Moving stinks, no matter what your budget or occupation. But for us, the lawyers, it’s an even bigger pain: everybody, from the courts to the bar to clients, all need to be notified, there is no room for downtime, and everything needs to go according to plan so that you can get back to work ASAP – doubly so if you have important case deadlines pending. The key to a successful move, then, is organization....
Do you remember way back in the day when Dragon NaturallySpeaking ver. 1 was pretty much the only game in town when it came to speech recognition software? This was in the early 2000s when speech recognition was still just a fantasy that people could live out vicariously through Star Trek. Well, times have changed. Speech recognition is so ubiquitous now that it’s pretty much standard fare with all the major operating systems on our smartphones....
Petitioners who have continued their litigation against a Texas school district for dampening their free expression rights have been denied due to a failure to send by certified mail. The heart of Morgan v. Plano Independent School District, a Texas case involving a school district’s refusal to allow students to distribute candy canes with religious messages on school grounds, turns on an anticlimactically boring jurisdictional issue, which the Fifth Circuit dispatches with procedural ease....
At this point, nearly every attorney out there has received a flash drive or CD/DVD-ROM filled with files in response to a request for production. These days, document productions are even exchanged via email. While most of the time, getting discovery in electronic format is convenient for everyone, some ediscovery, like an image of a hard-drive for a consumer electronic device, like an iPhone, can be thousands of pages long and contain pages upon pages of incomprehensible gibberish....
You may have caught the news on Wednesday: a grand jury indicted the Texas state trooper who arrested Sandra Bland, whose death in her cell three days later lead to a national outcry last summer. A few weeks earlier, a grand jury had refused to indict any of Bland’s jailers. But, lesser known is the role of an independent panel of attorneys who took part in the investigation. Just what do such panels do and might one be in your future?...
The in-house corporate legal position is the Holy Grail for many lawyers. Many young grads and practicing attorneys fantasize about a non-billing, yet high-paying and prestigious position at one of the large corporations. But because these positions are so highly coveted, it can be extremely difficult to get a corporate legal position. That’s where David J. Parnell and his new book In-House: A Lawyer’s Guide to Getting a Corporate Legal Position may help you....
Snap-on. Snap-off. The Snapper. Wait. Wrong product. Snap-On got sued for patent infringement. Snap-On sued for patent infringement. Case on. Case off. A Judgment. Sorry, but the jingle was more catchy than the story. It goes like this: Snap-On lost a $27.8 million judgment in a patent infringement case. “Reasonable Royalty” Milwaukee Tool filed a complaint against Snap-On Tools for using a patented lithium-ion batter in their products. A Wisconsin jury ruled that Snap-On infringed on the Milwaukee company’s patents....
If hell is war, then it looks like the smoldering pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. And more than 800 American service members are suing a company that dumped tires, batteries, medical waste and other materials into burn pits there and released toxins into the air. The survivors allege the smoke caused stomach illnesses, neurological problems, cancers and other health issues; twelve died. A trial judge dismissed their cases last year, but their lawyers told the U....
Saturday night, a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the killing of Trayvon Martin. In tragic circumstances such as this, it’s easy to get carried away by emotions – especially when the case is highly publicized. That said, lawyers often view these cases differently because we understand the legal analysis. Or at least, we really try to. The ability to watch trials on television allows us an inside look at the strategies employed by the prosecution and the defense....
There’s a problem with the settlement in the selfie-monkey case: the monkey did not consent to it. If the monkey took a full-on, toothy selfie, he ought to be able to put a signature on a simple agreement. Don’t laugh. Elephants can do it. Even a sloppy, banana smudge would do. Come on, is there no justice in the urban jungle? Animal Rights, Not Copyrights As in so many cases, it came down to practical considerations in the face of legal realities....
Judges hold their cards close to their chests – usually. For all the impartiality and decorum judges normally demonstrate, it’s not unheard of for a judge to slip up, letting you know exactly what he feels toward your client: hatred. It can be difficult to deal with a judge that is openly antagonistic towards you or your client – but it’s not impossible. Here are some tips for dealing with a judge who hates your client:...
