Posts

Does a company have a First Amendment right to spam the crap out of you on behalf of your friends who (via a browsewrap license terms-of-service agreement that they never read) said that they wanted to contact you (only once)? Whew, that’s a mouthful, but that’s pretty much what LinkedIn is arguing to Judge Lucy Koh, who’s presiding over yet another tech trial in Silicon Valley. Judge Koh previously ruled that users had consented to an initial email invitation to friends, but not necessarily to the multiple follow-ups....

Some rideshare riders may prefer Lyft thanks to the friendlier corporate image the company has carefully cultivated. But that image might be in jeopardy due to a recently filed patent infringement lawsuit claiming the company stole a university professor’s patent to build their platform’s core. The pink mustache can only carry the company so far, and if this suit is successful, it could spell disaster for the rideshare giant, or just a big ding in the pocketbook....

What’s the biggest problem with cloud storage? There ain’t enough of it, the storage space, that is. And Office 365? Why would you pay for a monthly subscription to Office when you could buy the software once (Office 2013) and own it forever? How about 1 terabyte of cloud storage space, and Office 365, which comes with access to the mobile apps and the desktop version, all for as little as $6....

In a wrongful death action brought by survivors of passengers killed in a plane crash, dismissal of the action on forum non conveniens grounds in favor of litigation in Martinique is affirmed where: 1) the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air did not bar dismissal on forum non conveniens grounds because there was no ambiguity or limitation in the express language of Article 33(4) of the Convention, which stated in no uncertain terms that questions of procedure — which could only reasonably be read to include all questions of procedure – are governed by the rules of the forum state; and 2) with respect to the availability of evidence and witnesses, the analysis strongly favored Martinique, the residence of all the plaintiffs....

In a reversal against Planned Parenthood, a federal appeals court told a trial judge to take another look at evidence that the organization sold the tissue of aborted fetuses. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to the Texas judge, who had issued an injunction against state officials for trying to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. The appeals court said the judge should reconsider whether the clinic’s practices disqualified Planned Parenthood for Medicaid....

They were brought here as children, yet they have stayed as adults. They have successfully made it through law school and passed the bar, yet they can’t practice law. They are the nation’s undocumented law grads, and the latest of them is Jose Godinez-Samperio, 25, of Tampa, Fla. Like many other associations across the U.S., the Florida Board of Bar Examiners doesn’t know what to do with Godinez-Samperio. They’ve therefore asked the state’s highest court to decide whether his immigration status should preclude his admission to the bar....

A group of more than 12,000 abused foster children were re-certified as a class in a Texas federal court on Tuesday, giving the case a green light to proceed to trial. The case is being spearheaded by Children’s Rights, a New York-based group who presented evidence to the court in January about the abysmal state of the child care services in Texas, reports The Dallas Morning News. Since the plaintiffs were originally certified as a class back in 2011, why has nothing happened in two years?...

You could call it Revenge of the Interns: Two former Black Swan interns are suing the film’s production company for violating state and federal labor laws. It’s the first lawsuit to challenge the practice of unpaid internships in more than 50 years, NPR reports. The effects could be far-reaching, especially for in-house lawyers whose companies use interns, but do not pay them for their work. The Black Swan interns – Alex Footman, 24, and Eric Glatt, 42 – want others to join their class action fight against Fox Searchlight Pictures....

There’s plenty of bad advertising out there. Sometimes, though, bad spills over and becomes an outright disaster. The annals of advertising are full of campaigns gone wrong. Very, very wrong. In the spirit of learning from others’ mistakes, here’s three major disasters – and what you can do to avoid them in your own marketing: You might think it will get you more bang for your buck or help generate buzz, but stunt advertising rarely pays off....

