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The home health care industry is thriving. Fueled by an aging Boomer population and the desire of many patients to be treated in their own residences, the at-home provisioning of nursing and therapist care has become a $30 billion industry, with 12,000 Medicare-certified agencies. That industry growth has lead to an increased need for attorneys experienced in Medicare reimbursement, industry regulations, and old-fashioned litigation. As a practice area, expect to see home health care law grow as quickly as the population grays....

Social networking has thoroughly invaded the practice of law. If you don’t tweet, have a Facebook account, or know what Pinterest is, you may be losing leads to your competitors. But as older attorneys dip their toes into social networking, they must be especially aware of the many ethical pitfalls that come with being connected. The emphasis on ethical social networking is especially salient now as the American Bar Association (ABA) has focused its attention on the use of technology....

Like America’s middle class, midsize law firms are struggling as BigLaw takes a bigger bite of the legal market. A new report from Thomson Reuters shows that the largest firms are separating themselves from smaller firms in the demand for legal services. Michael Abbott, vice president of client management and global thought leadership at the company, says it reverses a trend a few years ago that showed clients moving work to smaller, less expensive firms....

Even one driverless car can improve traffic conditions, according to a new report. Because human response times vary, traffic flow changes like a snake twists to move along the ground. But with an autonomous vehicle, the experimental data shows, the flow becomes more regulated and actually improves with speed. The phenomenon marks another point in the evolution of driverless cars that will change everything about automobiles, including how to address liability for accidents....

In US v. Davis, No. 08-16654, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s firearm possession conviction, on the ground that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule allowed the use of evidence obtained in reasonable reliance on well-settled precedent, even though in this case the Supreme Court overruled that precedent in Arizona v. Gant. Rehberg v. Paulk, No. 09-11897, concerned an action for malicious prosecution, retaliatory investigation and prosecution, and evidence fabrication....

The frenzy over computer coding might be overblown. It may not be the “literacy of the 21st century,” nor should everyone “program or be programmed.” Still, it truly is a valuable skill to learn, especially if you’ve ever been code curious, you are waiting for bar results, or if you are desperately unemployed. It is true that companies are bought and sold for millions of dollars, just to get the programmers that work for the company, not for the product itself....

Middle-aged workers took a hit during the economic downturn, with many being laid off from long-held positions. Richard Miller knows all about that. In 2008, the then-53-year-old Texan was terminated from his position with Raytheon after nearly three decades of service. Miller soon filed suit against Raytheon in federal district court, claiming age discrimination under the ADEA and the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act (TCHRA). Miller had worked at Raytheon or a predecessor company for nearly three decades, mainly in supply chain management....

Usually there’s no confusing about whether a matter is civil or criminal. But that wasn’t the case in a recent Fifth Circuit opinion, released Monday. There, the Fifth Circuit ruled that Dan Morales’ appeal to have two key documents disclosed is part of a civil appeal, not a criminal one notwithstanding the circumstances of the facts. That difference made his motion timely under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. For litigators who think they’ve heard that name before, Morales was Texas’ Attorney General up until it was discovered that he was involved in a scheme to skim a profit from the “Big Tobacco” settlement that took place in the 90’s....

In the good old days, a cyberattack meant the loss of data. Sure, a hack could be crippling, but its effects were largely confined to 1’s and 0’s. But now, as the digital sphere is melding more totally and seamlessly with the physical one, the reach of hackers has grown. Today, a hack can do much more than steal your information or shut down your computer system. It can commandeer your car or send whole cities grinding to a halt....

Your company is hiring. It’s inundated by resumes, applications, letters of recommendation. Once you’ve found the perfect match for the job, you can click delete and let the rest of the applications go, right? No way. Keep those suckers around – for years. Federal record keeping requirements are strict. Failure to hold onto applications can open you up to litigation, from applicants and from the EEOC, as Coca-Cola learned the hard way a few weeks ago....

