How would you like to be Taco Bell’s GC? You would have to deal with CEO Greg Creed, a unique executive if there ever was one. Taco Bell is contemplating suing Beasley Allen, the Alabama law firm that filed a case alleging it falsely advertised about the make-up of its meat. The case was quietly withdrawn last week after “changes in marketing and product disclosure were made” by Taco Bell, the firm said....
Most attorneys aren’t exactly early adopters of new technology. Plenty of us don’t rush to install the newest software when it comes out. (I know a few lawyers who would still use MS DOS if the world would allow them.) But, those of us who are slow to update might be forced to soon. If you’re still using an outdated operating system, Chrome is about to kick you off – which is great news....
Law practice is dangerous. It’s one of the things they don’t teach you in law school, but becomes clear as you learn about more and more lawyers dying. We’re not talking about age-related, or disease-dictated death. We’re talking about the cold, hard fact that law practice can kill you. Most of the time it’s an angry client or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time – like in the wrong kind of practice....
Lisandro Patrick just lived out every parent’s worst nightmare. After moving his wife and child to the United Kingdom from Puerto Rico, his wife absconded with the child and returned home. Interstate custody disputes are difficult enough, but international? That’s a whole different league of nasty, as Patrick would soon find out. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction, along with a number of British and Puerto Rican laws, all intermingle to complicate the case....
When Congress passed the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 in November, most of the focus was on tax credits extended to those who hire veterans. But the bill also included a lesser-known provision that expands a veteran’s ability to sue for discrimination. That provision amended the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) to include a claim for hostile work environment based on veteran status. Until now, the availability of such a claim was unclear....
The Washington State Supreme Court has put an end to the state imposing the death penalty. Effectively, anyone sentenced to die in the state just had their sentences converted to life without parole. Interestingly, the court based its decision upon a finding that the way the state imposed the death penalty was racially biased. Even more interestingly, that finding was significantly based upon a study that was commissioned by the appellant, who was seeking to stop his execution from going forward....
What’s your ‘Net Promoter Score?’ You don’t know? Well, you should. A Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is a measure of client loyalty, the odds that a client will come back or recommend you to others. For an industry that relies so heavily on referrals, knowing your NPS is essential. And it’s pretty easy to figure out, too. The NPS consumer loyalty metric was created (and trademarked) in the early 2000s as a way to gather straightforward, actionable data about customer satisfaction....
“Woe is the state of justice in the Commonwealth if this behavior is not extremely rare.” Judge Stephanie Thacker, in dissent. Justin Michael Wolfe, an alleged drug dealer once referred to as “Little Al Capone” due to the size of his operation, was convicted of hiring Owen Barber to kill Danny Petrole in 2002. Since then, evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and recantations by the triggerman, whose testimony was the only direct link to Wolfe, have led to years of state appeals and habeas petitions....
It’s always nice when a panel of judges rule unanimously on a particular issue – thereby creating the much sought after “bright-line” rule. The three-judge panel of the First Circuit ruled that Massachusetts Judge Richard Stearns erred in applying the “good cause” standard when purported whistleblower, Jeffrey D’Agostino, sought to amend his complaint for a fourth time. D’Asostino, now an ex-sales rep for Covidien’s vascular business, lost this job when Covidien fired him for blowing the cover to the feds on a kickback scheme....
It’s not so surprising that sexual harassment is a problem at many law firms, especially where the old boys’ clubs exist. With the #MeToo movement in full swing, it’s practically a given that more high-profile cases will come out. But what’s surprising is that too many lawyers seem to think the problem will go away quietly. Like the partners at DLA Piper who hoped the latest scandal would remain confidential. If social media stands for anything, however, that’s not going to happen....
When it comes to technology, the legal industry isn’t known for being an early adopter. But after years of dragging their feet, many firms have now started to embrace legal tech, even if that embrace is a bit tepid. There are legal tech conferences, legal tech blogs (ahem), legal tech gurus. The field is exploding with startups in everything from legal research to practice management to eDiscovery. So what’s next? Here are some promising trends at the intersection of law and technology, taken from the FindLaw archives....
