If the Viacom deal goes through, CBS reportedly wants a twofer for a CEO. It may be premature – because merger talks have been tabled – but CBS is already talking to potential candidates about the job. The company wants someone who can run both companies. The early start has something to do with the former chief executive at CBS. The board would like to put that one behind them as soon as possible....
Death Row inmate, John Errol Ferguson, one of Miami’s most notorious mass murderers lost his appeal this Tuesday. Ferguson is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection as early as Tuesday evening. Ferguson’s attorney, Chris Handman, represented him in his appeal from the Florida Supreme Court decision. Handman argued that capital punishment by lethal injection to a schizophrenic is “cruel and unusual punishment.” The Florida Supreme Court rejected Ferguson’s arguments of incompetency....
Southern football fans love their college teams so much that there’s a market for realistic renderings of famous moments in college sports. Daniel Moore has made a career out of painting those moments, but he’s been battling his muse in court over the last seven years regarding his right to paint her. In an intellectual property decision this week regarding Moore’s artwork and products featuring original images of University of Alabama sporting events, the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the Bama can’t use threats of copyright infringement to stop Moore from painting the Crimson Tide football team....
When does a tweet of 140 characters or less require a disclaimer? More often than you might think. While a solid social media policy is a good way to avoid online complications and potential ethics breaches, if you’re a lawyer who tweets, a cautious disclaimer every now and then can save you headaches later. Whether it’s notifying your readers that they’re not getting legal advice, distancing your views from that of your firm, or ending each tweet with #imnotyourlawyer, Twitter disclaimers can give you an added layer of protection....
Between 2003 and 2011, the U.S. government issued nearly 300,000 National Security Letters (NSLs), 97 percent of which came with nondisclosure orders, Wired reports. If you work for a bank, telephone company, or Internet Service Provider, there’s a good chance that your company has been on the receiving end of an NSL. Until last week, you probably never spoke of the NSL based on the nondiclosure order. Should that policy change?...
The recent pass interference no-call in the Saints - Rams NFC championship game has been causing quite the stir on social and traditional media. People are up in arms, as when it comes to bad officiating, this missed call may perhaps go down in history as one of the worst in football history. Saints fans, notably, are the most upset as the missed call is blamed for the team not making it to the Super Bowl....
It’s no secret that Philip Falcone’s hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Both it and the Justice Department are looking into a $113 million loan Falcone took from his funds to pay his 2009 personal taxes. There are also allegations of market manipulation in 2006 and 2008. But a regulatory filing made public last week included some new information. Falcone, along with fund president Omar Asali, are the not-so-happy recipients of Wells Notices....
Nurse Kymberli Gardner’s case against the nursing home where she used to work got some much needed attention from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed the grant of summary judgment, allowing her case to proceed to trial. Nursing homes and employees may want to pay careful attention to this case, as might other institutional employers and employees. That’s because the case involves an employer’s liability for a third-party-created hostile work environment in a setting where third-parties are expected to misbehave....
It has not been a good recent set of weeks for Silicon Valley fixture Oracle. Only after a few weeks since Ellison’s company lost a $9 billion API appeal (for now) against Google over allegations of copyright infringement, it now finds itself on the defense from a suit by HP. Actually, that’s a bit of a misnomer. The roots of the suit were kind of on the wall back when the two companies signed up to do business with each other back in 2010....
Do not Google these words: “Douglas” and “passport photo.” If you do, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a search warrant. The Edina Police Department has obtained a search warrant for anyone who Googled that name in connection with a theft of $28,500 from a Minnesota bank earlier this year. “Douglas” is not the suspect; he is the victim. Police have concluded that the suspect Googled the victim’s full name to search for a passport photo....
In an inmate’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against a prison nurse claiming deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs, district court’s judgment in favor of the defendant is reversed and remanded where: 1) the inmate made out a claim for a deliberate indifference and the district court erred in finding that he failed to state a claim under the Eighth Amendment; and 2) because the district court premised both the grant of the motion to dismiss and qualified immunity on its finding that plaintiff failed to allege deliberate indifference in his complaint, the immunity analysis was prematurely concluded on the erroneous basis that plaintiff did not plead facts sufficient to indicate defendant had deliberate indifference to his medical need....
