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As outrage over Trayvon Martin’s killing continues, an unlikely social-media hero has emerged: a white “super-Irish” graduate of historically black Howard University’s law school. Kevin Cunningham, 31, of Washington, D.C., spotted a link to a news story about Trayvon Martin on a law school listserv. That was 11 days after the unarmed teenager was shot and killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, Cunningham told the Poynter Institute. Trayvon’s killing led Cunningham to launch an online petition at Change....

In defendants’ Chapter 7 proceedings, district court’s judgment that plaintiff-creditor had the right to repossess their vehicle is affirmed where: 1) district court did not err in holding that the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) eliminated the ride-through option; 2) plaintiff had authority to repossess the vehicle pursuant to the contract’s ipso facto clause without giving the defendants prior notice of a right to cure the default under state law; and 3) plaintiff was not required to give defendants notice of default and right to cure before repossessing the vehicle as both parties agree that the event that triggered default, the filing of a bankruptcy petition, cannot be cured....

Bankruptcy judges will soon feel America’s proverbial belt-tightening in the courthouse. This week, the Judicial Conference of the United States adopted a courtroom sharing policy for bankruptcy judges in new courthouse and courtroom construction. In court facilities with three or more bankruptcy judges, one courtroom will be provided for every two bankruptcy judges. In those facilities with an odd number of bankruptcy judges, the number of courtrooms allotted will remain at the next lower whole number....

There’s been some criticism of the recently announced purchase of Tumblr by Yahoo. The blogging platform was purchased for about $1.1 billion. Thousands of its users have already been driven away to other blogging platforms from fear that Yahoo will ruin it. Amidst the controversial Yahoo purchase, Tumblr quickly became the subject of another headline. Only days after the purchase news, Tumblr sent out a mass email to some of its users to update their settings with an embarrassing mistake....

Have you noticed the “Scroogled” campaign that has spread across the Internet, print newspapers, and billboards? In the campaign, users are warned against getting Scroogled, which we can only assume is a portmanteau of Screwed and Google. The thing that caught our eye though, was the site’s statements about the superiority of Microsoft’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Being the lawyers that we are, we refused to take their word for it – and dove into the exceptionally large amount of legalese....

We weren’t particularly impressed with Microsoft’s attempt at Office for iPhones. Well, let’s be honest: we didn’t actually try Microsoft for iOS. We know, we know. It wasn’t out of laziness, however. It was because Microsoft (a) only released it for iPhones and (b) required an expensive $100 per year Office 365 subscription to use the app. We have neither. Today, Microsoft half-fixed the problem, bringing Microsoft Office to Android. However, you’ll still need the Office 365 subscription and, according to The Verge, the download is restricted to phones only....

Iron Man has JARVIS. Knight Rider had KITT. We have Siri. Or maybe Google Now’s voice assistant, which lacks a name, personality, or snark. Neither has reached the levels of fictional artificial intelligence. Though Siri is finally leaving beta, her history has been dotted with limitations and mistakes. Google Now entered the scene later, and though it performs quite decently, it still seems like a milestone on the way to making sci-fi a reality....

When it comes to wrongful convictions, usually it’s the Innocence Project making headlines. However, it was recently announced that a joint project by the ABA Center for Innovation and the makers of the popular ediscovery software, Relativity, will be helping to stop and fight wrongful convictions. The project is called DFENDR, which stands for Distributed Forensic Expert Network Delegating Review. Basically, Relativity has set up an ediscovery platform to allow for remote expert review of forensic evidence in potential wrongful conviction cases....

Federal agencies keep on trucking with hefty fines for breaking laws: $70 million from Honda, $300 million to the EPA – at this rate, we’ll pay off the national debt. (Just kidding.) Compared to all that, Ashley Furniture’s penalty of $1.7 million seems like pocket change. The global furniture manufacturer, with headquarters in Arcadia, Wisconsin, ran afoul of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. According to a Department of Labor press release, OSHA has cited Ashley Furniture for “dozens of violations” at its Arcadia factory....

