Posts

Social media is a great tool for communicating with clients, but it can also have a secondary benefit for your practice by boosting your website’s search ranking. The way most clients will find you is by searching on the Internet for a lawyer. Hopefully they’ll narrow their search by area of law and location, but even then there are lots of competitors out there. Having a professional and informational website can be a great way to get clients, but it doesn’t work if no one sees it....

Grooveshark is an online music service that allows users to upload their own music and stream it. But it also allows users to add to their streaming library any song that someone else has already uploaded. As you might expect, the music companies weren’t too keen on this, and though Grooveshark obtained licenses for some of the music in its collection, it didn’t obtain licenses for all of the music....

People who watch lawyer shows think that lawyers bluster in a courtroom all day long, but we know what it’s really about: Writing. Lots of writing. #DearFindLaw: Legal Writing Is a Freaking Nightmare – Should you sweat the Bluebook? Not really. It’s pretty opaque, but once you get the basics of citation, it all comes into focus. Plus, how can you become a better writer? (By reading better writing.) 5 Tips for Writing Lawyerly Letters of Recommendation – If you’re tasked with writing a recommendation for a prospective law student or a current law student-slash-job seeker, we have some things you should keep in mind....

Think before you tweet. Don’t be a boob on YouTube (especially now that it is tied to your Google+ identity). Facebook can get you fired. Social media is here to stay, but as everyone and their mother joins Facebook, it becomes more and more important to protect your neck. These five lawyers lost their cool, and gained Internet infamy, and thanks to the eternal nature of Internet scandals, absent a name change, they’ll likely never outlive their mistakes....

Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have been planning for a Twinkies strike since January, when manufacturer Hostess Brands filed for bankruptcy. It has blamed high labor costs. On Tuesday, the probability of such a strike got higher, as the company headed to court. Hostess Brands has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, New York to toss its union contracts. If the company cannot change how it funds union pensions, management claims it will have no choice but to close company doors and liquidate Hostess assets...

Patent trolls are a rising problem in this country. These non-practicing entities purchase patents, attempt to enforce rights by threatening litigation, even over the most questionable of claims, and they often profit, as settlements are paid out to avoid the cost of litigation. Even when they do file litigation, there is little downside for the trolls, because many of them are attorneys. The high cost of litigating is mitigated by handling the legal work themselves....

US v. Brummer, No. 09-13613, involved defendant’s appeal from the district court’s order that he forfeit two firearms and six rounds of ammunition pursuant to his conviction of knowingly and willfully failing to declare firearms to a common carrier. As the per curiam court of appeals opinion states: “Fed. R. Crim P. 32.2(b)(1) requires that, “[a]s soon as practical after a . . . plea of guilty or nolo contendere is accepted, on any count in an indictment or information regarding which criminal forfeiture is sought, the court must determine what property is subject to forfeiture under the applicable statute....

Want to avoid a disgruntled client, a contested bill, or an unjustified bar complaint? You’ll need to do more than just a good job. You’ll have to make sure clients have a clear expectation of what to expect from you and when to expect it. One of the easiest ways to keep your clients happy – and hopefully get some good word of mouth recommendations – is to make sure both of you are on the same page about fees, deadlines, and possible outcomes....

Are there really only two months of Supreme Court oral arguments left? It’s seems like just yesterday that the term was kicking off. Now it’s winding down, with one less justice but a few mayor tech cases on the horizon. If you’re a technology-focused attorney, here are two cases to keep your eyes on in the upcoming months. Under § 505 of the Copyright Act, a district court, “in its discretion,” may award attorneys’ fees to a prevailing party....

Keri Borzilleri, a Baltimore prosecutor, was a loyal public servant. She had worked for the city for nine years and had been a champion for the people and her employer. When her boss ran for another term, Borzilleri had his back like a soldier. But he lost, and she got fired. Borzilleri sued in Borzilleri v. Mosby; however, she learned loyalty is in the eyes of the office-holder. First Speech Baltimore is a big city, but the community of prosecutors is relatively small....

James “Whitey” Bulger may have ulterior motive in naming reporters who have covered his criminal career as defense witnesses, barring them from reporting on his case. The infamous Bostonian gangster moved to exclude Boston Globe reporter Shelley Murphy and columnist Kevin Cullen from covering his case because Bulger might call the two as defense witnesses, reports Boston.com. Will the court allow Bulger to sequester members of the media by naming them as witnesses?...

The Ninth Circuit won’t be lifting an order enjoining enforcement of President Trump’s executive order barring travel from seven majority-Muslim nations and the resettlement of refugees. In a per curiam decision, the three-judge panel ruled just moments ago that the administration “has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that the failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury.” Last Friday, Washington State won a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of the ban after it sued, alleging that the executive order violated the Constitution and federal immigration law....

It looks like the casket-making monks will have to win their case against the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors on constitutional grounds. A tipster alerted us yesterday to an interesting tidbit from the Bayou State’s top court: In January, the court declined to address a certified question from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the matter. If you’re new to this monk-casket judicial battle, we’ll bring you up to speed on the controversy at hand, and what the certified question denial means....

The ACC’s 2013 Annual Law Department Compensation Survey’s results are in, and it’s good news for in-house legal departments. As some might expect from all the bad news in BigLaw, spending on outside counsel is down overall, and in-house spending is up. Departments of all sizes are seeing modest salary increases, and in another unsurprising note, the bigger the in-house legal department, the more the general counsel’s base salary is on average....

Petition for review of a decision denying asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture is denied where: 1) substantial evidence supported an Immigration Judge’s determination that plaintiff was not persecuted on account of a statutorily protected ground, and that the most likely impetus for the acts against him was greed, not politics; and 2) the court did not violate plaintiff’s due process rights in refusing to grant him a further continuance as he was not prejudiced by the denial....

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton dismissed Apple’s complaint as it related to false advertising. Her Jan. 2 decision also suggests that Apple’s other claims may not succeed. As a result, the name cannot be a false statement about those qualities either. While “app” is the first syllable in Apple, the word actually refers to applications. Apps are the term for any downloadable content for a mobile device, regardless of platform....

Applebee’s parent company announced Monday it was immediately retraining its workers nationwide after a server at a suburban Detroit location accidentally served alcohol to a toddler. In a move surely spurred by the in house team, the company, California-based DineEquity Inc, said it would also change the way it serves juice to youngsters to eliminate the chance of any mixups that could result in any more toddlers receiving mixed drinks....

New York, New York. A city so nice they named it twice. A “concrete jungle where dreams are made of.” The largest city in a state with the most lawyers per capita in the country. Now, anyone can be fakepracticearealawyer.com. But if you want to really show that New York City pride, yesterday’s big domain name announcement should really excite you: .nyc domain names are available, and they are reserved for folks with NYC addresses only....

Today we’re taking a closer look at a First Circuit Court of Appeals decision reviewing a grey area of the law: expert witness testimony and the Confrontation Clause. George Nardi was convicted of first-degree murder in a Massachusetts state trial court for killing his mother. Evidence indicated that she died of suffocation consistent with a hand being pressed over her face and nose. Dr. James Weiner performed an autopsy on the mother’s body, and recorded his findings in an autopsy report....

According to a survey by Biscom, a secure communications solutions business, a huge percentage of employees take employer proprietary data when they leave a job, whether they were asked to leave or not. Surprised to see that you’re not alone, right? The Poll The results of the poll essentially attributed modern technological conveniences such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and even ordinary email as being principal enablers for easier-than-ever-before data theft. Twenty-five percent of respondents admitted to taking data when leaving the company, either voluntarily or involuntarily....