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Money is tight and there never seems to be enough business, so how can anyone be thinking about hiring someone to take care of firm marketing? That’s a legitimate complaint for many firms that are too small to make the initial capital outlay of hiring a dedicated marketing director. But a qualified marketing director or Chief Marketing Officer can potentially be one of the most important members of your team. Here are a few quick things to keep in mind before you get too eager to hire....

Same-sex marriage cases have experienced an extreme rollercoaster over the past few years, ultimately culminating in the historic decision that gave same-sex couples a fundamental right to marriage. Looking back over the history of gay marriage cases, now is a good time to reflect on the lessons learned from Justice Scalia. Consider a 2013 case in Utah, where a federal district judge struck down Utah’s gay marriage ban on due process and equal protection grounds....

Put this on the long list of ridiculously stupid promotions that some lawyer somewhere should have reviewed before it actually happened. A TGI Fridays in Sheepshead Bay, New York, devised a brilliant plan to get into the holiday spirit: mistletoe drones! Little hovering aircraft stalk patrons and pressure them into kissing in public. Unsurprisingly, the brilliant stunt went horribly wrong when one of the drones got caught in a news photographer’s hair, causing the rotor to swing around and clip her nose and chin....

When you’re travelling and expected to work remotely, carrying around a whole office can be rather cumbersome, and, not to mention, heavy. Thanks to all the modern technology though, you really don’t need much to make sure you can do everything you need to do. Here’s a list of seven essential tech travel items for lawyers: Computers like the Macbook Air or a Dell XPS are thin, ultra compact, and tend to pack some ultra-long battery life to boot....

Defendant’s conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm is affirmed where: 1) the circumstances of a face-to-face encounter between an informant and an officer provided sufficient reasonable suspicion to justify the Terry stop of defendant’s vehicle; and 2) given the circumstances confronting the officers, the brief protective search of defendant’s vehicle was proper. Read US v. Griffin, No. 08-4045 Appellate Information Argued: September 22, 2009 Decided: December 17, 2009...

Technology is rapidly changing how people communicate, work, interact, even vote. And yes, how lawyers practice the law. In the face of such changes, more and more state bars are imposing technology competency requirements on lawyers, echoing the ABA’s determination that lawyers must keep abreast of the ‘benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.’ But when it comes to staying current on technology, some lawyers are lagging behind – and they tend to be in smaller firms or solo practices....

Anti-corruption looks to be the top priority for in house counsel in the upcoming year, according to a new study by Control Risks. Control Risks launched its RiskMap 2011 review and forecast of business risk for the upcoming year. The review includes regional outlooks, and a rating of political and security risk in 173 countries. So 2011 will be marked as a year of increasing national self interest, both politically and economically, as the world’s emerging economies use their economic strength and resilience to project global power and influence, according to the report....

In-house lawyers are special within the legal community in that they are beholden only to a single client and are not burdened by the daily concerns of making the bills and paying employees. If you landed an in-house job, you are the employee. But you’re also likely the employee who is going to be handling a mountain of crap – more so than any other employee in the company. The rumor that in-house life is cushy may be true for some lucky IH, but it will most likely not be in your cards for many years to come....

Google I/O, the tech company’s annual developer conference, came and went last weekend. The conference focuses on encouraging development in Google platforms such as Android and Chrome. But for the non-techies out there, it’s much more of a two day press conference about Google’s new developments. Google I/O had some good news for lawyers, from simple developments like longer battery life and easier email, to potential game changers like virtual reality and NSA-connected toasters....

Business cards are ubiquitous. Lawyers have been using them for centuries and yet, somehow, some way, people still manage to botch their business cards. How? Maybe the card is too flimsy. Or maybe it’s missing vital information, like an email address. Or perhaps it’s just plain ugly. Here are five mistakes that you should avoid when ordering your next batch of attorney business cards: 1. Too Cheap. Paper-thin cardstock? Yeah, you’re better than that....

