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As the tax season has passed and the basketball season winds down, here’s a story about how they crossed over years ago and still affect lawyers today. It was 1997, and the NBA’s most flamboyant player had just tumbled into a crowd of courtside photographers during a game. Dennis Rodman, whose career was marked by wild hair and wilder behavior, got up and kicked a photographer in the groin. The assault turned into a confidential settlement, which later became public when the IRS got involved....

We’ve been talking about firm culture a bit, but haven’t really defined the term. Think of it as your law firm’s personality. While you’ve probably heard the concept of “lifestyle firm” when it comes the occasional BigLaw or MidLaw firm, you’re probably wondering what that has to do with small law firms. Well, we’re here to tell you that it is definitely important to small law firms. Let’s look at some ways law firm culture will play a larger role in your firm’s business....

We’re coming to the end of the major party’s national conventions this week, and the election season is about to go into overdrive. So if you think you’ve heard enough about Trump and Hillary this summer, get ready to hear even more – and that includes political talk (and more) at the office, something that could raise some tricky legal, HR, and management concerns. To help you out, here are our top pieces of advice on politics and the workplace, from the FindLaw archives....

The American Bar Association is inviting interested parties to register to testify at a public hearing in Chicago. The hearing, scheduled for October 14, 2010, from 2 to 5 p.m., is part of the American Bar Association Commission on Ethics 20/20. The ABA hearing will discuss and analyze technology’s impact on protecting client confidences and attorneys’ use of cloud computing applications for developing business. ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm created the commission in 2009 to review the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct in addition to U....

Seven out of ten smartphones sold today are Android-based. It’s strength in numbers: Google, Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, and probably a few dozen other companies all make Android phones, versus iPhones, which are made by, well, Apple. Apple may have taken smartphones from boring BlackBerries to full-blown computer substitutes, but it’s Android that is dominating the market by flooding the high-end, middle range, low-end, big-screen, little-screen, and everything-in-between ranges with devices....

Creditors should tread lightly when filing proofs of claims against a debtor – at least under the recent ruling at the Eleventh Circuit in Johnson v. Midland. According to that federal appeals court, collectors could potentially be liable under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act if the collector knows the debt to be time-barred. The court’s decision changes the collectors’ analysis substantially from “why not?” to “that’s why.” Prior to the case that was at bar, the standard practice of creditors seeking to lay claim to debtor property was relatively simple: creditors would submit a form to the bankruptcy court or claims agent....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Internet users are subject to all sorts of online advertising. Often, that advertising appears directed to their specific interests and preferences. How does that happen? It occurs because of what has been referred to as behavioral or targeted advertising. Based on information collected from Internet users relating to their prior browsing and purchasing habits, advertisers seek to customize the Internet experience so that users receive advertising content that reflects their own individual interests....

The Fifth Circuit isn’t a bad place to practice if you want to be on the forefront of some of the nation’s most pressing legal issues. From 3D-printed guns, to Bird Law, to immigration, abortion and voting rights, the Fifth Circuit makes news. But how do you make it as an appellate lawyer? Above the Law says to “follow your heart.” Sure! But how about those skills? And in appellate practice, those skills are primarily brief writing and oral argument....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Drones have become cheap and fun to operate for many people. Operators love to fly their drones up into the sky, maneuvering them around while taking photos and videos from aerial vantage points. But do these activities come with risk? Absolutely! Pilots from the KLM Cityhopper fleet who were operating a Fokker 70 and an Embraer 190, as well as the pilot of an EasyJet Airbus A319, each reported a drone flying near their respective planes....

Remember when Indiana Jones stared into the pit with all the snakes? He had escaped booby-traps, poison darts, sword-carrying Egyptians, and machine-gun wielding Nazis, but snakes were his weakness. After staring into the bottom of the pit, he recoiled: “Why’d it have to be snakes?” What has that got to do with Facebook, whose nemesis seems to be privacy issues? Only this: one of its analysts was apparently using company data to stalk women....

