Posts

Litigation doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. And litigators and trial attorneys need to always be looking to improve and up their game. Here in the FindLaw Strategist blog, we’ve been doing our best to help by blogging about all the litigation and trial tips we come across, or have put to use in our own law practices over the years. Below, you’ll find our 8 best litigation tips from 2018, but be sure to keep following the Strategist blog for even more tips in 2019....

In US v. Armstrong, No. 08-20323, the court affirmed defendants’ convictions for engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting mail fraud, holding that ) the trial court’s instructions dispelled any danger that the jury would give weight to the exhibit at issue as substantive evidence or to bolster credibility; 2) certain challenged statements were not offered for the truth of the matter asserted and thus were not hearsay; and 3) the district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing the use of a summary witness....

Ever want to hear how Google’s GC handles things at his shop? Headlining this year’s West Coast General Counsel Conference is none other than Kent Walker, the senior vice president and general counsel of the internet giant. Google was recently named the “Best Legal Department of 2011” by the editors of Corporate Counsel. Walker himself has earned multiple distinctions while working at the helm of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies....

You just received an email from Banana Republic. If you’re using Gmail, or any other modern email client, the embedded images are blocked, and you have to click “Display Images Below” to see what fabulous styles await your attention. It’s a pain. And then you click the button and it takes forever to load. It also turns out that, according to Ars Technica, when those images are downloaded, a ton of information about you is sent back, including your IP address (your location), your referring website (which tells them that you’re using Gmail, on a mobile device), and the request itself indicates that you opened the email....

Oh, beckoning weekend: what adventures do you have in store? Motorcycles? Prison? Binge watching mediocre television on Netflix? We can’t wait! But, if you’re looking for something to keep you occupied for the last couple of hours before your weekend begins, we’ve got a list for you: understanding Millenials, asset forfeiture reform, and not making lazy assumptions about judges’ leanings based on presidential party affiliations. As always, if you have a suggestion for next week’s roundup, tweet me @PeacockEsq....

New start-ups need many things: the best young talent, a fair amount of funding, sometimes even gourmet lunches and on-hand masseuses. But what they don’t need is lawyers. After all, many start-up behemoths like Uber and Airbnb started up with business plans which skirted or even ignored the law. Or so the typical tech thinking goes. A start-up’s job is to “move fast and break things” and lawyers are the suits who say “no....

It may be hard to believe for many lawyers, but landlines are pretty much a relic of the past. And for those lawyers that steadfastly maintain that their landline is required for telephonic court appearances, you may want to double check your local courts’ rules, as that may not be the case anymore. More and more courts these days are opening up to the idea of allowing telephonic appearances using VOIP or softphones....

A new whistleblower law has corporations on high alert. The new SEC rule, part of the Dodd-Frank Act, gives whistleblowers the ability to collect up to 10-30% of penalties over $1 million that the SEC fines their company, even if they decide to bypass a company’s internal reporting system. The SEC voted 3-2 to pass this new rule. The rule specifically does not require a whistleblower to go through an internal reporting system, which many corporations had pushed for, reports Reuters....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Once upon a time, holiday shopping meant schlepping from one store to another, braving traffic and crowds, with the hope of finding the perfect gifts for our families and friends. Countless hours and hassles later, we finally collected our stash of presents. As time marched on, most of those concerns have been allayed, in most circumstances....

For businesses and law firms, using stock photography can be both a blessing and a curse. While businesses can often find high quality and creative images to use for free, they can also end up accidentally violating an artist’s copyright and having to pay out millions. Stock photography websites can often get it wrong, or have images available that the sites don’t actually have the rights to sell. This means that a business could very well violate the copyrights of artists by doing so, despite the good intentions behind using free stock photography (rather than just stealing images)....

Maybe there will be a meme someday about how Sinclair Broadcast Group tried to buy Tribune Media. If the $3.9 billion offer had succeeded, it reportedly would have created a broadcast group with access to 72 percent of U.S. households. Sinclair was a freight train on a mission. But it takes more than wishful thinking to get somewhere in mergers and acquisitions. In this case, the Federal Communications Commission threw down an impassable barrier on the Sinclair railroad....

In a case involving the sentence of a defendant for maliciously destroying by fire a building with two prior convictions for non-dwelling burglary, the government’s appeal of defendant’s sentence requesting that the Sentencing Commission be asked to clarify how courts ought to apply the Sentencing Guidelines to non-dwelling burglary is dismissed because there is no specification of error by the government directed to the district court’s reasoning or findings, and the government’s alternative request that the court consult the Commission is unpromising....

Women have been getting a lot of attention lately. We recently talked about whether you should lean in, opt out, and the best law firms for women. Today, we give you an inside look into the thoughts of female in-house counsel. Specifically, we wanted to know if, as women, they had unique career issues. Not surprisingly, the various women we spoke to brought up shared experiences, and they seem to mirror the issues in the corporate world in general – affecting everyone, both women and men....

Jeff Bezos isn’t the only one getting divorced this year. As 2018 ended, divorces went up and it could be a trend. Financial uncertainty – a common cause of divorce – will likely break up more marriages in 2019. If you have been there or done that, one thing is certain. It’s time to revise the estate plan. Here are five must-do changes. 1. Don’t Forget the Taxes Death and taxes are sure; divorce is about 50/50....

In Braga v. Hodgson, No. 08-2331, the First Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s grant of defendant’s motion for summary judgment in a former inmate’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against the county sheriff, alleging that the sheriff’s negligent maintenance of the correctional facility caused him physical injuries and that the sheriff intentionally or with deliberate indifference denied plaintiff proper medical care. In affirming the district court’s grant of summary judgment on plaintiff’s negligence and section 1983 claims, the court also held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in its entry of a protective order preventing plaintiff from deposing the sheriff....

This material may be unsuitable for children. Now imagine this: A 16-year-old girl texts a nude selfie to her 17-year-old boyfriend. In Washington, she is charged with a felony for distributing child porn. It’s a bad situation all around, but three judges of the Washington Supreme Court say the law is absurd. It also shows how technology and the law just aren’t working. A Well-Meaning Law Unfortunately for a boy with Asperger’s syndrome, it’s a felony and sex registration....

The American Bar Association (ABA) reports that two in-house legal attorneys claiming that they were fired for raising questions about potential securities fraud have been given the nod to pursue their claims as a result of a federal appeals ruling in the 9th Circuit. In a case of first impression, the 9th Circuit appellate court held that under the whistleblower provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the attorneys do not have to prove actual fraud to bring forward the case....

That “unlimited” data plan your cell phone provider offers is probably anything but, and the FTC isn’t happy about it – so unhappy that it’s filed a complaint in federal court. See, back in 2007, when AT&T was the only carrier offering the iPhone, it enticed customers with promises of “unlimited” data. Because, really, how much data could people possibly use? Turns out it was a lot. Previous “smart” phones had Internet capability, but those Web browsers were simple training-wheels browsers, and there was no other reason to use cell data other than for email....

So much of marketing today emphasizes a digital presence, almost to the detriment of good ‘ol, tried and true, marketing materials. As one of the few professions that still deals with a lot of paper, it may make sense to have some of your marketing materials in a tangible format – and one of those pieces of paper should be a law firm one-sheet. One-sheet? Yep. If you have no idea what that is, keep reading....

Though James A. Merklinger has had to live with Tourette’s Syndrome for most of his life, he hasn’t let the discrimination or the neurological disorder dissuade him from success. In fact, the graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law has just been appointed to the posts of Vice President and General Counsel for the Association of Corporate Counsel. He has worked with the organization in some capacity since 1995....