Apple partially ceded to pressure by Senators Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid last week, agreeing to carefully scrutinize and ban future DUI apps from its App Store if found to encourage and enable drunk driving. This move leaves Google as the only major app provider that has yet to make a move on the apps, which inform users of the exact locations of nearby DUI checkpoints. Should Google follow suit and ban DUI apps as requested?...

The battle for your wireless dollars is heating up. In October, we reported that Marriott was caught red-handed using a device to prevent users’ personal Wi-Fi hot spots from working, in a transparent attempt to force conference attendees into buying Marriott’s sensationally overpriced wireless access ($250 to $1,000 per access point). The FCC fined Marriott $600,000 for that stunt. Now Hilton, Marriott, and the hotel industry trade group are asking the FCC for an exception....

Last week, my beloved, five-year-old MacBook Pro was on its way to that big tech heap in the sky, and I was facing an impossible choice: MacBook Air or iPad? (I love Apple. Sorry, I’m not sorry.) My oversized Pro is great, but it’s practically a desktop compared the sleek little laptops on the market now. It has a 17 inch screen and weighs almost 7 pounds, so it’s never been that portable....

Two YouTube fails in one morning? This is further proof of what we advised earlier: tread on social media with caution. This morning, we saw that a purported law student had posted a self-recorded video of her disgusting racist rant at Dunkin’ Donuts employees over a receipt dispute. Now, we have a lawyer who compromised a case, violated multiple rules of professionalism, and revealed a confidential informant, all by posting a video obtained in discovery on YouTube, and per the disciplinary report, on “an internet site known as Facebook....

The start-up strategy, often, is to build until you’re bought. It has made millionaires and billionaires out of tech company founders. Small firm lawyers, not so much. That’s because BigLaw typically doesn’t buy budding practices, especially not solo attorneys’ offices. But in an age of innovation, asks one popular practitioner, why not dream a little? Practically Possible Carolyn Elefant, of MyShingle fame, writes that large law firms have always merged and absorbed other practices....

We all know from law school and having been through the job-search-wringer that your legal resume is often the make-or-break for many folks. But, it doesn’t just stop with the candidate – those of us who are tasked with having to sift through all those resumes and to make judgment calls off one-page (hopefully) documents per person is exhausting, as well. So, if your firm is looking to hire a fresh-faced grad this coming fall or now, here are some legal resume red flags to look out for....

The Microsoft Facebook relationship is teetering after Facebook poached Microsoft’s advertising executive Carolyn Everson. Indeed, Microsoft may use legal action to try to keep her there, reports All Things Digital. Everson, who came to Microsoft from MTV Networks, was just hired last June after a long search. Microsoft is crying foul over the loss of their global ad sales head. But will they take it court? Lawyers from Microsoft and Facebook have been going back and forth, with an eye toward the courtroom....

It’s the American Dream, baby! No, not the unreleased Mike Jones (Who?) album, but the actual dream. Put your work in. Do it better, and cheaper, than the next guy. Grow your business. Reap rewards in proportion to effort expended. Of course, you’re not starting a start-up - you’re starting (or running) a law firm. Business is business folks, and the advice is equally applicable to the legal industry. Yesterday, you got the first three pieces of wisdom, reframed for the legal context....

As expected, FCC commissioners voted 3-2 today to regulate Internet service providers (ISPs) as “common carriers” under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. (It also voted to override state laws against municipal broadband, but that’s another story entirely.) The vote was split along party lines, with the commission’s Democrats voting along with Chairman Tom Wheeler in favor of the proposal and the Republicans against – in spite of Republican commissioners’ attempt to delay the vote....

So you’ve decided to start a law firm. If you’re like most, you may have decided to start a solo practice as opposed to a partnership. After all, a solo practice is easy to set up and you have no one to answer to but yourself. However, there may be situations in which it is worthwhile to find partners. With all the attorneys and recent grads deciding to go solo, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a partner....