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For many solo practitioners, taking a lengthy vacation is neither financially nor logistically feasible. If that describes you, a spring break trip might be a better option. If your heart rate is already going up from just thinking about how to sneak away on a spring break trip, take a deep breath and read on. There are ways to tackle the two main vacation stressors – finances and scheduling – and maximize your well-earned (and frankly, much needed) vacation....

Lawyer and professional “how to run a firm” expert Christopher T. Anderson probably gets the bulk of his living from attending and hosting talks for lawyers than he does actual lawyering, but a good number of us wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, he does a lot of the heavy research lifting so we don’t have to. And, according to Anderson, if law schools taught attorneys how to be more like businessmen and less like lawyers, our lives would probably be a lot easier....

Thinking, not training, is the key to learning. Unless people think about improving their work, training them won’t make a big difference. That’s according to the Harvard Business Review. And what’s good for business is good for the law firm. Here are three ways to train your workers effectively: 1. Commit to Change Change should start at the top. To effectuate change organization-wide, leaders must commit to the program. If the plan is to train workers to stop sexual harassment, for example, law partners and managers have to stop first....

Earlier this week, we told you what clients look for in an attorney. Now, when all those clients come rushing to your door, how do you decide whom to represent? It’s better to assess what you want in a client sooner, rather than later, because once the relationship begins, it can be difficult to escape. Here are four things that you should look for when the client walks in the door for that initial consultation:...

As corporate counsel working in our increasingly border-free business world, you will no doubt at some point in your career have to deal with corporate counsel in other countries. Whether you all work for the same company and are spread across the globe, or you are working with attorneys from other companies, the rules of engagement remain the same. To properly, and politely, interact with corporate counsel based in other countries, follow these four tips....

As we give thanks this year, we wondered, what is there to be thankful for in the Eleventh Circuit? It runs the gamut from the rural Alabama, north to the cosmopolitan Florida coast, with a heavy dose of swamp in between, so there are a lot of things to be thankful for. Why is it that Florida seems to be the center of the universe for people doing crazy things? Maybe it’s the proximity to the Bermuda triangle....

Petition for Review of BIA Removal Order Denied In Bianco v. Holder, No. 09-60597, a petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) affirmance of a final order of removal, the petition is denied where 1) under 18 U.S.C. section 1227(a), a crime of domestic violence need not have as an element the domestic relation of the victim to the defendant; and 2) the BIA did not limit the remand in petitioner’s case for the specific purpose of considering evidence demonstrating her date of admission to the U....

Court sanctions against attorneys are somewhat discretionary, according to a recent ruling by a federal district court. Judges can consider an attorney’s ability to pay the fines when they impose sanctions. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded a case in which an attorney was sanctioned $360,000 under 28 U.S.C. § 1927. The lower court judge believed that he had no discretion in imposing the sanction on Gregory Melvin Haynes for pursuing frivolous litigation....

For Disney, a recently filed lawsuit alleges that the family-friendly entertainment conglomerate has gender-biased employment policies. The plaintiff, a former flying, or aerial, dancer at the “Festival of the Lion King,” a show at the Disney’s Animal Park Kingdom, is claiming that she was fired while out on leave after giving birth to twins via C-section. After being on leave for nearly a year, she was told that she was fired when she returned....

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued a decision that could help your clients who have received settlement offers on their Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) claims. Shortly after Margaret Warren’s husband passed, she learned that her husband had an overdue personal VISA credit card account at Branch Banking & Trust Co. (BB&T). Warren tried to obtain the signature card on the account, which was listed only under her husband’s name....

Remember when you weren’t supposed to throw sensitive information in the trash because nosey people could get it? FedEx is learning that lesson the hard way. A security company says FedEx forgot 119,000 documents with customer information online – “a blunder that left the information available to identity thieves and other malicious actors.” “Mountain” of Data “Citizens from all over the world left their scanned IDs –Mexico, Canada, EU countries, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan, Malaysia, China, Australia – to name a few,” Kromtech Security Center reported....

In light of the upcoming holiday, it is important to take a moment and express thanks for things that bring us joy. Today, this blogger is thankful for unintentionally hilarious court opinions. Adriano de Almeda Viegas is, according to the Fourth Circuit, a member of, and provided financial support to, a terrorist organization. He also entered the country using a forged French passport. It is unsurprising then that he is being sent back to Angola, his native country....

Remember those proposed changes to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals local rules that we mentioned in August? They’re official, final, and effective today. It just got real, people. The amendment to Local Rule 41, Motion for Stay of the Mandate, altered the local rule to conform to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 41(d)(2)(a). The old version stated: A motion for stay of the issuance of the mandate shall not be granted simply upon request....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Once upon a time, at the dawn of the commercial Internet age, people regularly gained accessed to the Web via AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy. Of course, those days are long gone, and Google has emerged as the dominant search engine of choice. Indeed, it has been estimated that two-thirds of global Internet searches currently are conducted through Google....

If you’re an expert in your field, or if you’re representing a noteworthy client, you should expect to get contacted by the press at some point. A reporter may want background information on tenant’s rights or healthcare law, or ask for your comments on an important ruling. Great! Getting your name out in the media as a legal expert is exactly the kind of publicity lawyers should court. If your clients are involved in high-profile litigation, speaking to the press can help you get their side of the story across....

“Mismatched signatures” may take over “hanging chads” for the most contested ballots in recent American politics. While 2000 was the year of the hanging chad, 2018 is turning into the year of mismatched signatures. In Georgia, a judge has issued a temporary restraining order against officials who have been rejecting absentee ballots based on discrepancies in signatures. The hot-button issue is raging among activists who claim the Secretary of State is manipulating the ballot count....

A Massachusetts judge has temporarily blocked the sale of The Boston Globe and The Worcester Telegram & Gazette to Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry. Henry inked a deal for the papers with The New York Times Company for an estimated $70 million but Judge Shannon Frison of Superior Court in Worcester halted the sale, citing a potential complication with a pending class action lawsuit involving the Worcester newspaper and its delivery workers....

Judge Michael Cicconetti, who works at the Painesville Municipal Court in Ohio, has a reputation that reaches much farther than his jurisdiction. Known widely for creative sentencing, Cicconetti once sentenced a woman to walk 30 miles for stiffing a taxi driver. He made a drunk driver go the morgue to view car-crash victims. Now, as a standard condition of probation, he orders drunk drivers to download Uber and Lyft apps to their smart phones....

Last week, we looked at a Gallup study that looked at the effects of “stay[ing] connected to the workplace outside of their normal working hours” and found that it was a “somewhat or strongly positive development,” according to 79 percent of employees surveyed. However, when the Harvard Business Review read those results in the context of an earlier Gallup report, “State of the American Workplace,” HBR concluded that “workers will view their company’s policy about mobile technology through the filter of their own engagement....

As in-house counsel, you may be called upon to participate in M&A deals from time to time, depending on the size of your company and your role at the company. Your company might engage outside counsel from a large law firm as well as the help of investment bankers to close the deal. Nevertheless, you want to know the basics of M&A. Assume that you are counsel for a small company and a buyer has expressed interest....