Posts

The rumor mill is churning, and it looks like the next big tech-IPO could be the social network and micro-blogging platform Twitter. The rumors have reached a fever pitch as Twitter has made a number of strategic hires that point in the direction of a public offering, such as hiring Mike Gupta as the company’s CFO. Gupta previously helped take Zynga public, according to BuzzFeed. If indeed the company is planning on going public, it can learn lessons from two recent, and similar IPOs: that of LinkedIn and that of Facebook....

Uber began rolling out its fleet of self-driving cars in San Francisco today, allowing passengers in the ride-hailing company’s hometown to take a driverless cab through the city’s rainy hills and streets. Uber had previously offered self-driving vehicles to a small number of users in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but its SF aims are grander – pretty much anyone on the app can get an autonomous car in San Francisco. There’s one catch though....

District court’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress is affirmed where the officer’s justifiable belief that he had detected a firearm in defendant’s sweatshirt pocket, in combination with defendant’s strange response to officer’s question about the object in this pocket, clearly justified his decision to reach in and retrieve the firearm in defendant’s pocket. Read US v. Dubose, No. 08-2382 Appellate Information Appeal from the United State District Court for the District of MassachusettsDecided August 31, 2009...

US v. Ide, 09-4833, concerned a challenge to the district court’s grant of government’s petition to revoke defendant’s term of supervised release originally imposed in May 2002 as part of his sentence on a federal charge, claiming that defendant’s commission of an additional state offense, along with his failure to file monthly reports, violated the conditions of his supervised release. In affirming, the court held that, under the circumstances, a defendant’s supervised release term is tolled under 18 U....

Business people know that one of the best ways to figure out what you’re doing right or wrong is to spy on what the competition is doing. Back in Ye Olde Times, that might have involved sending a “secret shopper” in to report back what happened at another law firm’s intake interview. Today, though, it’s as easy as visiting another firm’s website – and it can be other firms anywhere in your state, or even elsewhere in the country....

The debate surrounding nonlawyer ownership in law firms is heating up, and with some potentially drastic consequences. Personal injury firm Jacoby & Meyers is currently suing New York for the right to accept capital investments from nonlawyers. The American Bar Association appears favorable to this request, as it is proposing an amendment to the similar Model Rule 5.4. But then we have England, where such ownership is allowed. Lawyers there are now providing services in grocery stores....

Apple (again) heralded the release of the Apple Watch on Monday, promising more than a prototype this time. The smart watch will go on sale starting April 10 and be available in three different models, ranging in price from $349 to a staggering $10,000 for the Apple Watch Edition, which comes in an 18-karat-gold alloy. With the arrival of a new “smart” device comes the arrival of new methods for letting potential clients know you exist – and potential ethical issues....

For law firms looking for the next big lucrative niche practice area, cryptocurrency might just be it. After all, your clients might just literally be creating money out of thin air, which means they should be able to pay the high price tags normally associated with niche practices. However, like everything else in this world, where there is reward, there is risk. If you’re planning on taking that risk on cryptocurrency clients, below you can find three tips on protecting those clients, yourself, and your other non-cryptocurrency clients....

Judge Wade McCree left the bench after an inappropriate photo leaked (though he was also embroiled in a sex scandal). Does a similar fate await Judge William Holcombe Pryor of the 11th Circuit? The Internet and especially legal blogosphere exploded earlier this week when nude photos of a man bearing a striking resemblance to Judge Pryor appeared on Legal Schnauzer (link NSFW), a blog dedicated to fighting legal “injustice,” and filled with criticism of allegedly-corrupt judges....

Note-taking apps are part of the recent trend of enabling people to document every aspect of their lives for posterity and future use. Everyone knows that with convenience comes diminished security. But what steps do you need to take to ensure your day-to-day musings aren’t being hacked? Note-Taking Problems What are the choices out there? Codebook (iOS), Evernote, Simplenote … By the time you finish this sentence, there will be others....

