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Since the 1960s, people have imagined a future full of virtual reality; headsets that could transport you to fin de siecle Paris, holodecks that could recreate the African savanna. But for so long, nothing happened. It seemed like virtual reality would go the way of hoverboards and flying cars; an exciting idea that would just never happen. No more. Virtual reality is back and booming, with virtual reality games, virtual reality news apps, and millions of dollars invested in VR startups....

Last week in Paris, 195 nations reached a landmark agreement to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris climate accords marked the culmination of COP21, the semi-regular meeting of signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It also marked the first time ever that all countries have agreed to reduce emissions. In order to meet its new commitments, the U.S. and other nations will need to make significant changes to achieve “a low-carbon future....

Your cell phones keep exploding. Your cars have been cheating emissions tests. There’s E. coli in your burritos. Whatever the reason, your company needs to recall its products – and that can cost quite a bit. Sure, general liability insurance will probably cover you if your product results in injuries before being recalled, but you might need special insurance to deal with the additional damages, like lost profits, reputation damage, and significant disruption to your business, that a product recall can cause....

Kellyanne Conway, one of President Trump’s closest advisors, is facing an ethics complaint from 15 law professors. Conway is, of course, an attorney herself. After all, who could so deftly pull out a phrase like “alternative facts” and not blink an eye, if not a lawyer? She graduated from George Washington University Law School and joined the D.C. Bar in 1995. The complaint accuses Conway of violating her professional responsibilities by making allegedly dishonest and inaccurate statements....

If a dog takes a smaller bite out of your leg, is that a benefit? Didn’t think so. Likewise, if the new tax laws take a smaller bite out of your business, it’s still gonna hurt. It is especially true for solo practitioners and small law firms. That’s because a few new laws were made just for you – woof, woof. PSCs A professional service corporation, or PSC, provides primarily professional services....

California voters will get a chance to finally legalize the adult possession and consumption of marijuana within this state, joining the ranks of D.C., Oregon, Washington, and a few other jurisdictions this coming November 8th. This, despite marijuana still being listed as a banned substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act. You may be wondering how the passage of Prop 64 will affect California employers’ rights to vigilantly control drug policies....

The First Amendment includes the right to videotape police officers, subject only to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, the Fifth Circuit ruled last Thursday. The ruling comes after Fort Worth, Texas police officers detained a man for filming their police station from the sidewalk. And it’s not terribly shocking. Every circuit court to address the issue has ruled similarly. Nonetheless, the court ruled, that right to film wasn’t clearly established at the time of the detention, meaning that the detained man couldn’t pursue his civil rights suit against the officers on First Amendment grounds....

If Jerk.com [via Internet Archive] wasn’t dead before, its fate is nearly sealed now. The no longer online website just got slapped with an administrative complaint [PDF] by the Federal Trade Commission. Jerk allegedly violated Facebook’s terms of service by scraping individuals’ photos and names without their or Facebook’s permission, allowing the site to create profiles for at least 73 million individuals. Visitors could vote “Jerk” or “Not Jerk,” and leave comments....

A prosecutor’s use of ‘racially coded references’ means that a South Carolina man’s death sentence must be reversed, the Fourth Circuit ruled yesterday. Johnny Bennett, who is African American, had been convicted of murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. But Bennett’s sentencing was so full of winking racism that it made a fair proceeding impossible, the Fourth ruled. The all-white jury that sentenced Bennett to death was actually the second jury to give him the death penalty....

Being a lawyer means seeking justice on behalf of clients. However, lawyers understand that justice, particularly in the civil sense, is about dollars and cents, more so than justice. When it comes to persuading a civil client that it is in their best interest to settle, a lawyer’s role as a fiduciary can really complicate matters. To that end, it is the ever-constant duty of the attorney to remind the client of the business judgment rule of litigation....

Our network crashed on Monday. And the cause won’t surprise anyone: somebody opened an email containing a virus. It strains the mind to imagine how anyone could be that naive nowadays – you’re really going to believe an email from an unknown sender with an attachment containing “important documens” [sic]. And yet, someone did. And someone else did. And before we knew it, the entire network was down and an hour’s worth of productivity was lost....

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that rings true even today: “Those who know when they have enough are rich.” I am not Chinese, but I know frugality when I see it. Years ago, I worked in Los Angeles for a publishing company owned by a Chinese family. They also published the largest Chinese-language newspaper in Taiwain and employed hundreds of people on two continents. Yet the owner never showed off his wealth....

The Hotel Meliá (“HMI”) has been in business since the 1890s, in the same location in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and hosted the likes of President Theodore Roosevelt. It never registered its mark with the USPTO, or with the Puerto Rico Department of State. Dorpan, a subsidiary of Sol Meliá, a Spanish company that owns hotels around the world, owns the rights to several marks including the word “Meliá” (referenced together as “Dorpan”)....

When you think of airport lawyers, if you ever think of airport lawyers, you might imagine some government attorneys with the FAA, or maybe a highly specialized land use attorney. But, given the hubbub caused by President Trump’s recent travel ban, airport lawyers have taken on a whole new meaning – and prominence. They’re the attorneys who ran to the nation’s airports the weekend after the president signed an executive order limiting immigration and travel from seven majority-Muslim nations....

Apple’s iOS8 is not expected to release before fall – but that hasn’t stopped the whispers. The word on the street is that Apple’s anticipated iOS8 has new features that has the Internet abuzz with speculation, rumors and purported screen shots. Here’s a roundup of what’s going round the rumor mill. Healthbook Taking a cue from the popularity of health and fitness trackers, Apple is getting in on the action with its own version – Healthbook....

Under Title VII, a woman should not be fired for expressing breast milk or lactating, a stance now confirmed by the Fifth Circuit in their EEOC v. Houston Funding II, Ltd. opinion, filed in late May. The Court found that firing Donnicia Venters for wishing to pump her breast milk at work was ultimately sex discrimination, which may help bridge the last four decades since the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978....

A corporation’s directors, as agents of the shareholders, are where the buck stops in terms of corporate governance. They’re also ultimately responsible for oversight of management. But executives in the C-suites have much more involvement in the day-to-day operations of the company than the board of directors. As a result, it’s more important than ever to have a strong board of directors. That’s not always the case, though. Inside Counsel points out that replacing underperforming directors is a concern for at least one-third of directors in a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of corporate directors....

If the attorneys representing El Chapo, a.k.a. Joaquin Guzman, the infamous leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, were overly concerned about getting paid, they may have wanted to think twice before accepting the representation. Getting paid has been an issue since the beginning of this representation. According to recent reports, the alleged kingpin’s lawyers haven’t received any payments since the initial payment. That payment came from “friends” of Guzman. In order to get an additional payment, Guzman claimed that he needed to make a statement in open court to his “family....

Building Graphics, Inc., designs family homes. In the 1990s, BG designed three plans that were later sold to other builders. Two of the designs were used to build a pair of houses (one per design) in the Charlotte area. The designs were also available online for purchase as “stock” plans. The third design’s plans were available offline for sale. All three were copyrighted. Lennar Corporation builds homes in 18 states. Before jumping into a market, they conduct “due diligence” of recently built homes in the area, which includes analyzing floor plans, features, and prices....

There’s an app for everything nowadays. Food delivery? There’s an app for that. Car service? There’s an app for that too. House cleaning? Yard work? Home maintenance? Catching Pokemon? Anything you want delivered? Yup. Yup. Yup. Yup. Yup. There are more than a few apps for all of this and then some. Some law firms have even jumped on board the app bandwagon. But does your law firm need one? And what would it do differently than your website?...