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Soccer players Jonathan Petras and Wisam Shaker were slow to learn the rules for unruly passengers aboard commercial airlines. You can’t curse at flight attendants. You can’t make obscene gestures at them. You can’t threaten them and call them names like “ugly,” “racist,” or “pig.” Petras and Shaker finally learned the rules after the pilot landed the plane and police escorted them off to face criminal charges. Put another way, that’s the way a ball player bounces....

Texas’ most recent abortion regulations, found in H.B. 2, were upheld by the Fifth Circuit on Thursday. Finding that the district court both misapplied standards and misconstrued evidence, the Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas v. Abbott Court found that both the medical abortion and “admitting privileges” regulations were constitutional and not an undue burden to women. This ruling threatens the Fifth Circuit’s other pending abortion case in Mississippi, which is scheduled for hearing in April....

In-house attorneys have a lot of worrying to do, and they write a lot of letters. But last week, Karen Kasier, general counsel for The Associated Press, found herself writing a letter asking the Justice Department why it impersonated the AP and disseminated a fake news story. The story actually begins seven years ago when the FBI was trying to figure out who owned a MySpace account (yes, this was practically the Stone Age) that was sending bomb threats to a high school in Washington state....

Complying with attorney advertising rules is more than just a couple questions on the MPRE and a headache for the rest of your life. It’s an ethical obligation just like any of those other rules that our profession is governed by. Whether it’s a website, blog, billboard, or a tweet, attorneys need to know their jurisdiction’s rules about attorney advertising and take care not to fall into one of these common ethical traps....

California is leading the nation with a new law against non-disclosure agreements in settlement of sexual misconduct cases. The law went into effect on Jan. 1, and is part of a legal overhaul that has spread across the country. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, all 50 states have passed laws surrounding sexual harassment, sexual assault, and non-disclosure agreements. Under similar pressure from social media, large law firms also have pulled back agreements that would have prevented public disclosure of sexual harassment at the firms....

Goodbye Sam Spade, hello digital forensics specialist. Today, when you need to find the “smoking gun” (more often a smoking email or a wiped hard drive), you don’t call up your private dick; instead, you meet with your forensics specialist. Digital forensics allows for the investigation and often recovery of materials from digital devices, from personal computers to cell phones to massive servers. Digital forensics is not the same as eDiscovery....

Three defendants in cases pending before the federal district court in the state of Arizona won their appeal to the Ninth Circuit over the district court’s routine shackling of criminal defendants that appear in the courtroom. The IN RE: Rodrigo ZERMENO-GOMEZ decision, however, is less about shackling and more about judicial procedure. A published opinion from the Ninth Circuit in May 2017 requires district courts to conduct an individualized analysis to determine whether a criminal defendant needs to be shackled in the courtroom....

For some companies, hiring can really be an incredibly burdensome process. In addition to the usual red tape that any hire must go through, the selection process can be downright daunting if an employer receives more applications than it can reasonably review. Fortunately, thanks to artificial intelligence, tools are being developed to improve the hiring process for employers, recruiters, and even lawyer job seekers. Also, a newly launched tool promises to help by extracting exact qualifications from an employer’s job description or post, then matching those to only qualified candidates....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Infections caused by surgical procedures are not uncommon and can be life-threatening. If only there were a way to cut (pardon the pun) the incidence of such infections … But wait, Computerworld has just reported that the application of predictive analytics and machine learning techniques to real-time data from operating rooms at the University of Iowa Hospital had lowered the risk of surgical infections by a stunning 74 percent over a three-year period....

Well, it took ’em, what, three and a half years to finish interrogating him in a Navy brig? It’s unsurprising, then, that nearly three years after the Eleventh Circuit rejected his previous sentence as too lenient, Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen-turned-terrorist affiliate (and alleged dirty bomb plotter), finally knows his fate: 21 years behind bars. Thanks to that ruling, he did not get credit for the years of “harsh treatment” or torture he endured while locked up in the brig, without access to an attorney....

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has been repealed. The controversial 17-year policy that banned openly gay men and women from serving in the U.S. military was repealed by a 65-31 vote in the senate just before the end of the year. The long process may meet its biggest challenge yet: implementing and integrating homosexual servicemen and women. Hoping for a seamless integration process is the goal. Helping this process is the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell plan drafted by Defense Department general counsel Jeh Johnson along with Army General Carter Ham....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. What are we going to do with all these drones? Indeed, drones are coming at us from all sorts of angles. As a consequence, law firms are even coming up with practice groups devoted to the legal issues presented by drones. Let’s explore just a few of the many issues that may arise from drones....

For the last few weeks, conflict between the iPhone maker and the FBI has been so heated that even people who know nothing about encryption (that’s most of us) have developed very spirited and views on the matter. In a somewhat odd twist, it looks like the FBI just took a breather and said, “Fine, we don’t need you,” to Apple. It appears that an “outside party” just alerted the government to an alternative means to cracking Syed Farook’s phone....

Attorneys often field dozens of phone calls a day – but some days are busier than others. There may be times where all you seem to do is run in and out of the office – and the courthouse. That’s why your voicemail becomes so important. It can be the difference between a new client or a missed or lost client. If you are an attorney looking for a voicemail alternative, you may want to try the Google Voice app....

As BigLaw firms fall, “boutique” firms rise in their place. “Boutique” is just a fancy name for a small law firm that emphasizes a few practice areas. It’s not just the increased cost of BigLaw firms that has enabled boutiques to become popular, though. As Bloomberg reports, it’s technology that has allowed the little guys to finally catch up to the big guys. Think about the physical barriers to entry that a small firm used to labor under....

Lawyers, good news, if you are currently employed, and have more than three years’ experience, your salary will likely go up in 2014, according to a Robert Half Legal 2014 Salary Guide. Surveying 200 lawyers from firms and corporations in the U.S., the study found that hiring in legal departments of corporations “has strengthened … to support renewed business activity and meet increased demand for legal services.” Insert collective sigh of relief here....

After six hours of deliberation, a South Dakota jury found attorney Leo Flynn not guilty on child pornography charges. The 62-year-old lawyer was known to take on sex offenders as a main part of his practice and according to the defense, that is how an innocent man got caught up in a child exploitation and porn investigation. Leo Flynn was charged with two counts of distribution and one count each for receipt, possession and access with intent to view child pornography, reports the Argus Leader....

In a recent lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Nevada against the website MyEx.com and its affiliates and operators, the government is looking to shut down one of the most notorious revenge-porn websites. And if you were looking to get one last NSFW sneak peak at the perverse website, you’re out of luck, as it’s already vanished from the Web. Fortunately for the prosecutors, one of the defendants that is alleged to have helped operate the site, Aniello “Neil” Infante, has agreed to settle the claims against him and cooperate however possible....

It’s been a busy week for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. After an attempted filibuster, the Senate confirmed Judge Adalberto Jordán for a seat on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. Thursday, President Obama followed up Judge Jordán’s confirmation with a new Eleventh Circuit nominee, Atlanta Attorney Jill Pryor. If confirmed, Pryor would fill Judge Stanley Burch’s spot on the Atlanta-based appellate court, which has been vacant since August 2010....

Do you know what Trello is? If so, skip ahead to get some tips on how to use it in your law practice. If not, you’ll likely be relieved to find out it’s not some new social media platform that your law firm absolutely needs to be on. But, if you use it, you might be able to be a little more flexible. Trello lets you create “Boards” which are basically just pages that let you put together as many columns of lists as you want....