Law firms are looking everywhere for alternative fee agreements that work. Flat fee, hybrid fee, premium fee, break-up fee, budgeted fee; the list goes on. Some firms won’t even work for money where bitcoin will do. Here’s something a little old and a little new: the project fee with a construction feature. In the construction business, they call it a “change order.” Project Work Project work is based on a fixed fee agreement....
The toughest lawyer I ever met had the credentials to prove it. In college, he was a Golden Gloves boxing champ. He got knocked down one time, but got back up and knocked out his opponent. He didn’t go directly to law school, taking time to explore a career in rodeo first. That’s right, he jumped on wild horses and bulls because he enjoyed the ride. But this man was also the most civil and respectable attorney I ever met – and very successful in the courtroom....
Rosenblatt v. United Way of Greater Houston, No. 09-20131, concerned an ERISA action asserting that the net effect and intent of defendant’s benefit plan conversion was to shift the burden of funding the plan’s deficit to older employees, like plaintiff, who had earned substantial benefits through longer service. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the complaint, on the grounds that 1) in plaintiff’s complaint, he disclosed neither a claim of error nor how any errors affected his retirement benefits; 2) nowhere in his complaint did plaintiff contend that defendant failed to provide him with any statements or notice of amendments to or potential reductions in his benefit accruals under the plan; and 3) plaintiff did not indicate that his previously accrued benefits had diminished in any way, only that he had not received properly calculated benefit accruals since the conversion of the plan....
It cannot be stressed how important it is to cover yourself and to conduct due diligence with regards to client confidences, even when you’re working in-house. A breach of confidentiality could end up costing you your license. In-house lawyers, however, walk a tight-rope of potential malpractice suits every day, though. Because of the enveloping nature in-house counsel may have with her client – the company – she must make sure that she does everything in her power to abide by the ABA rules covering client confidences and attorney-client privilege....
Thinking about ditching your legal career? A little bored with what you’ve been working on? Perhaps it’s time to renew your passion for the law. Take Heather Peters, for example. She recently opted out of a proposed Honda hybrid class action settlement and took the car manufacturer to small claims court. A California judge awarded her $9,867 – a windfall in comparison to the $200 and nontransferable new car credit being offered by Honda....
Yesterday, January 21, 2016, death row inmate Christopher Eugene brooks died by lethal injection for the rape and killing of a Homewood, Alabama woman in 1992. The Eleventh Circuit denied his denied his request for a stay of his execution, and the clock is running. Since SCOTUS didn’t step in to hear his case, his death marks the first lethal injection death in Alabama ever since the state changed the composition of its lethal injection cocktail....
While the NSA is out training 13 year olds to “hack the planet,” all those olds on the bench are still struggling to get by without their gramophones. At least, that’s the idea you might get from tech journalists complaining about the tech illiteracy of an ever aging judiciary. They’re not alone in their assessment, however. Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin, from the S.D.N.Y., agrees, telling attendees of Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business Summit that judges are struggling to remain competent in evolving technologies....
Kanye West has a way of stealing the limelight. He’s probably most famous for taking an award’s moment from Taylor Swift, but now he allegedly took a viral video of a little girl without permission. In the South Carolina lawsuit, family representatives said the musician should pay for using it in his song. The plaintiffs’ attorney says it’s not about Kanye. It’s about paying to play. “Ultralight Beam” In the video, the young girl prays passionately while traveling with her mother and another woman....
While the pivot to video may not have been all that it was chalked up to be, there’s no doubt that some law firms got it right. Whether or not law firms are getting more business as a result of viral YouTube success is another question entirely, but it’s hard to deny the brilliance of legal marketing that’s “laugh with” funny, rather than “laugh at” funny. Below, you can see for yourself what we’re talking about, and maybe pick up a few pointers as you see one lawyer and law firm that got it right with their amazing series that we hope is just beginning....
In a battery and sexual harassment action, partial judgment for plaintiff and for defendants is affirmed where: 1) defendants failed to show that the compensatory award for emotional damages equal to a claimant’s annual income evinced prejudice, passion or corruption on the part of the jury; 2) the $506,847.75 punitive award bore a reasonable relationship both to the harm plaintiff suffered and to the harm likely to result should defendants not be penalized now; and 3) plaintiff was not a prevailing party on her Title VII claim and thus was not entitled to attorney’s fees....