District court’s denial of defendants’ motion to quash administrative summonses issued by the IRS related to an investigation into possible improper tax shelters is affirmed where: 1) the summonses are not overly broad; 2) the summonses were not issued for an improper purpose; 3) defendants’ claim that the IRS is already in possession of the summoned documents fails; and 4) defendants’ remaining claims are rejected. Read Sugarloaf Funding, LLC v. US Dep’t of the Treasury, No....
How many programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb? None. It’s a software problem. If that didn’t make you smile, then you are not a programmer. But if you find pleasure in reading tech stuff – even books that talk around the subject – then you might enjoy this list of summer reading for legal tech pros: “Future Crimes” FBI futurist Marc Goodman unfolds the future of crime, a world where data and identity matter as much as money and goods....
A federal appeals court gave some good news to taxpayers, and to one taxpayer in particular. Estelle Stein had been fighting the Internal Revenue Service over $220,000 in assessments, penalties and interest. She swore she paid her debt, but a judge didn’t buy the affidavit and entered summary judgment for the government. The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling en banc in United States of America v. Stein, sent the case back to a three-judge panel and overruled its own precedent....
It’s a good time to be a woman in the legal profession. That is, at least when it comes to awards and accolades, if not equity-partnerships. Five female legal trailblazers were honored last Sunday with the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards. That ceremony came just a week after Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers announced the 50 best law firms for women. So, if you’re looking to follow in the footsteps of great lawyers, and looking for the right firm to do it in, pay attention....
In US v. Alfaro-Moncada, No. 08-16442, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed defendant’s child pornography possession conviction, holding that 1) customs officials had statutory authority under 6 U.S.C. section 1581(a) to search the cabin; 2) the suspicionless search of defendant’s cabin on a foreign cargo ship, while it was docked at the Antillean Marine on the Miami River, was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment; 3) defendant knew that he was in possession of child pornography; and 4) the 87-month, within the guidelines, sentence in this case was not outside the range of reasonableness....
We knew that the rumored deal had been struck, and that the bipartisan nominees were pending, and we heard some rumblings about diversity concerns a few months back. Even still, the latest out of Georgia came as a bit of a surprise. On Monday, civil rights leaders called for President Barack Obama to withdraw his nominees for judicial vacancies in the Eleventh Circuit, particularly two nominees in for Georgia-based federal district courts, citing one candidate’s approval of a Confederate battle emblem on the state flag, and another candidate’s support of a controversial state voter ID law....
Sorry gourmands, chefs, fast food line cooks, you cannot copyright a sandwich, no matter how tasty it might be. One forward-looking Puerto Rican gastronome learned that the hard way last Friday, when the First Circuit tossed his copyright violation suit over a chicken sandwich. Way back in 1987, Norberto Colon Lorenzana convinced his employers at Church’s Chicken to add a simple chicken sandwich alongside their deep-fried thighs and wings. The idea took off and the “Pechu Sandwich” soon became a staple in Puerto Rican Church’s franchises....
Here’s something to know when you are working with inventors: they don’t want to be there. Your typical engineer-inventors don’t have a huge incentive to do the patent paperwork. It’s the company that stands to make the big profit. For the inventors, it’s little more than documentation. Inventors are focused on the core business of the company. As company attorneys, it’s our job to serve them, not the other way around....
Growing or even maintaining your law firm’s business requires clients. And as you know, keeping the pipeline full is an ongoing challenge. Plus, you have to make sure that you get the right clients. You know which clients to avoid. Deadbeats, second-guessers, high maintenance clients with ridiculous expectations, self-saboteurs, and litigation-happy professional plaintiffs on their fifteenth attorney, these are just some of clients that can make your working life a living hell....