Forget weapons trafficking or illegal hacking. When it comes to crime, illegal logging ranks near the top. “Illegal logging is the most lucrative environmental crime and one of the most profitable organized criminal activities, alongside narcotics trafficking, counterfeiting, and human trafficking,” according to a new white paper by Thomson Reuters. (Disclosure: Thomson Reuters is FindLaw’s parent company.) Deforestation, ecosystem disruption, and damage to the climate are some of the obvious effects of illegal logging, but its consequences aren’t just environmental....

Ho hum, a foreign court ruled against an American company for information and not damages. No problemo, right? Wrong, especially when the company is an international force like Facebook. A German court ruled the social media giant must give up messages left behind by a deceased family member. It’s a big deal, not just because it sets a precedent for future cases. But when a company loses almost $120 billion in stock value in a day, everybody is watching for what’s next....

It’s fun to make jokes about judges behaving badly, but judicial misconduct is no joking matter. Occasionally, a judge crosses a line and warrants reprimand. That’s why Congress instituted a judicial misconduct reporting procedure in 1980. Under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act, anyone can file a complaint in court to report a federal judge’s bad behavior. Before you file a complaint, remember that you need evidence. The chief judge must dismiss a complaint “if it does not identify evidence tending to show misconduct or disability, or if it is conclusively refuted by objective evidence from transcripts, witnesses, or other sources....

When lawyers are looking to get fees out of a fee motion, judges can often be a little overly critical. But apparently in Canada, judges might have even more unreasonable expectations. In one case out of Ontario, a judge cut attorney time from a fee motion for research, among other things, and suggested that the line item could have been taken care of with artificial intelligence software. Though the judge didn’t name a specific product, he completely cut out the $900 charge for legal research....

Facebook isn’t only changing the practice of law, it’s changing the world of debt collection. But, unfortunately for debt collectors, it seems that one judge isn’t too keen on letting them in on the action. In an unprecedented decision, a Florida judge has ordered a debt collection firm to stop contacting a woman, her friends, and her family on Facebook. She’s currently suing the firm for harassment. MarkOne Financial has been trying to track down Melanie Beacham, who fell behind on her car payments after losing her job....

Just when you thought same-sex marriage in the United States couldn’t get any more complicated, a state judge in Louisiana has ruled that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. No biggie – that’s happening all over the place – but the ruling comes less than a month after a federal district court judge upheld the ban as constitutional. The newest ruling comes from Louisiana’s 15th Judicial District Court; Judicial District Courts are the state’s trial courts....

Lawyers and iPhones haven’t always had the best relationship. In fact, there was a point when law firms were hesitant to adopt the new technology, refusing to offer support so that associates could securely access firm e-mail on non-BlackBerry smartphones. But alas, this has changed, and according to the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Survey Report, 31% of lawyers use an iPhone, with 13% also using an iPad. That’s about 300,000 lawyers nationwide....

In these highly partisan times, this week, the Senate showed everyone that, surprisingly, it can agree on something almost as divisive as pizza toppings: Music. The Music Modernization Act passed through the Senate with a unanimous vote. The act promises to basically end the non-stop lawsuits that result from the patchwork of state copyright laws, mechanical licenses, and the explosion of streaming music services. It does this by creating a cooperative solution for both the copyright holders as well as services that want to be able to license songs for users to listen to over music streaming services....

A black police officer, a potential witness in a case, listened as a prosecutor started to read aloud racially-offensive letters that could be used for trial. The lawyer stopped and asked if anyone in the trial preparation room was offended, prompting a black assistant attorney to leave but not the police officer. The prosecutor continued reading, repeating the word “Nigga” over and over again. “Highly Powerful and Hurtful” Savage, an officer with the Pocomoke City Police Department, filed two complaints objecting to Beau Oglesby’s repeated reading of the racial slur....

Four of the nation’s largest tobacco companies filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday challenging new tobacco label regulations that will require all packaging to display graphic images depicting the adverse health effects of smoking. R.J. Reynolds joined Lorillard, Imperial Tobacco Group, and Vector Group’s Liggett in arguing that the new label requirements push the limits of constitutionally permitted restrictions on commercial speech. This is actually the second lawsuit the group has filed against the government’s attempts to limit tobacco advertising, the first attacking the validity of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gave the FDA the power to implement these regulations....