The holidays can be a little slow in terms of new clients, so it’s a good time to update your office and equipment, including finding the best new apps for lawyers. Your smartphone or tablet already does a lot, but it could probably do even more for you if you just knew which apps were best. So we’ve rounded up our top 10 useful apps for lawyers; it’s our holiday gift to you....
After a blogger accused the sheriff’s office in Terrebone Parish, Louisiana of improprieties, sheriff’s deputies quickly seized the computers of the suspected blogger, a former sheriff’s deputy himself, accusing him of criminal defamation. “If you’re gonna lie about me and make it under a fictitious name, I’m gonna come after you,” Terrebone Sheriff Jerry Larpenter told the local news station, WLL-TV. Now, a Louisiana judge has issued a search warrant, allowing those deputies to take a “look-see” into the suspected defamer’s computer....
The news has been full of child pornography cases this summer. Just a few examples: Earlier this month, there was the California decision that a man who superimposed his teenage daughter’s face on pornographic images was protected by the First Amendment because the relevant parts of child pornography must feature a child. In June, there was the story of a forced yearbook recall in Big Bear Lake, California after authorities discovered teenagers getting frisky in the background of a yearbook photo from a school dance....
Last week, Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced that he wouldn’t defend the state’s ban on gay marriage, prompting us to wonder: who else could? We’ve got our answer. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, a parallel battle has moved forward, though the plaintiffs will be scrambling to locate an additional plaintiff (or two), after the court questioned the existing plaintiffs’ standing to challenge the state’s refusal to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages....
During emotional testimony, witnesses sometimes cry in court. It’s part of the courtroom drama. But it’s unusual to see a lawyer cry – at all, much less in a public forum. It could also be really upsetting for the client, who might be the next one to cry. So if you are an attorney, don’t let them see you cry in court. Just consider a prosecutor’s experience in the Paul Manafort trial …...
Zurich Am. Ins. Co. v. O’Hara, No. 08-16875, concerned an ERISA action seeking reimbursement for medical expenses a benefit plan had paid on defendant’s behalf after defendant was injured in an automobile collision. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for plaintiff, on the grounds that 1) the plan’s reimbursement and subrogation provision, which stated that “the Plan may collect from [a] covered person[] the proceeds of any full or partial recovery” he obtained from a third-party tortfeasor, “regardless of whether [the] covered person has been fully compensated or made whole,” was clearly sufficient to disclaim any “make-whole” limitation on plaintiff’s right to reimbursement; and 2) the reimbursement plaintiff sought was not a premium or contribution on the basis of any health status-related factor to be paid out of defendant’s general assets, and instead plaintiff sought to recover specific and identifiable funds, advanced to cover defendant’s accident-related medical expenses, that were being held in trust by defendant’s attorneys....
Mark May 16, 2016, on your calendar. That’s the day that U.S. securities law will experience one of the biggest changes since the Securities Act of 1933. On May 16th, the S.E.C.’s “Regulation Crowdfunding” final rules go into effect, allowing everyday people to join investment bankers and venture capitalists to directly fund startup businesses. It’ll be a whole new world. Here’s how attorneys can prepare. Today, if you want to invest your retirement in a new app company, for example, it’s not easy....
The Capital Gazette journalists never had a chance, and neither did the shooter. Maryland police apprehended the suspect at the scene of the mass-murder, but he had no identification and refused to talk. So they took his picture, ran it through their database and quickly had a name. Jarrod Ramos, accused of killing five people at the newspaper, is not the only one in the state’s facial recognition database. It contains about 10 million driver’s license images and mugshots....
The Samsung/Apple legal dispute continues. Apple’s iPhone 5 is still unreleased and unannounced, but Samsung already has the product in its crosshairs. Samsung wants to block the iPhone 5 in South Korea once the much-anticipated phone is released. The company plans on taking Apple to court for its “violations of Samsung’s wireless technology related patents,” an unnamed senior Samsung executive told The Korea Times. It would be a preemptive strike in the much-publicized worldwide patent war between the two tech giants....
