Sony is cutting the price of its Tablet S by $100. This brings the 16 GB version down to $399, and the 32 GB version down to $499. The real question for legal professionals is: is the Sony Tablet S right for attorneys? And, are you willing to ditch your iPad dreams in order to capitalize on this relatively hefty discount? Let’s look a little bit closer at the gadget....
When it comes to the debate over what fonts should be used in legal filings, there are generally only definitive answers of what not to do. Don’t use tiny fonts, don’t use comic sans, or other clearly non-professional fonts, and don’t fail to exercise common sense and read the court’s rules about what fonts can be used. In the absence of a rule, you can pretty much get away with whatever font your heart desires so long as it is clear to read, not embellished, and not over or undersized....
Wells Fargo agreed to pay $185 million in fines yesterday, after years of opening more than two million fake bank accounts and credit cards in the names of the bank’s real customers. The scandal is particularly notable given how widespread the illegal banking practices were – over several years, Wells Fargo fired more than 5,000 employees for engaging in the fraud, but never ended the practice entirely. Now, some are calling for even more heads to roll....
Tax day has come and gone. But that doesn’t mean in-house counsel can stop worrying about the IRS. Helping to keep the company on the right side of the tax code, while helping minimize its tax burden, is a year-round job. To help you out, here are our five top tax tips for in-house counsel, from FindLaw’s archives. This past December, the IRS announced the launch of its Early Interaction Initiative....
Apple has long-since had an issue with its messaging service not playing nicely with Androids and other smartphones. I noticed the issue when I ditched my badly aging iPhone 3GS for a Google Nexus 4 a few years ago – texts would be lost in the vapors, especially group text messages. It turns out I wasn’t alone: iMessage, which routes text messages though Apple’s service, was intercepting text messages from fellow Apple users, even after users switched to Android....
The roll-out on California’s recreational marijuana laws is a bit like rolling a joint. It’s not as easy as it looks. The Bureau of Cannabis Control, the state entity that oversees the new marijuana market, is trying to weed out some trouble spots. The bureau recently sent a letter to one of the bigger players in the market, saying it was advertising unlicensed pot growers. Weedmaps, an online directory of marijuana businesses, responded that it was not subject to the agency....
Over the years, we’ve seen lawyers disciplined and suspended from practice for hundreds of different reasons: publishing allegedly false statements about local judges on their blogs, representing both parties in a personal injury suit, falsifying eDiscovery documents, even insulting colleagues. (Not to mention the many sex with clients scandals.) But does a suspension mean that an attorney can’t work at all for that period? Not necessarily. Rule 27 of the ABA Model Rules for Lawyer Disciplinary Enforcement makes it clear that a suspension from practice means a complete halt to your current legal work....
The Securities & Exchange Commission announced a $285 million Citigroup settlement last week, putting an end to a civil suit brought by the agency. The amount falls behind settlements reached with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan–the only other major banking institutions sued by the SEC. Approximately $190 million will be used to refund investors, while the remaining $95 million represents a fine. These numbers are subject to change, as the settlement must be approved by U....
A female former sales manager claimed that her male supervisor twice reached around and placed a hand on her shoulder while driving her to a hotel after work. He allegedly told her “she owed him” for hiring her. The First Circuit conceded such actions “would feel very uncomfortable” but that they didn’t rise to the level of actionable sexual harassment. The case centered on what constitutes severe and pervasive conduct and the “but-for” causation in unlawful terminations....
In US v. Merced, No. 09-1844, the Third Circuit faced a government’s challenge to district court’s imposition of a five-year, well below the recommended guidelines, sentence for a drug possession conviction. In vacating and remanding the case for resentencing, the court concluded that the district court may have sentenced the defendant based on personal policy disagreement with the scope of the career offender provision of the guideline. If the variance was granted on such grounds, the court must clearly explain whether it is based on a policy disagreement with section 4B1....
Given the controversy surrounding President Trump, the Mueller probe, Stormy Daniels, an unsigned settlement agreement, $130,000, and Michael Cohen, the recent FBI raid on Cohen’s office seemed inevitable, or at least like one of the major plot turns in some low budget comedic mystery film that just keeps getting more and more unbelievable. As reports explain, the raid occurred Monday morning at Cohen’s offices and his hotel room. Business records, as well as emails and other documents were seized....
What’s the dumbest thing you’ve done lately? Whatever it is, it probably doesn’t compare to the losing streak that is the life of Roldy Francois, a former (and present) felon. That’s all garden-variety stupid – the sort of idiocy associated with your everyday criminal. There was also a six-hour armed standoff when the police tried to arrest him. His court appointed attorney said (and we’re paraphrasing here), “Dude. You’re screwed.” He fired her....
Judge Roger Gregory is the first African American judge to sit on the Fourth Circuit. He’s also the only judge we know to have ever been appointed to the same judicial seat by two separate presidents. Aside from these distinctions, Gregory is also known for authoring the Fourth Circuit’s opinion in King v. Burwell, which upheld the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies. That opinion, coming from a court once described as “the most aggressively conservative federal appeals court in the nation,” helped maintain a central piece of Obamacare – a piece that is currently before the Supreme Court....
When a lunatic goes off in a mindless rant, sometimes it’s best to just walk away. That also applies to crazy litigants – and we’re not talking personal injury lawyers who ask for billions in damages. We’re talking about the bona fide bizarre, like the plaintiff in Huang v. Hanks. Han Jin Huang sued Tom Hanks, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mark Zuckerberg, and about 30 other celebrities for conspiracy and putting “nano probes” in his brain....
“How much is your retainer?” the client asked. “That will be $25,000,” the lawyer responded. “Let’s make it $50,000,” the client told the shocked attorney. True story, but it doesn’t usually happen like that. Most of the time, you have to prepare the client for sticker shock. Be Up Front When quoting fees, don’t be a car salesman. The sticker price has to be the sales price. Discounts, OK; hidden costs, not....
There is a disconnect when it comes to law firm professional development. Managers are increasingly turning to electronic forms of training, while associates prefer more in-person mentoring, a study shows. The study, by West LegalEdcenter and the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, asked 1,700 associates and law firm administrators about professional development at their firms. Here are some of the study’s key findings that could help your firm:...
Despite the economy’s growth at the pace of molasses these days, small businesses are still finding ways to thrive. In fact, there are many new industries that have grown at double-digit rates, according to Forbes. As an associate at a small firm, the small business culture is certainly not foreign to you. While you may not represent huge corporations, small business owners will still likely turn to small and mid-sized firms for representation, so knowing which industry(ies) they will come from may help....
While New York City has always had to fight against having an image as a crime riddled urban center, the government has taken steps to ensure that at least the city’s residents and visitors are a little bit safer online. NYC has launched a free cybersecurity app that hopes to help residents stay protected, particularly while on mobile devices and public wifi. The app, called NYC Secure, will help alert users to online threats such as malicious websites, sketchy wifi networks, and more....
Times are tough. With the economic struggle that was the American economy for the past couple of years, professionals were getting creative in their attempts to recoup the losses. Well, maybe creative is the wrong word, but a recent study conducted by Real Rate Report that analyzed over $4.1 billion in invoices from 3,500 law firms found an interesting conclusion: 75% of attorneys increased their fees during the bad economy....
While your client might want to go a little crazy when you get them a good cash settlement or judgment, it might not be the worst idea to counsel your client against flashing a bankroll the size of a grapefruit on social media. Bad things can happen to those that show off all their greenbacks. While cashing the check, rather than depositing it into a bank account, flashing a bankroll on social media could be asking for trouble (especially if your privacy filters don’t restrict your posts to trusted friends and family)....