Company A obtains an injunction against Company B, which sells its assets to Company C. Is Company C bound by the injunction? The simple answer is “no” because Company C was not in privity with the parties to the A-B injunction. That’s the basic rule of ADT v. NorthStar Alarm Systems. The U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals said that NorthStar Alarm Services was not bound by an injunction because it was not in privity with the parties to the injunction....
Late last week, the Columbus Dispatch seized upon a months-old advisory opinion by the Ohio Supreme Court which, in theory, allows lawyers to text potential clients. Phone call and in-person solicitation is not allowed, nor is chat room solicitation, but apparently spamming someone’s phone with a string of text messages is Ohio-approved. Except, in reality, it really isn’t. The opinion, while technically allowing text-based solicitation, carefully avoids First Amendment complaints (even with the limited protections allowed for commercial speech), yet places so many restrictions on texting that it is nearly impossible to pull off a successful texting campaign....
Though the FDA is downplaying its request that Pfizer re-submit thousands of adverse event reports, according to a study done by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), the manufacturer’s lack of compliance with reporting rules hid 150 Chantix suicides. The catch? The majority of those suicides occurred prior to 2009, when Chantix became affixed with the agency’s strict “black box warning.” For those GCs not in the pharmaceutical industry, drug manufacturers are required to file quarterly reports detailing non-serious side effects....
In an unexpected and very public move, Tinder swiped left at some of its high-level employees. Rosette Pambakian, the vice president of marketing and communications, has been fired along with others embroiled in a lawsuit against Tinder’s parent company Match Group. Among her allegations, Pambakian says the former chief executive officer sexually assaulted her. The lawsuit has been going on for months, but the firings drive another stake in Tinder’s heart....
You? Make a mistake? No way. Never gonna happen. But for some other lawyers (we won’t name names), mistakes are common place. And we’re not just talking about a typo in a contract or court filing. There’s a whole universe of mistakes attorneys make, from mishandling client funds (accidentally!) to misusing those fancy Latin phrases. So, to help you that other guy out, here are some of the most common attorney screw ups and how to avoid them....
Defendant’s carjacking conviction is affirmed, where the District Court did not err in refusing to suppress his post-arrest statements, because no evidence suggested that the arresting officer’s provision of a statement of charges was anything other than an action normally attendant to arrest and custody. Read US v. Blake, No. 07-4619 Appellate Information Argued: May 15, 2009 Decided: July 2, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Traxler Counsel For Appellant: Kenneth Wendell Ravenell, Baltimore, MD...
Bribery Conviction Affirmed In US v. Townsend, No. 09-12797, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction for accepting bribes where 1) intangibles, such as freedom from jail and greater freedom while on pretrial release, were things of value under 18 U.S.C. section 666(a)(1)(B); 2) the market approach was a valid method for determining the value of an intangible obtained through bribery; and 3) there was enough evidence to support the jury’s finding that defendant did help a suspect avoid apprehension....
You’re a pretty modern attorney. You’ve got an impressive website, newish computers, and streamlined workflows, all so that you can get things done more efficiently and effectively. You even hired your nephew to digitize all your old records last summer. But there’s a possibility that you’re just fooling yourself. You might be more of a French taxi driver than a German engineer when it comes to getting things done quickly and systematically....
Finally, some bipartisan legislation, with a decent chance of passing, that addresses the issue of abusive patent trolls. Congress cooperating? And doing something useful? (Can I get an amen?!?) House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, whose name oddly enough makes me crave Starbucks, introduced the blandly-named, but bipartisan supported, “Innovation Act,” a bill that incorporates provisions from a number of prior attempts at patent reform litigation. (Tip to lawmakers: if you really want to attract attention, call it something like “The Patent Troll Extermination Act of 2013....
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a former mortgage executives fraud conviction this week, finding that a lower court did not abuse its discretion when it refused to grant the defendant more time to review almost 59 million pages of documents for exculpatory evidence, reports CBS News. Lee Farkas challenged his convictions for bank, wire and securities fraud, and conspiracy arising from a multi-billion dollar scheme to hide the financial difficulties of Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker Mortgage Corp....