The importance of attorney-client privilege is underlined, underscored, and otherwise emphasized throughout the journey of law student to lawyer. Through professional responsibility courses and the MPRE exam, the particulars of protecting the confidentiality of communications between an advocate and client is given utmost importance. So, how does it apply to in-house counsel? The in-house attorney provides a unique case for delineating privilege because general counsel is often also considered to be part of the business team of the company....

The letter from Congress specifically explains, at the outset, that these representatives believe facial recognition isn’t ready to be used by law enforcement. They write: Those concerns include accuracy, whether there is a disproportionate burden on communities of color, and how the tech may stifle Americans wishing to exercise their First Amendment rights. “Facial recognition may one day serve as a useful tool for law enforcement officials … However, at this time, we have serious concerns …”...

In US v. Damon, No. 09-1705, the First Circuit addressed a criminal defendant’s challenge to the application of two sentencing enhancements applicable to firearm offenses. The court rejected defendant’s arguments in holding that the enhancement was properly applied. First, the court rejected defendant’s first argument in holding that the Sentencing Commisison did not intend to use ACA’s definition (which excludes state convictions that the state classifies as misdemeanors if they are pubishable by less than two years’ imprisonment) and that defendant’s second conviction was clearly a “felony conviction” for a “controlled substance offense” based on the definition of those terms the Commission adopted....

Mendez-Barrera, No. 09-1903, concerned a petition for review, by a native and citizen of El Salvador, BIA’s denial of her application for asylum and related relief. In denying her petition, the court held that the claim that she was persecuted on account of her membership in a particular social group fails as substantial evidence supports the BIA’s determination that the putative social group was not legally cognizable. For similar reasons, petitioner’s claim for withholding of removal necessarily fails as she failed to carry her burden of persuasion for the asylum claim....

It seems like every month we wake up to another story about some giant company getting hacked – or worse, negligently storing user data out in the open where anyone can get to it. In the wake of data privacy breach after data privacy breach, the FCC is finally doing something other than worrying about Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction. On Friday, the FCC proposed a fine of $10 million against TerraCom and YourTel America for data privacy breaches....

Move to France. That’s the short answer to how lawyers can demand vacation days. In France, employees are entitled to five weeks of paid vacation each year by law. Unlike most countries, however, the United States has no right to paid vacation or paid holidays. So if you are an American lawyer, you may have to work a little harder to take time off. Plan Around Work There is a practical reality to every job – you can’t just leave work for a vacation....

A First Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding a Maine campaign reporting law will remain intact after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to that law this week. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), an advocacy group that opposes same-sex marriage initiatives in state legislatures, had asked the Supreme Court to overturn the First Circuit’s August 2011 ruling, which deemed the campaign reporting law constitutional. NOM, which donated almost $2 million to help repeal Maine’s same-sex marriage law in 2009, claimed that a Maine law requiring the organization to release its donor list was vague, overly broad, and would stifle free speech and subject donors to harassment, reports The Associated Press....

Cops are Facebook people, too. And according to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal, police have a right to gripe about their jobs on Facebook and elsewhere. There are concerns, of course. “We do not deny that officers’ social media use might present some potential for division within the ranks, particularly given the broad audience on Facebook,” the court said. “But the speculative ills targeted by the social networking policy are not sufficient to justify such sweeping restrictions on officers’ freedom to debate matters of public concern....

While death and taxes are a certainty for most of us, if you’re a tech company in Silicon Valley, taxes may be optional (yeah, we’re looking at you Apple). We’re going to assume that your company is much more ethical, and actually pays taxes in the U.S. for purposes of this discussion. Which leads us to the inevitable … are you ready to advise your company on tax issues? Audit and tax advisory firm KPMG has put together a list highlighting business tax issues for 2014, and while everything on the list was important, we’ve selected some of our favorites to tell you about....

There’s an old, apocryphal story about a guy who was bitten by bedbugs in a train sleeper car. He wrote a letter to the railroad president. The railroad president wrote back, saying it was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing happening, he had ordered all the rail cars fumigated, and promised it would never happen again. The president also accidentally included a copy of the sender’s original letter, on which was written, in the railroad president’s hand, “Send this SOB the bedbug letter....