Posts

It’s not hard to win a case when the opposing party doesn’t show up for court. That’s how April Parks was doing it in Clark County, Nevada. She was awarded guardianships once a week, and had up to one hundred wards at a time. It was easy pickings because the wards were too disoriented, incapacitated, or demented to go to court. Of course, there is more to the story. Double Billing Parks was indicted for perjury and theft based on double billing....

The chickens ain’t coming home to roost any time soon. The company pled guilty earlier to the charges last week, and their “punishment” will be to pay a fine of $200,000 and will be put on probation for three years. They’ll also make a voluntary contribution of $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Think about it like this: you get a DUI. In response, the court makes you buy donuts and coffee for the next AA meeting and requires you to donate a few hundred bucks to Mothers Against Drunk Driving....

Corporate counsels know how challenging managing people can be. Humans all have their own quirks. Some are good, and some can bring your production to a standstill. So figuring out how to fix difficult employees is often the key to keeping your office running smooth. But where do you begin? Should you refer them to HR or just can them altogether? As tempting and easy as those options are, learning to handle tough staffers is a skill that every manager needs....

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ordered a major steel company, JSW steel, to pay the equivalent of $156 million in fines, affirming a jury decision that the company was involved in a conspiracy to throttle supply lines to a competitor. The ruling comes as very bad news to JSW, which has struggled in recent years to stay profitable in the rising tide of Chinese competitors. Back in 2011, MM steel opened during one of the most productive and frothy years for the steel industry in modern history....

The Newt Gingrich/Virginia Republican Primary court battle has sputtered to an undramatic end. Gingrich’s lawyers filed paperwork with a Virginia federal court on Saturday – and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday – indicating that they would be dropping their challenge to place Gingrich on the Virginia Republican Primary ballot. Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are the only candidates who qualified for the Virginia Republican Primary. Texas Governor Rick Perry sued to have his name added to the ballot in December, and U....

Surprise, surprise. The Supreme Court has reversed the Ninth Circuit yet again. But don’t go rolling your eyes just yet. The Court’s ruling in Filarsky v. Delia is good for attorneys everywhere. The Court has chosen to grant qualified immunity to private attorneys who are temporarily retained by the government. So long as the alleged civil rights violations occurred while the attorney was carrying out the government’s work, he will be personally immune from all section 1983 suits....

Diversity matters. It increases the variety of viewpoints available, improves performance, and boosts revenue – a lot. The most racially diverse companies bring in 15 times more revenue than the least diverse, according to a study by the American Sociological Association. In the legal market, diversity isn’t just good for business, it’s good for business development, helping you reach a broader base of clientele. In a profession that’s absurdly homogenous, diversity is something that you need to work at....

Lawyers, please don’t confuse napping with nodding off. Nodding off happens when you’ve been working long hours and you just can’t keep your eyes open – like weary associates grinding through discovery. Napping happens when you take a break to revive yourself in a napping pod – like the progressive attorneys at White & Case. They are not the first attorneys to take naps on the job, but they are leading the way in a profession that burned the midnight oil long before the light bulb came along....

One Texas law firm is doing some creative marketing and hoping to make a difference locally this New Year holiday. Instead of throwing money away on traditional marketing, the firm seems to be putting up about $30,000 so that anyone in the Houston area can get a free ride rather than drive drunk. The firm has limited their offer of reimbursement to rides within their geographic region, and only one ride per household, and only up to $30 including up to a 10 percent tip....

“Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich.” Sounds like two Guinnesses and something made out of chicken, doesn’t it? It’s making us hungry. It’s not food and drink, however. It’s a complicated corporate tax loophole, exploited by tech companies and others with intellectual property, pioneered by Apple, and used by many to save billions of dollars in taxes. It all begins with the licensing of patents and IP to an Irish subsidiary....

Ever needed to know the proper rules of citation while on the go? Well, with the new The Bluebook app, lawyers and law students everywhere can access the 500+ pages of The Legal Bluebook in the palm of their hands. Like it or not, technology is becoming more and more intertwined with the practice of law. And you can probably consider the technological revolution complete when even the authority on how to properly make legal citations goes mobile....

How important is a domain name? Very important. Consider this: what’s easier to remember or put on a business card: familylaw.esq or losangelesfamilylawattorney.com? With .com becoming increasingly crowded, short names are hard to find. That’s why we’re excited about the new Top Level Domains (TLDs). Earlier this year, we reported that a Google shell company had registered a ton of these new TLDs, including .esq. Now, the company’s plan is coming to life: a domain registration service, like GoDaddy, that will provide access to the company’s newly acquired 101 TLDs....

A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers US and CREATe.org found that the theft of trade secrets amount to one to three percent of the United States GDP. According to the study, malicious insiders are the number one source of exposing trade secrets. The loss from occupational fraud amounts to about $3.5 trillion worldwide. With the significant economic impact of trade secret theft, what can a company do to better protect its trade secrets?...

Defendant’s alien smuggling conviction and sentence are affirmed where: 1) officers do not violate the Fourth Amendment simply by approaching an individual on the street or in some other public place and asking a question or asking for identification; 2) the government properly offered a redacted portion of a Form I-213 only to demonstrate that the aliens found on defendant’s boat were deportable and inadmissible; and 3) the district court did not clearly err by applying the sentencing guideline enhancement for intentionally or recklessly creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another person....

Defendant’s conviction and sentence for aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns and other crimes is affirmed where: 1) the evidence was sufficient to prove that the information was transmitted by interstate wire communication in furtherance of a scheme to defraud, thus satisfying each element of the offense; and 2) the district court did not err in calculating the tax loss for sentencing purposes. Read US v. Mehta, No....

As a lawyer, you may find it hard to set a specific time to retire because law life is complicated. Unlike Cinderella, there is no magic hour when your coach turns into a pumpkin. Your car may need a tune up, but that’s a different story. Retiring from the law depends on a lot of factors. Here are a few to help you know when it’s your time: Heavy Cases Warehouse workers carry heavy cases....

For health care facilities and doctors, social media can be a great tool, allowing medical providers to connect to patients in new ways, and helping facilities build brands, establish a place in the community, and increase education efforts. But with social media comes an increased responsibility, along with an increase in legal liability. If you represent any physicians or medical facilities, it might be time to have a conversation about the following risks....

There was the Tinder lawsuit. Executives at GitHub and Square left their companies in the wake of sexual harassment scandals. And today’s edition? Zillow, whose Irvine, California, office is described by a former employee as having an “adult frat house” culture. The employee, Rachel Kremer, filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing multiple supervisors of pervasive sexual harassment. She also claims that when she stopped playing along and rebuked her male coworkers’ advances, she was fired, reports Valleywag....

Guess what, social media junkies? Your deleted Facebook photos are probably still on the company’s servers. That means that if someone has the direct link to your unwanted .jpg file, it’s possible they can still access the photo. It’s a problem that was discovered by tech source Ars Technica three years ago. And it’s an issue that Facebook promises to address. The real problem lies with the way that content is removed from the site....

The trouble began when Pan Am Railway Co. together with its former president, David Fink, sued Atlantic Northeast Rails and Ports in U.S. District Court in 2011. In Fink’s complaint, he alleged that ANRP damaged his company by distributing defamatory articles via electronic and email newsletters. Judge Nancy Torreson found in favor of the paper and concluded that Pan Am couldn’t prove that a defamation took place. In the opinion of the judge, Pan Am failed to prove any element of Defamation....