosed with asbestosis. He now requires daily oxygen support, reports The Clarion Ledger. Asbestosis is incurable, and can cause difficulty breathing, a crackling sound in the lungs, and can result in cardiac arrest in serious cases....

Seventeen-year-old Patrick Skrabec made a terrible joke, telling his Attelboro classmates “he would like to shoot up the school.” Because of the Sandy Hook shooting days earlier, that joke put Skrabec in jail – until he was released and found not guilty of threatening to commit a crime. He and his family then sued for false arrest and other claims. A judge threw out his case, largely because his lawyer made a terrible mistake....

How do you choose your software? Most likely, you base your choices on functionality and reputation. You’ll ask friends or check the Internet for suggestions, try a few alternatives, and use what fits you best. When do politics hit the equation? If a company took a controversial stance on a divisive issue, would you drop their product? What if it were merely the CEO of a company? What if the stance was a political donation from 2008?...

For a moment, just imagine asking your employer about taking a sabbatical from work. The question is only difficult because you think that the answer will be “no” and that you will wonder, “what was I thinking?” Then you will be saying to yourself that you never should have read that blog article … Regardless, there are compelling reasons to take a sabbatical, even if asking your boss about it makes you uncomfortable....

Prolific social media use is generating an ever-increasing amount of publicly available data. Just about every tweet, Facebook like, and instant message leaves a digital trail. And data analytics is growing increasingly skilled at mining that information in order to provide important insights, not just to marketers and government spies, but to corporations conducting internal investigations. Unfortunately, many corporate investigations are ignoring those tools. Most companies fail to make use of social media analytics, according to a new survey by Deloitte, leaving in-house legal teams without potentially beneficial information....

No one likes or wants to be searched at any border. But in these times of hypersensitive border security, with nearly every traveler carrying minimally one or more pieces of high powered technology (seriously, even your first iPhone could do a lot), the issue of electronics border searches is a hot one. Finding that a search of an electronic device at the border does not require probable cause, nor even reasonable suspicion, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has broken with the Fourth and Ninth Circuits....

Vacation time? For many lawyers it is, because, yes, even attorneys deserve a vacation. With the weather getting undeniably warmer and the days much longer, vacation time is imminent for many. With that said, what are the 3 things you should do first, if you’re taking time off for the upcoming holiday? Make sure all your clients are taken care of. In the time that you’ll be gone, try to estimate what you’ll anticipate for each and every single one of your clients....

Frank Chatmon faces a life sentence if convicted of charges related to a massive drug-trafficking conspiracy. The biggest problem for the government, however, will be getting him to face those charges in court. Before he could stand trial, his attorney noticed a deterioration in his mental state. Things got so bad that Chatmon’s attorney began to doubt that he had the capacity to understand the proceedings, and filed a motion seeking a formal competency evaluation....

Jesus Javier Garza violated the conditions of his supervised release and was sentenced to 24 months of imprisonment to be followed by 24 months of supervised release. The advisory Sentencing Guidelines range was 3 to 9 months of imprisonment. In the course of imposing the sentence, the district court extensively discussed the rehabilitation opportunities that prison terms of varying lengths would afford Garza. On appeal, Garza argued that the district court improperly considered his rehabilitative needs in determining the length of his prison sentence in violation of Tapia v....

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act isn’t even law yet, but it’s already causing lawsuits. CISA, recently passed in the Senate and one of a trio of proposed cybersecurity laws, encourages companies to share cybersecurity information with the government. The law has been decried as a cybersurveillance measure, not a cybersecurity act, by groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation. But the actual text of CISA “may pale in comparison to what the bill allows” when read in conjunction with a classified Justice Department opinion on “common commercial service agreements,” according to the ACLU....

In a civil rights action brought under the Fourth Amendment, district court judgment is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant’s motions for a new trial and remittitur as the court properly refused to limit liability to the damages plaintiff incurred between the arrest and the arraignment, and the jury’s award can fairly be understood to be supported by at least one and probably two rational appraisals of the damages; and 2) the court properly reduced the amount of attorney’s fees awarded to plaintiff based on a consideration of his unsuccessful claims....

Terrible, terrible trolls. Two days ago, it was the President’s turn to speak out against the “non-practicing entities” or “patent-assertion entities,” terms that are kind descriptors for the litigants who purchase patents for nearly nothing, then file frivolous lawsuits en masse, hoping for quick settlements. We were in favor of most of the proposed reforms. Forcing litigants to disclose the true “party in interest” negates the trolls’ tactic of forming dozens of value-less shell companies to hide behind when filing meritless suits....

US v. Johnson, 08-5098, concerned a challenge to a conviction of defendant for conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. In reversing, the court remanded the matter in holding that the district court abused its discretion in admitting a DEA agent’s testimony as a lay witness under Rule 701, and this error was not harmless. The court also held that the district court erred in admitting the testimony of a prior, alleged drug customer, under Rule 404(b), and despite the district court’s limiting instruction, this error was not harmless....

At what point did these attorneys realize they were crossing the line? Did they even know what line they were crossing? Paul R. Hansmeier and John L. Steele may have suspected they were doing something wrong in 2010 when they started their porn-trolling operation through Prenda Law. They set up shell companies to buy copyrights for pornographic movies, uploaded those movies to file-sharing websites, and then threatened to sue people who downloaded the movies....

This troll must have missed the memo about suing only those who can’t defend themselves. The basic patent troll business model is this: Get patents, sue small businesses that can’t afford to pay for legal defense, and negotiate nuisance settlements. It’s easy, it’s effective, and if you get enough settlements, you can rake in a decent revenue stream without filing any lawsuits, even if your patent is junk. The problem for Personal Audio is that they sued Adam Carolla, of “Loveline” and “The Man Show” fame....

Estate of Charania v. Shulman, No. 09-2430, concerned a decedent’s estate’s challenge to the judgment of the tax court in a deficiency case. The court affirmed in part the judgment of the tax court that all of the Citigroup shares were the separate property of the decedent for federal estate tax purposes and, thus, were includable in his gross taxable estate, as the rule of De Nicols is that a change is marital domicile does not, in itself, effect a change in the marital property regime governing the spouses’ rights in personal property acquired throughout the course of the marriage....