Just being on social media may be good, but creating engaging content is better. And as Arlo Guthrie’s father once told him, “Ya know Arlo, if you can’t be great, it’s better to be long.” So when you’re thinking about what to post on social media, don’t shoot for greatness, rather shoot for just getting some engagement from your audience and playing the long-game. In terms of what’s best, likes are good, but shares are even better because when your followers share your content to their followers, you are expanding your social reach and increasing the likelihood of gaining more followers....
The holiday season is upon us and you are likely getting ready to purchase gifts for friends, loved ones, and colleagues. As most in-house counsel know, holiday gift-giving may mean a lot more than simply sending your best wishes to someone else. Instead, if you forget to send a gift to someone you work closely with, you could get your relationship off to the wrong start for the next year....
Hearn v. McKay, No. 08-16697, involved an action by several members of the American Maritime Officers Union (“AMO”) against current and former officers of the AMO, alleging violations of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA). The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendants, on the grounds that 1) when a union official is acting in his role as an ERISA benefit plan trustee, he does so exclusively for the benefit (or to the detriment) of the plan participants and beneficiaries, not the union or its members as a group; 2) undisclosed witnesses may still be used at trial if the disclosure failure was substantially justified or if it was harmless; and 3) plaintiffs failed to show that the district court’s account of the evidence was entirely implausible, and thus there was no clear error....
During the Gold Rush, many miners went broke because it cost so much to prospect. That’s also how many merchants got rich. One egg cost $25 in today’s dollars. Coffee, $100 per pound. A pair of boots, $2,500. In the legal marketplace today, it’s the niche practitioners who stand to profit as large law firms compete for the gold. Here are some “certified” ways to find fortune in a niche market....
If you’re an in-house lawyer – particularly for a large company – you’ll know the pain of endless juggling of contracts. It is estimated that the average Fortune 1000 company maintains between 20,000 to 40,000 active contracts. Yikes. Smaller companies of course deal with contract numbers that are much smaller, but it would be wrong to say that in-house lawyers’ lives in those companies are much easier. How does an in-house for a small company deal with it all?...
Imitation might be the highest form of flattery, but some legal blogs appear to have taken that imitation a bit too far – by scraping content from prominent blogs and reposting it on their own. Is this just part of doing business on the interwebs? Maybe. But these alleged fakes could also have real consequences. “Very Loyal Followers” It’s not uncommon for the contents of websites to be taken by others, whether they’re web scrapers, plagiarists, or just enthusiastic sharers....
Perhaps further emboldened by the Supreme Court’s reception in the Arizona S.B. 1070 arguments yesterday, the Dallas suburb is asking the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for an en banc rehearing on its “occupancy license” housing ordinance, reports NBC-DFW. The Fifth Circuit ruled in March that the ordinance was unconstitutional. The housing ordinance also criminalized making false statements on an occupancy license application, occupying rental housing with a license, and knowingly permitting a person to occupy a rental unit without a valid license....
Independent contractor or actual employee? An employee gets Fair Labor Standards Act protections, including overtime and benefits. Independent contractors get, well, their salary. The appeal of contractors then, is obvious for big companies like FedEx. Unfortunately, as FedEx just learned, often it’s not the label that matters – it’s the substance of the relationship. The Ninth Circuit just held that FedEx drivers, which are labeled “independent contractors,” aren’t independent at all....
We’ve been quietly watching a proposed change to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure wind its way through the appropriate channels, wondering if it’s worth writing about. As the proposal has gathered steam, it turns out it’s created as much divide as Team Edward v. Team Jacob – minus the abs and the longing looks. The proposal to reduce the maximum length of federal civil briefs from 14,000 words to 12,500 words has drawn comments from lawyers and judges alike – and guess who’s on which side of the proposal....