In US v. Boulware, No. 09-5125, the Fourth Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s imposition of a 15-month sentence upon a defendant convicted of fraudulently making a declaration under penalty of perjury in a bankruptcy case As the court wrote: “The indictment did not characterize Boulware’s failure to disclose the prior bankruptcies as being part of a plan to avoid making payment to specific creditors. Rather, the indictment focused on the fact that her nondisclosure constituted a false declaration made to the bankruptcy court under penalty of perjury....

Security threats are everywhere on the Internet, but Facebook aims to change that with its new ThreatExchange, a platform for security professionals (and anyone else, I guess) to exchange information on security threats. Even though there are already centralized repositories of security information, like the Internet Storm Center and the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures List, Facebook’s ThreatExchange promises to be a way for security type-folks to interact with each other more directly....

In an action by the plaintiffs, a group of California winemakers and Massachusetts residents, challenging Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 138 which establishes differential methods by which wineries distribute wines in Massachusetts, district court’s grant of injunctive relief is affirmed where: 1) section 19F violates the Commerce Clause because the effect of its particular gallonage cap is to change the competitive balance between in-state and out-of-state wineries in a way that benefits Massachusetts’s wineries and significantly burdens out-of-state competitors; 2) the statutory context, legislative history, and other factors also yield the unavoidable conclusion that this discrimination was purposeful; and 3) the Twenty-first Amendment cannot save section 19F from invalidation under the Commerce Clause....

It’s that time of the year again: the time to see how your salary measures up against everyone else’s and how you might do in the year ahead. Robert Half Legal, the legal staffing agency, has released its 2017 Salary Guide, a survey of legal professional salaries across a wide range of careers, practice areas, and years of experience. So far, 2017 is looking like a decent year to be a lawyer, as most attorneys can expect a fair increase over last year’s salary, particularly attorneys with four or more years of experience....

Going tiny is not just a thing in housing. Computers are getting so small you might mistake one for a piece of lint. IBM said it made a computer as small as a grain of salt, and now university researchers say they’ve created an even smaller one. These microscopic devices promise big things in medicine, chemistry, geology, and more. Not counting patent litigation, however, how will lawyers use them? IBM Think At IBM’s Think 2018 conference in March, the company said it had created the world’s smallest computer....

For court employees, Facebook and other social networking sites are often a welcome reprieve from a monotonous day of customer service and paperwork. But for those who work for the Delaware County Circuit Court in Indiana, that has just changed, as the presiding judges have adopted a social networking policy that all but bans court employees from perusing or using the sites on and off the clock. Get ready for cranky clerks, Indiana....

In plaintiff’s suit against the city of Boston over a dispute over payment for road salt that the company supplied during the winter of 2004-2005, judgment for the city is affirmed where: 1) the district court correctly determined as a matter of law that no new contract was created between the city and plaintiff that would satisfy the requirements of Chapter 30B or the City Charter, and that such failure was not excused by the emergency provisions of chapter 30B; and 2) the district court did not err in concluding that plaintiff was not entitled to relief under a theory of equitable estoppel as the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court has consistently refused to allow equitable recovery on a contract that does not comply with the material requirements of public bidding laws....

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Jerry Smith indicated yesterday that the Texas primary election scheduled for April 3 will likely be delayed because the Texas redistricting map conflict has not been resolved, reports The New York Times. While a new date has not been set, the court asked the Democratic and Republican parties to propose new candidate filing periods for a May 29 primary. As the primary date continues to move, Texas could either become a kingmaker, or completely irrelevant in the Republican nominating process....

Apple has Siri, a virtual assistant with more spunk than actual utility. Google has Google Now, which is a lot of substance and absolutely no style whatsoever. BlackBerry’s Voice Assist is barely functional, but the company is rumored to be working on a dedicated virtual assistant for the next version of their operation system. And Microsoft? Microsoft will now have Cortana, an artificially intelligent personal assistant with a feature set that sounds like Google’s, but a personality more like Apple’s....

It’s December. Eleven months ago, you made some promises to yourself known as New Year’s resolutions, and if you’re like most people, you probably didn’t make it past July. So how can you break that trend? Easy, just make resolutions you can actually stick to. As an attorney at a small firm, or owner of your own small firm, you’re in the distinct position of being a lawyer – and business owner; your resolutions should reflect that....