It’s not every day that a lawyer writes a funny demand letter. The very thought of it sounds like a bad joke – as if lawyers had a sense of humor. But one Netflix attorney broke the mold recently, showing that even attorneys can be funny and effective in their jobs. Bryce Coughlin, Netflix’s senior counsel for content and brand IP, tested his comedic chops on a bar that was broadcasting a Netflix show without permission....
Immigration is a hot button issue across the nation, particularly in the current political climate where strict travel restrictions and a border wall are being sought after. Relying on anecdotes and without citing actual evidence, the acting Director of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stoked the flames and placed blame on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for basically encouraging undocumented immigration. According to Director Thomas Homan, undocumented immigrants are reading the news about Ninth Circuit decisions in favor of undocumented immigrants, as well as news about sanctuary cities....
Wouldn’t it just be weird if Michael Cohen’s recordings become President Trump’s undoing? Cosmicly weird because tape recordings are what brought down President Nixon. He refused to give up recordings of conversations with co-conspirators in the Watergate scandal, and the rest is history. But Cohen’s recordings are also lawyerly weird because – besides Trump saying the attorney-client privilege is dead – recording client communications is not always a bad idea....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. It just is not realistically possible for countries to be isolationist in this current era. Indeed, the entire world is interconnected by the Internet and other technologies. Consider this fact that shows how the world is becoming smaller as we group together even more closely: 3,000 years ago there were about 600,000 independent world communities; now there are fewer than 200 such communities....
One alternative that mysteriously has gotten little attention is the credit card. But there are a number of advantages to accepting swipes instead of dusty pieces of paper. What considerations do you have to keep in mind? Speed and Convenience: If you have the client’s credit card information and their go-ahead to process payment, you can have your payment today. That is, of course, assuming that you haven’t bumped up against their credit limit; but barring that, the speed factor is admittedly a plus....
Since its launch in late 2013, the “email killer” platform Slack has done well for itself. It seems that in the time it takes you to blink, yet another several thousand users have been called over by the social-media/workplace platform’s siren call. But what about lawyers? Should attorneys acquiesce and join the movement? Or do we, as lawyers, have to suspend enthusiasm and consider some of the pros and cons?...
The National Labor Relations Board’s recent decisions on the right and wrong way to craft a social media policy aren’t just about how big companies should act. Every lawyer who works with a business, including owning your own practice, should know what kinds of phrases are likely to invalidate a social media policy. That way when you create one, you won’t fall into the same problems that others have dealt with....
Attorneys know that time is money. New associates will understand this lesson especially well after seeing their billable hours cut in half for the first time. But fear not, the most recent update to the WestLawNext iPad app might just be the thing to solve this most heinous of heartache. Developed by Thomson Reuters, the revised app incorporates some pretty nifty features that weren’t available in previous versions. Most notably the app now has access to West km, Westlaw’s knowledge management service that can do wonders for even the most disorganized of offices....
For nearly 10 years, the NSA greedily collected American’s phone records. This power is now drastically cut back by the USA Freedom Act. But will there be any real difference? Here’s the short answer: the difference may be negligible. Even though the NSA can no longer directly collect phone records, phone companies can still provide them based on their own policies. How closely the phone companies will work together with the NSA is still a matter of speculation....
When you’re a lawyer, your time is literally money. Use it effectively and you’ll have a profitable career that doesn’t keep you working 16 hour days. The key, as the cliche goes, is to work smarter, not harder. Here are five tips to help boost your productivity, free up time, and make your day run a bit more easily. 1. Make a To-do List Everyday Don’t spend time letting conflicting tasks bounce around in your head or figuring out what needs to be addressed next....
Ah, the day after Labor Day. Welcome back, first of all. Did we encourage so many relaxation methods or vacation tips that you, over-worked attorney, actually took time off this past 3-day weekend? If so, good for you. But, we may have forgotten to mention that returning from a long holiday weekend (read: back to reality) is often one of the tougher adjustments any attorney will have to make on a regular basis....
Security experts found another malicious app on Google Play. The “clipper” malware was disguised as a legitimate cryptocurrency app, but it stole cryptocurrency from users who downloaded it. The app took their credentials and keys, and redirected cryptocurrency deposits to the cyberthieves. If it sounds familiar, that’s because cybercriminals have used Google Play before to spread malware. It’s become a thing – a bad thing. MetaMask ESET, an IT security company, discovered the latest app scam....
Is the U.S. economy heading towards an age of innovation? Maybe, as the market value of tech giant Apple passed Exxon for the first time in history. Last Wednesday, the market value of Apple was at $337.2 billion. The market value of Exxon was at $330.8 billion, according to Bloomberg. Both companies’ valuations are nothing to sneeze at. For Apple, its status as one of the most valuable companies in the world is also a comeback story....
Businesses, cautious about future litigation and concerned about potential eDiscovery issues, are retaining more and more electronic information generated by their business and employees. We’re not just talking about emails and .doc files, either. Electronically stored information is being collected from everything from social media apps to Internet of Things devices. All told, there’s a massive amount of ESI being stored by mid-sized and large companies – 49.3 gigs per user for email data alone, according to a recent white paper by Osterman Research....
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Fourth Amendment rights of a man convicted of inducing and assisting immigrants to illegally enter the United States were not violated when federal authorities reviewed the GPS log found aboard his boat. Perhaps the most curious fact is that the defendant actually consented to a search of his boat both verbally and in writing. During the search, inside one of the boat’s compartments, a GPS device was found....
If we had a dollar for every time we had wished for more biker-gang cases in the appellate courts, we would be rich, (and full of guilt for wishing for more criminal cases.) Regardless, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals - not known for releasing published opinions - pulled through for us this week with this little gem. Defendants Richard Weaver, Elmer Moore, Kim Berryman, Steven Knight, Brian Mitchell, and Michael Phelps are alleged members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club (PMC), a gang located primarily along the East Coast....
Welcome to corporate America. You are now a part of a team that fits within a larger corporate culture. Adjusting from BigLaw (or Small-to-MidLaw) to your company’s corporate culture can take some getting used to. One of the ways that the corporate world breeds cohesion and camaraderie is through team building. Yes, you’re a lawyer, but you’re in the corporate world now. You’ve got to play by the company’s rules....
As U.S. regulators continue to investigate antitrust allegations against Google, EU regulators are getting down to business. The European Commission has publicly released a letter that gives Google only a few weeks to come up with remedies to its antitrust concerns. However, Google has remained steadfast in its belief that these concerns are unfounded. Chairman Eric Schmidt has even gone so far as to reject suggestions that the company will need to alter the way it handles search results in the EU....
Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter graced the First Circuit, sitting by designation, for an appeal involving the Second Amendment. It seems like guns are getting all the press these days. But Souter’s opinion wasn’t exactly what we would call a treatise of judicial erudition. The darn thing was only eight pages in Courier font. Load Indicators The suit found its way to the First Circuit when two firearms advocacy groups and a gun shop...
If you’ve ever lost a file or spent hours searching for an incorrectly filed document – and we all have – you know that poor document management can be a major thorn in your practice’s side. Not only is bad document management annoying to you, though. It wastes your staff’s time and your clients’ money. Upgrading your document management system can help solve these problems. And it’s not nearly as daunting (or expensive) as you might imagine....
