Lawyers often look outside the law for examples of good writing, and there’s a reason for that. Few attorneys, if any, have gone on to Pulitzer or Nobel fame for writing. That includes Erle Stanley Gardner, Scott Turow, and John Grisham. But occasionally you may discover a clear, persuasive and importantly – not boring – legal writer. Here are a couple to follow, and they’re still working in the law....
The South Carolina Coastal Conservation League’s lawsuit to prevent the loss of freshwater marshland on the banks of the Back and Savannah Rivers can’t go ahead, the Fourth Circuit ruled today. When a developer sought to flood longstanding freshwater marshes with saltwater, the environmental group argued that doing so would remove important habitat and release contaminants. Except, after the suit was filed, the developers found that the freshwater marshes were in fact already quite salty....
When in doubt, blame social media. An Australian man gets an 11-inch sandwich from Subway, posts about it on Facebook, and the sandwich chain faces a minor social media catastrophe and a handful of not-quite-footlong lawsuits. Best Buy issues an email coupon with too few restrictions, and it gets shared on social media. Hundreds of customers flock to the stores, only to be turned away. How many of those customers do you think will ever come back?...
District court’s refusal to order civil commitment under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 reversed In US v. Comstock, 07-7671, the district court’s refusal to order the civil commitment of five individuals under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, on remand from the United States Supreme Court, is reversed and remanded as, defendants have not met their heavy burden of demonstrating that the “clear and convincing evidence” standard mandated by section 4248 renders the statute unconstitutional on its face, but rather, at the very least, the challenged provision has a plainly legitimate sweep....
Defendant’s conviction for failure to register as a sex offender as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) is affirmed where: 1) because Alabama had not implemented SORNA’s requirements into its registry program during the time period charged in the indictment, Alabama did not have a duty to notify defendant of his duty to register; and 2) 18 U.S.C. section 2250(a) did not require that defendant specifically know that he was violating SORNA, but only that he “knowingly” violated a legal registration requirement upon relocating....
A federal judge ordered a Florida-based enterprise to pay $1 billion in fines and penalties for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors. Most of the 8,400 victims were elderly people, many who invested their life savings. They were lured by promises of high returns. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed the charges, saying it was a “business model built on lies.” For the operators, however, it was business as usual....
Sometimes you aim for greatness and fail. Sometimes that failure itself can be a form of triumph, as in the lawyer commercial which begins “Are you thinking of choosing a lawyer based on his dogs?” Attorney commercials aren’t typically Oscar-worthy. Bad lawyer advertising has essentially become its own artistic genre. (We’re pretty sure it’s a major at Wesleyan.) But some bad lawyer ads are so bad they’re brilliant. Here are seven that reach almost sublime-levels of terrible....
The ACLU of Massachusetts filed a petition with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to dismiss more than 40,300 criminal cases tainted by Annie Dookhan, the state chemist whose falsification of test results in drug cases led to the worst scandal to hit the criminal justice system in years. Growing increasingly frustrated with the state’s slow response to the massive due process ordeal, the ACLU filed a petition with the state’s highest court requesting specific actions....
Lawyers can avoid disciplinary problems by completing a new online program launched in Colorado. Administered by the state’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, it is the first program like it in the nation. Attorneys who use it also can earn credits for continuing legal education. Lawyers from other jurisdictions may use the self-assessment program, with some limitations. But Illinois is already following Colorado with a similar program. Self-Assessment Most often, attorneys seek guidance after ethical issues come up in their practice....
Have you ever had a client that wanted to invest in movie futures? It’s an idea that’s had a lot of appeal to a number of investors. Cantor Fitzgerald’s Cantor Exchange and Media Derivatives’ Trend Exchange had been working for years to create an online trading for Hollywood films. However it was strongly opposed by the Motion Pictures Association of America and the six major studios it represents. Now the U....
FindLaw released a survey yesterday: 1 in 12 parents report that their child has been cyberbullied. And a Thomson Reuters whitepaper on cyberbullying trends, released this month as well, reports that only 2 in 5 kids that are cyberbullied will mention it to their parents. Think about that for a second: sixty percent don’t speak up, which makes that 1-in-12 number a drastic understatement of the problem. Of course, we’re lawyers....
If you thought some hacker might discover your password, think again. But this time, think about some lawyer. Attorneys have the power to force people to give up their passwords. It happened recently – again – in a criminal case. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said a defendant had to comply with a prosecutor’s demand for a passcode. But what about privacy and the privilege against self-incrimination? What Privilege? Dennis Jones was accused of sex trafficking, and prosecutors demanded his cellphone password....
According to data by Glassdoor, 3 out of 5 employees rate the employer’s perks as being a top consideration before accepting a job. So why should lawyers be any different? Law firms aren’t really known for being overly generous or creative with their perks. Maybe it’s time that law firms start trying to keep up with their tech-company cousins – and start offering real incentives to lawyers. Apparently, people would rather have perks than money....
There’s Google My Business, a local directory that also has Google reviews baked in. There’s Apple Maps Connect, which is its own local directory with ratings and reviews. And you know you need to keep your eye on Yelp, the mother of all review sites. Now Facebook wants to join the party too! Introducing Facebook Places, another local directory that you might use some time when your Yelp app won’t load....
Baltimore’s State Attorney Marilyn Mosby was sued by five officers that were charged in the Freddie Gray murder case. Unfortunately for the prosecutor, she had to file an appeal to get the case tossed out as a district court judge was actually going to let the case proceed despite the strong doctrine and public policy in favor of prosecutorial immunity. In case you forgot, or didn’t know, in 2015, Freddie Gray suffered a severe injury and died while in custody....
Justice Department searching Google. Google’s advertising practices. Not antitrust violations. Search that on your favorite Internet search engine, and you will find Google, Inc., just set aside $500 million of the $2.3 billion it reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as earnings in the recently-closed first quarter of 2011. The only detail given in Google, Inc.’s 10Q filing with the SEC says the $500 million charge against quarterly earnings has to do with “an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers,” reports the New York Times....
When it comes to diversity within law firms, the numbers may be getting better, but are still nowhere near ideal. Unfortunately for those firms that don’t get a passing grade when it comes to diversity, more and more clients these days actually care about the diversity of the law firm they hire. And while there may be many reasons behind the lack of diversity, one way that individual law firms can work to be part of the solution rather than the problem is to create a diversity and inclusion program....
Many drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration are not as safe you might think. According to researchers, about one third of the drugs that are FDA-approved have safety issues later on. That results in recalls, warnings added to boxes, and notices about health risks. For consumers, it means checking twice before you swallow once. For lawyers, it means mass torts, products liability and failure-to-warn. In a study led by Dr....
You might associate bedside manner only with doctors. But if you don’t incorporate some sort of bedside manner in your law firm practice, you won’t be keeping your clients happy, and you won’t be getting referrals from your clients in the future. Here are five attorney bedside manner tips that every attorney should know. Listen. Listening to your clients is more than just an issue spotting exercise. It can be frustrating listening to clients vent and go off on tangents....
In a creditor’s appeal from the district court’s order denying the creditor’s motion for rehearing of its appeal of the bankruptcy court’s order confirming the debtor’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan, the order is reversed where: 1) the actions the debtor took to substantially consummate the plan before the creditor could obtain a stay did not insulate the plan from an appellate challenge; and 2) 11 U.S.C. section 1127(b) had no relevancy to the appeals at issue, each of which was brought by a creditor and challenger of the plan....
