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Setting up a website for a law firm? That’s easy! Just go to one of those DIY tools – a site builder – and put up a page with contact info, the list of attorneys, and a brief rundown of the services you offer, right? It’s basically a yellow pages ad for the 21st century! Not quite, folks. While we’re all about DIY, just as a novice watching Bob Villa’s “This Old House” (the original version, of course) can screw up his bathroom tile, a shingle-hanging attorney can really mess up his professional website by falling into a number of common traps....

The need for privilege between employees of a company and in-house counsel is obvious. Public policy dictates that employees should be able to speak freely to counsel in order to anticipate and address legal and ethical concerns. Attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine both should apply in order to facilitate this open relationship. Obviously, lawyers facing a malpractice lawsuit have their own need for counsel. A law firm facing litigation has similar needs to a non-legal company facing litigation....

Closing in on almost 4,000 lawyers, DLA Piper picks up law firms like a tire tread picks up rocks – it’s rolling. Continuing its worldwide expansion, the BigLaw firm has brought in another boutique law firm. Liner LLP, and about 60 attorneys, will join Piper’s offices in downtown Los Angeles and Century City. It represents a trend that is gaining strength, as law firms announced a record 52 mergers so far this year....

Smart homes can do a lot: like turn on lights, regulate temperature, play music … According to reports, they can also be used to harass people. When the house locks you down, or the heat goes up to 100 degrees, or the music suddenly blasts in the middle of the night, that’s harassment. Isn’t it? The problem for judges and lawyers is: how to enforce restraining orders against smart homes? They aren’t bad; they’re just programmed that way....

At least, Mark Benavides should have known that his case wasn’t going well when it happened to him. The former San Antonio lawyer was on trial for sex trafficking, and the evidence included DVDs of him forcing clients to have sex with him. One video caused a juror to faint. That’s because, by all accounts – including his own –Benavides was a monster. Court-Appointed Lawyer Indicted on 18 counts of sexual assault and 17 counts of compelling prostitution, Benavides had represented his victims as a court-appointed lawyer....

United Healthcare Ins. Co. v. Davis, No. 08-30001, involved both parties’ appeal from the district court’s order enjoining the implementation of La. R.S. section 42:802.1 (the Act), on the basis that it violated the dormant Commerce Clause because it effectively favored Louisiana insurance companies in bidding for health insurance coverage for state employees, but holding that the Act did not violate the Commerce or Due Process Clauses. In US v. Alexander, No....

A recent decision out of the federal District Court Northern District of California is big news for both Facebook and, curiously, Facebook users in the state of Illinois. A class of Illinois Facebook users was just certified. The class action case revolves around Facebook’s use of facial recognition software and the Illinois Biometric Information Protection Act (BIPA) which requires companies to get consent before obtaining and storing a person’s biometric data....

Law school isn’t the certain path to financial stability and happiness that our parents believed it would be. Increasing numbers of law school grads are discovering that a life of discovery isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and leaving billables behind for greener pastures – even if it means less green in the bank. But before making a decision to quit practicing, a lawyer has to start practicing law, which means passing the bar....

This week we examine a duo of First Amendment cases. The first garnered national media attention last week as the Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts “buffer zone” law. The other case, though less widely known, also addresses the First Amendment. Read on to learn more about the opinions. McCullen v. Coakley – First Circuit This case has been in the justice system for thirteen years, and involves a Massachusetts law providing for a 35-foot buffer zone around exits, entrances and driveways of reproductive health care facilities, with certain exemptions....

Florida’s lawyer advertising rules have long been criticized for being arcane and amongst the most restrictive in the country. But two of those rules suffered a blow at the hands of U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard earlier this month. One rule banned “manipulative” advertising, while another prohibited the use of “any background sound other than instrumental music.” Judge Howard struck down these two provisions on First Amendment and due process grounds....

Wait, what? Fox is merging with Disney? Does that mean there will be an animated movie featuring Donald Trump and Sean Hannity? Who will be the voice-actors? Will it be rated P-13? Lighten up, everybody, it’s Friday somewhere. Besides, some of the rumors about the deal are true. The $52 Billion Deal Twenty-First Century Fox announced it will meet with stockholders to decide whether to merge with the Walt Disney Company....

Class Certification Order Reversed In Gene & Gene, L.L.C. v. Biopay, L.L.C., No. 09-31191, a lawsuit involving unsolicited faxes wherein defendant appealed from the district court’s grant of plaintiff’s motion to re-certify a class, the court reversed the order where 1) the Court of Appeals’ prior order foreclosed the re-litigation of the class certification issue, and the district court erred in considering “new” evidence disclosed during the reopened discovery; and 2) the evidence disclosed on remand was not substantially different from the evidence disclosed before the prior decision, and the “substantially different evidence” exception to the law of the case doctrine did not apply....

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that the U.S. v. Leon good faith exception to the exclusionary rule permits a court to look beyond the facts stated in a search warrant affidavit and consider uncontroverted facts the police inadvertently failed to disclose to the magistrate. Montgomery County police began investigating 18-year-old Collin McKenzie-Gude for firearms and explosives violations after his friend’s aunt informed police that McKenzie-Gude had an assault rifle and dangerous chemicals, and constantly discussed explosives....

A funny thing about legal research methodology is that traditionally you started with secondary, not primary, sources. What’s funnier today is that while technology has completely changed legal research, starting with secondary sources is still the go-to method. Only now it’s about how and when to do it with the new tools available to researchers. Here are some pointers from cutting-edge reference attorneys. Westlaw’s Secondary Sources Silvia Fejka, who works for Thomson Reuters (FindLaw’s parent company), explains how to use Westlaw’s secondary source redesign....

The need for attorney-client privilege for in-house attorneys performing internal investigations is obvious: In order to investigate to the best of your ability, and to ensure that employees are as forthcoming as possible, investigations done for the purpose of legal advice need to be covered by privilege. So how do you keep your privilege and assure that your internal investigation doesn’t turn into evidence in a trial? Here are three tips you may want to consider:...

To you, a law firm art gallery may sound like a nice idea for a firm with a handsome budget and a fine palate for the bourgeois – in other words, some other firm. Au contraire, dear populist! Small to mid-size firms with a humbler sensibility and smaller offices can, and maybe should also partake in the fine art world. Here are a few reasons why your firm needs an art gallery:...

When you’re looking to expand your client base, there’s no better resource than the clients you already have. “But,” you say in protest, “They’re more like former clients. I haven’t heard from them in months.” 1. Stay in Touch. Of course, your mileage may vary, but in general, the rules on attorney advertising don’t apply to current clients or clients with whom the attorney has had a relationship in the past....

When Facebook said a data breach affected 50 million people, it’s not like it was the end of the world. The social media platform has more than one billion active accounts, so what’s that, like five percent? No worries, right? Wrong. If your law firm has a Facebook account, you now have an ethical issue. Technical Competence Adding to Model Rule 1.1 of the American Bar Association, dozens of states require lawyers to maintain technical competence....

Imagine you are taking a deposition, and the witness doesn’t answer your question. With artificial intelligence, that might not be a problem. MIT researchers have developed software that can read minds. In other words, or without words, you can get answers to questions telepathically. This may sound like science fiction, but doesn’t everything these days? Translating Thoughts So far, the developers have created a face-mounted device that performs real-time conversion of thoughts to text....

“Get back in.” These three words led Conrad Roy to get back in his truck and kill himself. Teenager Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the case that has caused many to try to understand the ugly reality of cyberbullying. AT&T, working with teens at the All American High School Film Festival, is doing its part through a new film. It is a compilation of shorts by high school students who have dealt with the “cyberbullying crisis....