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Here’s a lesson for companies: Trying to deceive customers into paying for bogus things they never ordered will cost you. First, the FTC said it would go after T-Mobile. Now, it’s settled with AT&T for $105 million. “Mobile cramming” is the practice of charging the customer for a service the customer didn’t ask for, according to the FTC. Apparently, AT&T was incentivized to help the practice along, thanks to the 35 percent cut of the cramming charges it received from third parties that sent customers unwanted texts, ringtones, or other minutiae (referred to as “premium short message services” or PSMS)....

Was he fired or did he quit? The answer is still not clear as the accusations between attorney John McPhee, and his former firm, bounce back and forth. McPhee had just finished an unsuccessful judicial campaign for 39th district court in Michigan and allegedly intended to return to work when he was informed that his “replacement” had been on the job for some time. McPhee says he had no intention of quitting his job when firing up his “a blue collar judge for a blue collar community” judicial campaign....

We’ve been following this story for way too long, since the “West Wing-like deal” rumors started swirling back in September. With as many as four vacancies to fill on the Eleventh Circuit bench (out of twelve seats total), and with his nominee of choice to a three-years-vacant seat, Jill Pryor, blocked by two Georgia Republican senators, President Barack Obama reached across the aisle and forged a bipartisan compromise: two Democratic choices for three Republican choices....

In a petition for review of the Department of Labor’s determination that petitioner’s employer did not discharge him for complaining about violations of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act, the petition is denied where the inspection methods petitioner insisted on using for his employer’s vehicles were not reasonably necessary. Read Calhoun v. US Dep’t of Labor, No. 07-2157 Appellate Information Argued: March 26, 2009 Decided: August 11, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Gregory...

In a case filed Tuesday, the Fifth Circuit reviewed a tort claim by banks which had suffered economic damages at the hands of a ring of hackers who had stolen millions of credit card numbers. Not the short-haired, mid-1990s Angelina Jolie type hackers, but the sophisticated real-world kind who caused several banks (called “Issuer Banks”) to replace compromised credit cards and reimburse their customers for any fraudulent charges. The Fifth Circuit stepped in to wrangle Lone Star National Bank, et al....

Eric Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP (http://www.duanemorris.com) where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology and intellectual property disputes. His Web site is http://www.sinrodlaw.com and he can be reached at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com. To receive a weekly email link to Mr. Sinrod’s columns, please send an email to him with Subscribe in the Subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging deliberate indifference to plaintiff’s decedent’s medical needs while he was in jail, denial of defendants’ motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity is affirmed in part where: 1) plaintiff adequately alleged that defendants were aware of the decedent’s condition because of his symptoms and behavior at the jail; and 2) case law at the relevant time should have put supervisor defendants on notice that policies or customs of delayed investigation into and treatment of alcohol withdrawal would be unlawful....

For the general public, the next few months may be a real test of the public’s patience. That’s because arguments, evidence, and post-trial motions, have been taken under submission by the Federal District Court in Massachusetts in the big Harvard anti-affirmative action case. Lawyers may be used to waiting for big decisions, but the public might be tested as one isn’t expected until next year. If you’re a regular reader of our blogs, or manage to keep your finger on the pulse of national legal news, then you already know about this case and some of the juicy related controversies....

Neil Gorsuch could be our next Supreme Court justice. Gorsuch, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Trump last week, currently sits on the Tenth Circuit, where he’s been for the past ten years. But before Gorsuch became a federal judge, he spent almost ten years in private practice, as an associate and then partner at Kellogg Huber. What was Gorsuch like as an attorney? Skilled, practical, reliable, according to his colleagues, who Bloomberg’s BigLaw Business recently spoke to....

This case is about ships passing in the night, or at least pleadings just missing each other in a maritime case. Dr. Amr Fawzy sued a boat manufacturer for selling him a defective yacht. Just before the court filed an order dismissing his case, the plaintiff filed an amended complaint. Fawzy appealed the dismissal, but the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal because the amended complaint was the operative pleading....

