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While there are certainly critics and skeptics of the relatively recent push from some major law firms to establish tech incubators, these firms are clearly breaking much-needed new ground for the legal industry. As reported in Above the Law, three major UK firms have recently made headlines over their newest batches of incubatees. Some of the new projects promise to revolutionize document review or even regulation and compliance using machine learning and AI....

There is currently a surplus in the legal lawyer labor market. Supply, demand, blah, blah - we’re all familiar with basic economics. The reality is, you can get employees for nearly nothing. In fact, many of these students and recent grads are so desperate for resume-filler that they’ll work for free! Yes, this post is coming from the same person who told you to stop hiring unpaid interns because (a) it’s illegal and (b) it makes you a terrible human being, but today is Devil’s Advocate day....

A federal appeals court ruled that a company may lawfully require employees to waive a class action in their employment agreements. In Convergys Corporation v. National Labor Relations Board, the divided appellate panel said the company did not violate the National Labor Relations Act. The court said Convergys could require job applicants to sign the waiver and could lawfully enforce it. Concluding that “the use of a class or collective action is a procedure rather than a substantive right,” the U....

As the world of contract law becomes ever more complex, and as app-authors and programmers get ever more callow about the legal realities of licensing, its easy for parties to get caught up in ‘get rich’ enthusiasm. They do so at their peril. Copyright and other IP lawsuits lurk around every corner. We’ll go over a scenario that’s been playing out more and more recently and some of the steps you, as the in-house lawyer, can do to minimize your client’s headache....

We all work on the go these days, checking emails on the bus, typing up memos in a coffee shop, or drafting documents on a red-eye flight. But the freedom to work from anywhere also comes with some drawbacks. When you’re out of the office or on the go, you don’t have your regular cybersecurity systems there to protect you, meaning you could be putting your own and your clients’ information at risk....

When consumers need an attorney, what do they do? How do they find you? What do they want to know? The FindLaw 2014 U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey asked legal consumers how they went about hiring an attorney and why. As it turns out, most people are looking for transactional help (with things like wills and estates or real estate documents), not litigation. And most began their search simply by contacting a legal professional....

Another week, another hacking piece. Only this time, it’s not about a threat of your networks, email accounts, or some large bank – it’s your keyboard. Bastille Networks did some digging around and found that wireless keyboards are the latest crack in the ever growing security levee. For about $12, hackers can acquire a radio device that can both track and inject keystrokes into your machines. Worried yet? Cheap Hacks With Keysniffer Yes, you read that right....

When it comes to the general counsel paper chase, a recent report explains that the gender pay gap is rather large. On average, a man serving as general counsel will make 39 percent or $125,000 more than a woman. These findings show that the gender pay gap is alive and just as bad for general counsel as in other industries. And while the CEO of Association of Corporate Counsel explained that growth for GCs is unparalleled at the moment, women seem to be underrepresented and underpaid....

Every year, like clockwork, Google updates Android with a new version. And every year, without fail, it introduced a new Nexus phone, along with a few other assorted Nexus-branded devices. Why should you care? Because when it comes to the pure Android experience, Nexus devices are the way to go. They’re the first devices to get updates, since they come straight from Google. And, in the past, the devices were far cheaper than their more mainstream counterparts from Samsung and Apple....

Does Google Earth have a secret identity as a crime solver? Apparently. The digital eye-in-the-sky has been revealing street crime for years, from petty drug deals to apparent murders. The program has also been used to investigate illegal deforestation, housing violations, and even tax fraud. With all the evidence that can be found on Google Earth, one might be surprised to learn that courts have not always treated it as admissible....

He may not hit the all-time richest mark – Rockefeller’s $318 billion net worth – but it raises questions. Like, how can you make a billion dollars? That’s not going to happen, so think instead about how you can get some of that from your company. Here are some ideas: Ask for a Raise When it comes to asking for a raise, timing is everything. If your company just made an extra billion dollars, give or take 999 million, that would be a good time....

President Trump’s proposed tax plan – touted as ’the biggest individual and business tax cut in American history’ – would be a big break for lawyers, too. Compared to setbacks for the president’s travel bans and orders against sanctuary cities, the proposed plan is already a public relations success. Individuals would get to double standard deductions and avoid certain taxes, while corporations and partnerships would pay only 15 percent. Of course, that depends on whether the plan gets through Congress....

What will the law firm of the future look like? Will a robot take the place of the receptionist? Will smart software draft and review documents? Will attorneys appear virtually online and in courtrooms? Actually, that’s already happening. And so is a new law firm that takes it one step further. Technology-First Atrium, LLP, claims to be “the technology-first law firm of the future.” Visit the website, and you will quickly realize you are not in traditional-law-firm Kansas anymore....

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Grooveshark, once home to 35 million users, has officially shut down under the pressure of $17 billion in lawsuits from music labels that claimed the eight-year-old company infringed on their music and allowed users to do the same. If the Napster case defined the boundaries of the online music store for the 2000s, Grooveshark will define the streaming music player for the 2010s – an era where even digital sales are giving way to online streaming....

On the internet, all content is equal. At least, that’s the goal behind the Federal Communications Commission’s Net Neutrality rules. Propagated last year, Net Neutrality bans three main practices: blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. But in order to put those rules into place, the FCC first had to classify broadband internet as a utility. This morning, the D.C. Circuit upheld that classification, finding that the FCC could treat high-speed internet providers as “common carriers” under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934....

The newest iPhones were announced this week with the usual Apple fanfare. In addition to celebrating the tenth anniversary of the first iPhone at the company’s new “spaceship” campus, it announced three new models of their now flagship device: iPhone 8, iPhone 8 plus, and iPhone X. While the 8 and 8 plus are merely systems upgrades and updates of the previous models, as is typical with annual updates, the 10 is a complete redesign....

It’s a business trend that’s once again on the rise. According to The Wall Street Journal, equity swaps for services were big during the dot-com boom-and-bust of the late 90s, but after many professional service providers were stiffed in the collapse, the arrangements fell out of favor. The trend has reversed once again, however, with the new dot-com boom happening now. Should your small firm join the trend? Here are a few considerations:...

Texas filed suit on Monday over the right of Texas state employers to absolutely bar the hiring of felons that would be stymied by the EEOC’s guidelines. According to the Dallas Business Journal, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit in federal court challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s enforcement guidelines which recommend that absolute bans on hiring felons run afoul of Title VII. Does Abbott have a case here, or is this just an issue to ride in his race against Wendy Davis for the Texas governorship?...

Over a dissent’s claim that it was unfair to reopen a four-year-old case, the Ninth Circuit said a trial judge was at fault and not the plaintiff for dismissing the case against a defendant who had never been served. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the case because the trial judge improperly dismissed Joseph Gordwin, a former FBI officer, before time for service had expired. Carl West had sued the United States and Gordwin separately, but had not served the FBI agent by the time the government successfully moved to dismiss....

Twitter was atwitter yesterday with news of a big change to the site’s security protocols: users can now choose to enable two-factor authentication. That’s big news for everyone, even if you don’t use the social media site. After all, remember that fake tweet by a hacker that caused the stock market to briefly nosedive? Big Organizations The big Twitter hacks that caused national panic (or, when The Onion was hacked, Internet hilarity) weren’t of individual users....