Fourth Amendment cases are always interesting in that they deal with some of the most fundamental concerns affecting state and citizen: state intervention into suspected criminal activity. And when multiple states are involved, the laws can only get more interesting. A recent case out of the Fourth Circuit could possibly set the tone for parolees who have apparently violated the terms of their parole. In the Fourth Circuit’s opinion, however, one cannot violate parole terms if they don’t exist....

Let’s face it. Attorneys have trouble remembering some of the simplest things. You might forget when your anniversary is, or when your daughter’s school play is scheduled to begin. And now, the holiday season is almost upon us. For some employees, this means one thing: holiday bonuses. What is the bonus for? For some firms, a bonus is actually considered a part of someone’s compensation. Bonuses can also be a reward for an employee’s stellar work throughout the year....

When is a gun not a gun? When it’s really, really old, apparently. Thomas Royal is a felon. Felons can’t have guns or ammo, per the Gun Control Act, but that same act creates an interesting loophole: antique arms. Royal, when he was tased by police officers, was packing an antique Iver Johnson break-open revolver, .32 caliber, which was apparently manufactured “in or before 1898.” That meant, per the GCA, that he was not violating the law....

Is it time to move beyond the traditional law firm partnership model? The current default law firm structure leaves both clients and attorneys wanting. Clients feel overcharged and attorneys feel overworked. Some experts have blamed the “outdated partnership model” which fails “virtually all of its stakeholders.” Few firms have renounced partnerships altogether. But many are beginning to experiment with alternative partnership formulations – particularly, two-tier partnerships with both equity and non-equity partners....

In honor of the new profile, here are some quick tips on using Twitter effectively as a lawyer. Is it to keep in touch with clients? Keep abreast of new legal developments? Establish yourself as a thought leader in a subject area? Or are you using Twitter as a marketing tool? You’ll get more out of Twitter if you know your purpose in using it. A good set of rules about what you will or won’t tweet will keep you focused on your purpose in using Twitter....

When Anthony Soto-Rivera was arrested, he was in possession of a machine gun. Unfortunately for him, Soto-Rivera was also a felon, making his possession of any firearm, not to mention a machine gun, illegal. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced as a career criminal, under the assumption that being a felon in possession of a firearm is a “crime of violence” for federal career offender sentencing enhancements. Not so, the First Circuit ruled last Friday....

Black children are regularly viewed as older and more suspicious than they are, leading to harsher treatment at the hands of authority figures. When imaging powerful figures, women rarely come to mind as often as men. Yet, pretty much everyone this side of Archie Bunker believes such biases are wrong. So why do they persist? One of the answers is implicit bias, the subtle, often-unconscious associations connected to race, gender, and age that reinforce discriminatory stereotypes, often without our being aware of them....

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court granted cert in a pregnancy discrimination case to determine whether the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) requires employers who make accommodations for people with short-term disabilities to make the same accommodations for pregnant workers. A mere two weeks later, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued new guidelines related to pregnancy discrimination, reports The Washington Post. Let’s take a closer look at the coincidental timing, the new guidelines, and what this means for your company....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. The FTC is intent on stopping online deceptive health claims. It has been especially interested in shutting down sites that make false and misleading dietary claims. As part of its crackdown efforts, the FTC, along with the State of Connecticut, filed a complaint that sought to stop a specific operation based on Connecticut....

It’s no secret that the FBI doesn’t much like your encryption. Its director, James Comey, has said as much. It’s lobbied Congress to force device manufacturers to put “backdoors” into technology so the FBI can get inside. (Although, if you’re Comey, you’d call that a “front door.”) In its unparalleled quest to know what you ate for breakfast without checking your Instagram profile, the FBI wants to be able to hack any computer, anytime, anywhere....

Is your company okay with paying for an outside counsel firm’s first-year associate training? For many years, it seems that the answer was “yes.” It almost seemed inevitable that projects would be staffed with young attorneys. But now there’s a growing trend amongst general counsels: refusing to pay for first or second-year associates. After all, these attorneys are young. They don’t have legal experience. How many companies are doing so?...