Is it time to Reset the Net? Almost exactly one year after exposing the details of the U.S. government’s wide-reaching surveillance effort, Edward Snowden has joined Google, Mozilla, and the American Civil Liberties Union in an effort to increase Internet privacy dubbed Reset the Net. With the confidentiality issues inherent to communicating with clients online (and most lawyers’ failure to effectively address them) effective encryption of email and increased data security are things any attorney should be interested in....

The Ninth Circuit declined to reinstate President Trump’s immigration ban yesterday, finding that the government had shown neither “a likelihood of success on the merits,” nor any evidence that a failure to resume the program “would cause irreparable injury.” The decision is bound to be picked over by lawyers, politicians, and possibly the Supreme Court. But along with the court’s words, there is plenty of insight to be gained from the court’s citations, which give us a sort of peek, one-level down, at how the court viewed the immigration dispute and its role in it....

Storing old files can be rather costly. Depending on where your practice is located, storing a bankers box worth of client files for five years, or however long is required by your state bar’s ethics rules, can add up, especially as the boxes of files stack up. Given the advances in digital file storage, it makes sense to digitize closed case files for storage. After all, even if the storage costs aren’t an issue, managing the physical box (including security and privacy of client information contained therein), and actually destroying the contents, takes time and money....

If you have the misfortune of having graduated law school anytime in the last five years, there’s a pretty good chance you’re unemployed and looking for work. But just because you may be one of the many unemployed law grads, this does not mean you should be standing idly by waiting for the economy to turn. Instead there are five things every attorney (including attorneys with jobs) can do to make themselves more marketable....

What are the two hottest issues in Texas? The Cowboys and the Cowboys. But for those of you who aren’t sports fans, the other answer is gay marriage and the state’s embattled voter ID legislation. Both are headed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and possibly to the Supreme Court. Let’s take a look at the latest developments in these two burning civil rights issues: Gay Marriage: Paired With La....

With few exceptions, everybody is subject to being deposed. Even the President of the United States is not above lawful discovery, as President Trump may learn. If not, then President Nixon is an example. But when an elusive deponent avoids subpoena, or resigns from office as the case may be, what to do? A few presidential pointers may help. Push Hard In United States v. Nixon, the president resigned after the U....

Shiva Ayyadurai wants to be known as the man who created email – so much so that he once trademarked the phrase “the inventor of email.” Ayyadurai says he came up with “the electronic mail system as we know it today,” in 1978, when he was a 14-year-old boy in New Jersey. It’s an assertion some support. Others, however, have questioned Ayyadurai’s claims, stating that email existed well before 1978. Techdirt was just one blog to make that argument, and is currently facing a $15 million libel suit from Ayyadurai as a result....

The Eleventh Circuit recently dismissed a petition for appeal by a small group of environmental groups seeking to remove Alabama’s authority to run the local arm of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). This is not the final say on whether or not the case will move forward, since the circuit dismissed the case essentially for lack of ripeness. The Clean Water Act The NPDES is a section of the federal Clean Water Act....

Often, when lawyers are considering moving in house, their searches are narrowly tailored to private corporations. However, there is a surprising amount of work available in the nonprofit sector for in house attorneys. Generally, when lawyers think about nonprofit lawyer jobs, we think staff attorney positions that focus on serving underserved communities. But, like corporations, as nonprofit organizations grow, the need for in house attorneys and general counsel grows. Also, people often seem to forget that some hospitals, many schools, and nearly all foundations and charitable organizations, from massive to miniature, have compliance and other legal duties....

When it comes to building your practice, client satisfaction is key. Happy clients mean more clients, either through repeat business or future referrals. And while winning, however you define it, is the key to client glee, there are a few other practices attorneys can employ to help make sure their clients are satisfied. Here are some of our top tips, taken from the FindLaw archives. Almost all lawyers rightly focus on the quality of their legal services....

Ever wonder why insurance policies include 10,983,267 exclusions and are 3,423 pages long? This is why. Richard Johnson had an Accidental Death & Dismemberment policy through his employer. He also had a few too many drinks before his car veered off the highway, through a sign, and flipped multiple times. The cause of death was internal injuries from a motor vehicle accident. The toxicology report measured his BAC at 0.289 percent....