Since when did law students get to tell BigLaw firms what to do? Since the #MeToo movement, it seems. After Harvard law students said they would boycott Kirkland & Ellis over its mandatory arbitration agreements for summer associates, the BigLaw firm changed its practice. It took less than a week for the law firm to get the message: #MeToo means you, too. Boycott Now For 10 years, Kirkland had required new associates to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of employment....

Court appointed work is rarely lucrative, but lawyers in Franklin County, Maine were so fed up with the ridiculously low rate in state cases that they agreed to do something about it: go on strike by refusing to take sexual assault cases until the rate was raised from $50 an hour to $70 or more. Unfortunately, the strike failed for two predictable reasons: the court found attorneys willing to undercut their fellow members of the bar and there weren’t that many cases to begin with – the Morning Sentinel found only two....

Last week a panel of experts outlined a multi-pronged attack on what is the latest of a changing national attitude regarding workplace harassment before the EEOC’s Select Task Force. It was the second such public meeting of the STF which was announced back in March of 2015. The EEOC co-chair Chai R. Feldblum expressed the general consensus of the meeting that prophylaxis is better than treatment. Pressure on Buyers Judge Laura Safer Espinoza who directs the Fair Foods Standards Council presented an approach that would force compliance among farmers and other producers of input goods....

Have you ever considered offering your services as in-house counsel à la carte? It’s a burgeoning realm of the legal industry that caters to bright-eyed startups on shoestring budgets. One such company, Daily General Counsel, launched recently, taking a foray into the next stage of GC life: on-demand in-house lawyering. How it works: the attorneys swoop in to companies and provide legal services on an as-needed basis, playing the role of an in-house attorney for a day, resolving as many issues as they can in eight hours for a flat fee of $1,500, The Boston Globe reports....

If only life were as simple as the songwriters say, like in the hit song from the the Turtles’ “Happy Together.” Perhaps one day, when theoretical physicists unravel the mysteries of string theory and the harmonics of the universe, everybody will live in music-like unison. But in the litigious meantime, Flo & Eddie and other musicians from before 1972 will have to be happy with a settlement that is still unsettled....

Private investigators should be part of any practicing attorney’s arsenal. Back before the Internet was the mainstay of every self-proclaimed desk detective out there, there were only limited ways to snoop into other people’s business. You could either do it yourself, or you had to hire a private investigator. Private investigators serve as your personal spies. Before a case is litigated, its almost a given that the parties will try to hash out a deal first....

Thinking outside the box is not what it used to be. The idea suggests that you can find solutions to problems by going outside your usual boundaries. But the saying apparently came from a puzzle-maker in the 1960s, so yeah. Maybe it’s time to think a little differently inside the box. After all, that’s where most of us work. Recreate Your Environment The stereotypical law office is pretty drab. Unless you are in an open space environment, you are literally in a box....

Most discussions on work-life balance focus on giving lawyers sufficient time off, finding opportunities for lawyers to meet their children or glimpse a beach, while trying to still bill 80 hours a week. But there’s more to quality of life than just spare time and high pay. In fact, lawyers can improve their quality of life, and that of their firm, by focusing on factors other than hours and compensation altogether....

Some lawyers just don’t get it. When a judge says “no,” it’s not an invitation to argue. It’s more like an invitation to sit down and shut up. What part of “no,” do they not understand? A good advocate knows this: When a judge says, “you can’t do that,” you have to find another way to do it. That’s what’s happening in special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s case against attorney Paul Manafort....

If Thanksgiving is coming, you’d better believe that “Black Friday” deals are too. Hopefully you won’t actually be out shopping on Black Friday – or on Thanksgiving, for crying out loud. In any case, you don’t need to wait until Black Friday before finding deals for the tech-savvy lawyer in your life – “Black Friday” is basically a month-long thing now. So what do you get for Attorney 2.0? Gadgets, of course....