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Cisco Systems – the company that makes all the networking equipment – announced plans this week to lay off 6,000 employees, Fortune reports. This comes a scant month after Microsoft announced it would lay off 18,000 employees over the next year. Companies lay off employees all the time, but mass layoffs at once carry with them both legal and PR challenges. All of these recommendations amount to something in-house counsel already know: Do your homework and plan ahead....

In a securities fraud class action, the District Court’s denial of class certification and grant of Defendants’ summary judgment motion are reversed where: 1) the District Court conducted its Fed. R. Civ. P. 23 hearing under an erroneous legal standard for proving loss causation; and 2) a reasonable trier of fact could conclude that one of Defendant’s alleged misstatements regarding its earnings caused some portion of Plaintiff’s loss after the “relevant truth” began to leak out....

There is a debate raging among lawyers about whether solo practitioners are entrepreneurs. But come on now, in the immortal words of Rodney King, “Can we all just get along?” As Black History Month reminds us of the more divisive issues of our times, are we really debating the entrepreneurial nuances of law practice? With apologies to Allen Iverson, we’re talking about practice! We’re talking about practice! We’re talking about practice!...

If you’ve been considering getting into environmental law, you may be wondering whether or not it’s a worthwhile pursuit for your practice. And whether your firm has the passion or maybe already has the clients, may be the determining factors. For example, for business attorneys that primarily serve manufacturing and real estate clients, environmental law can really be a boon for business, and is often a necessary part of representing some types of businesses....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Once upon a time, the production of information in civil litigation primarily consisted of the exchange of hard-copy, paper records. Those days are long gone. We now are in the electronic age, and productions feature all sorts of electronic data. It is important to get it right when it comes to eDiscovery, as the downside consequences for getting it wrong can be severe....

I like Google Now. Sure, it’s a bit creepy that it does its voodoo magic (telling me my flight information, giving me sports scores, notifying me of updates on my favorite blogs, etc.) by scanning my email and tracking my online activities, but it sure is handy. In fact, Google Now is one of the big reasons why I still have an Android phone. And Gmail? It revolutionized free email. And the one thing I miss since switching to Outlook as my daily provider is the handy Primary/Social/Promotional dividers in my inbox, which shove all of those annoying “You’ll love our newest look!...

If you’ve thought about becoming a law professor, you probably know that it’s hard to become a full, tenured professor. You have to go to the right school (cough, Yale, cough) and then spend the next several years writing articles and doing research. If you’re a practitioner, that’s not a likely sequence of events. But what you can do is become an adjunct – an untenured “guest” professor who teaches courses here and there (though, increasingly, more than just here and there)....

If you’ve never been in prison, you can take Burt Lancaster at his word: it changes how you look at things. In Birdman of Alcatraz, the prison actor is transferred to another facility after decades at Alcatraz. He says his new cell will be “a swell place to live.” Your office can be a swell place, too, or it could be more like a prison. Sometimes, it depends what it looks like....

It’s that time of the year. Bar fees are coming due and, for many attorneys, continuing legal education deadlines are approaching. In just a few months, thousands of lawyers must verify their compliance with state CLE rules. While few lawyers love CLE, it’s important to make sure you are meeting all of your obligations, or face an audit, suspension, or worse, in the future. Here’s how to make sure you’re meeting your state’s CLE requirements....

It happens to solo lawyers with an unwelcome consistency: a client walks through your door to avail himself of your legal advice and then decides to either look for cheaper options, or worse, go about his matter pro se. What do you do? It’s been more than six years since the so-called economic downturn of 2008, but many people are still unreasonably frugal. It could be that people are worried about the recent negative predictions about the market....

The founder and CEO of Sam Adams wants his employees to tell him, “F*** you” – except without the asterisks. Under the F You Rule, “it’s okay to say f*** you to anybody else in the company,” CEO Jim Koch explains. The rule is just one of the “business lessons learned over a beer or two” he covers in his new book. So, should other companies follow suit? Can you start tossing expletives around the office without opening yourself up to legal issues?...

A scant few days after Katy Perry’s performance at the Super Bowl halftime show, the Internet was awash with memes unrelated to Perry, “Deflategate,” or even the poor planning that went into throwing the ball at the one-yard line instead of rushing it, leading to the New England Patriots’ win. Nope, all eyes were on that dancing “Left Shark.” During a performance of her song “California Gurls,” Perry was flanked by two dancers in shark costumes....

In the world of lobster wholesaling, there are winners, losers, and the potential for major corporate espionage. Even in a place like Maine. Take the Sea Salt lobster company out of Saco, Maine. It’s alleged in a partner v. partner lawsuit that the newbie partner formed his own shell company, created over a million in fake lobster sales, then sold the lobsters that were fake-sold via his shell company. Not particularly the snappiest of ideas as he got caught by his partners and ended up confessing to them....

In the wake of the Parkland school shooting, the Florida legislature passed some gun control measures to restrict individuals under the age of 21 from being able to purchase certain firearms, as well as imposing a three-day waiting period. In response to that legislation, the NRA filed a lawsuit on behalf of one 19-year-old Jane Doe and one 19-year-old John Doe, to challenge the law. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, the NRA’s motion to keep the Doe plaintiffs’ identities secret was shot down by the court, despite the judge’s clear sympathy for the plight of the plaintiffs....

Nobody would complain if they had to pass a test for a job, as long as the test was fair, right? That’s how the “keeper test” works, and it’s also how things work at Netflix. Should your company try it? No Hard Feelings According to reports, Netflix employees work under the shadow of the keeper test. It goes like this: “If one of the members of the team was thinking of leaving for another firm, would the manager try hard to keep them from leaving?...

Work tends to slow down this time of year, with everyone celebrating Festivus and all, so it’s a good time to get ready for the inevitable – tax season. If your tax year coincides with the calendar year, this is an especially important time because the clock is ticking. On December 31, at 11:59 p.m., you won’t turn into a pumpkin, but your financial books will be officially closed. Here are some small law firm tax-preparation tips to keep your holiday, and tax season, a little less stressful:...

The popular law firm cheer, ‘When I say “billable” you say “hour”’ is being phased out for something a little more low key. According to the Wall Street Journal, major companies such as Pfizer are doing away with the concept of paying law firms based on billable hours and opting instead for flat-fee agreements. In a tough economy, law firms are willing to work with general counsel of major companies to ensure steady workflow....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. We now know that the FBI does not recommend that Hillary Clinton be prosecuted for using private email servers with respect to government communications while she was the Secretary of State. At the same time, though, the FBI has concluded that Ms. Clinton’s handling of government communications was extremely careless. Meanwhile, the State Department may begin its own investigation with respect to EmailGate....

Assault on U.S. Marshals Conviction Affirmed In US v. Williams, No. 09-10091, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction for forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating, or interfering with three U.S. Marshals, holding that the instruction read by the district court provided a correct statement of the law about the standard of proof required to convict. However, the court vacated defendant’s sentence where it was erroneous to award a reduction for acceptance of responsibility because defendant denied guilt in the face of evidence to the contrary....

BIA’s ruling denying petitioner’s claim of derivative U.S. citizenship and ordering him removed from the U.S. to Jamaica is affirmed where: 1) petitioner failed to establish his claim to derivative U.S. citizenship by a preponderance of credible evidence and is not entitled to such citizenship; and 2) petitioner’s claim that he will be deprived of due process of law under the Fifth Amendment if his permanent residence card is revoked retroactively without a formal proceeding is without merit as the card was not lawfully granted in the first place and petitioner received all of the process that he was due....