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Can an employer refuse to hire an applicant because he’s HIV-positive? A 39-year-old Georgia man claims that he was denied employment with the Atlanta Police Department (Atlanta PD) because he is HIV-positive. The man, using the name “Richard Roe” to protect his privacy in the litigation, claims that a doctor who conducted his pre-employment medical exam for the Atlanta PD told him that his HIV status disqualified him from joining the Atlanta PD....

Congratulations. You’ve reached a settlement in your client’s personal injury case … almost. Have you considered all of the liens on the settlement amount? While many liens can be negotiated to smaller amounts, other liens are far more difficult to shrink. Liens brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) can be quite difficult to reduce under federal law. If you don’t take these liens seriously, your client could end up with little to no recovery, even when the initial settlement sounded promising....

Blockchain technology creates a virtually incorruptible, dispersed database of all transactions in a network. It’s the technology that helped make Bitcoin a (relative) success, but it’s often hailed as a potentially transformative technology in finance, business, and the law. There are contracts that use the blockchain, for example. There may one day even be entire government databases based on blockchain technology. But, as James Ching recently pointed out, there could be a downside to all the blockchain hype....

The website of solo practitioner Giovanni Rosania recently came to the attention of the blogosphere–and with much derision. While it certainly is something to poke fun at, the website is actually a great learning tool. It’s the perfect example of what not to do. Don’t have background music. A website should never greet potential clients with music. Even more so, they should never be greeted with music that belongs in the end credits of a video game....

In an action to foreclose defendants’ mortgage and to establish the priority of plaintiff’s security interest over a federal tax lien, summary judgment for the IRS is vacated where plaintiff was not required to show that the parties contemplated future execution of a security agreement at the time the loans were issued. Rather, to show past consideration, plaintiff needed to present evidence that the security agreement was executed for the purpose of repaying the loans....

The European Parliament approved legislation that will redefine the internet, and Americans are not going to like it. That’s because the changes will affect tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Twitter in major ways. Critics say the laws will turn the platforms into tech police, upend copyright laws, and slow down information. Wait, slow down information!? If anything could cause an American revolution, it’s a slower internet. Content Liability The parliament does not control the world, and it is only one part of a three-way negotiation that also involves the Council of the Europe Union and the European Commission....

Applications for new domains were released on Wednesday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and it looks like litigation is already on the horizon. For many, the phrase “dotcom” has become synonymous with “website.” Given ICANN’s tight control over who can previously own a Top-Level Domain, its new policy opens up entirely new marketing strategies – and potential disputes. Among the domain names up for grabs: ....

Why do we still have Facebook? Every week, it seems, it chips further away at our privacy. Shortly after getting to a tussle with the FTC over their new overly-expansive privacy policy, the company releases an updated Graph Search. Now you can quickly search through every post you, your friends, and even much of the public have ever written! Yeah. Whether you call ’em “Timeline Posts,” “status updates,” or “editing someone’s wall,” they’re now searchable, so long as the user’s privacy settings haven’t been amped up....

Last November, we posted about one of the first driving incidents related to Google Glass, when Google Glass Explorer Cecilia Abadie was pulled over for wearing Glass. While she received a citation for driving a car with a video screen in front of her, under California V C section 27602 Television, a San Diego court later dismissed the ticket for lack of proof that Abadie was operating the glasses while driving, reports The Associated Press....

In your entire legal career, you’ve probably never started a client meeting by saying: “I have an idea so crazy it just might work.” Perhaps if you have a flare for the dramatic, you’ve probably used that line with a drinking buddy, or even pulled it out during a meeting with a colleague or partner, but never in front of a client. So … what do you say when you need to get a client to go along with a novel litigation strategy?...

We recently read an article about the “7 Secrets to Becoming General Counsel” and were inspired to distill the article for the busy in-house attorneys among you. The seven secrets were gleaned for us, by Corporate Counsel, by interviewing existing general counsel on how they got to their positions. While we whittled down the message, we also consolidated the seven secrets to three tips. Even a busy in-house lawyer like you will have time to read and follow these tips....

Clickbait is not a “gotcha.” In the online publishing business, it’s a headline meant to tempt a reader to click on a story. It’s like a hook with a fake lure, which is fine for everybody in “catch-and-release.” So if you didn’t know it already, you can’t sell a law practice in less than 30 minutes. But if you take the time to read this blog and listen to the podcast linked below, you will know how to do it....

Many attorneys have successfully hung their own shingle, but it can be daunting to do this on your own. Part of the appeal of BigLaw is that someone else will make the big decisions for you. But this also means micromanagement and other crimes against your independent nature. Here are a few tips to remember as you begin your own solo practice. Related Resources: Starting a Law Firm Guide (MyShingle.com) 11 Ways to Start a Virtual Law Office Today (FindLaw’s Technologist) 5 Tech Trends for the Law Firm of the Future (FindLaw’s Technologist) How to Integrate a Virtual Law Office (FindLaw’s Technologist) You Don’t Have To Solve This on Your Own – Get a Lawyer’s Help Civil Rights Block on Trump’s Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court...

Instagram’s new terms of service and privacy policy were posted for a less than a day before users of the popular photo-sharing service started crying foul. The online uproar led the company to post on its official blog that it would soon “modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos.” The terms at issue aren’t especially different from what similar companies have adopted in terms of user privacy and advertising....

“Mister Facebook,” Mark Zuckerberg, announced yesterday that he and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, were launching the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited liability corporation through which 99 percent of their shares would be donated for a number of charitable causes, including curing diseases and community building. Zuckerberg and Chan’s astounding move seems to be in line with a number of tech CEOs who have decided to adopt a “kinder and gentler” ultra-wealthy hat....

It can be hard to know when to be a do-gooder, especially for soulless corporations. No one really expects corporations, businesses and other inanimate objects to have a real heart. But in times like these, it’s a perfect time for them to do the right thing. Now and Then During the government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of people were in survival mode. Living no-paycheck-to-paycheck, it was the worst of times....

If you were to take a wild guess as to how many people in legal tech had a legal education, what percentage would you come up with? 75 percent? 70? How about nine percent? Well, according to a study put together by case management software company Smokeball, that’s how low the numbers are. Practically nobody has first hand knowledge about how to practice law in the legal-tech world. Shockingly Low We don’t know about you, but that number shocking....

The New York Police Department has been caught with its hand in the virtual cookie jar. Capital New York reported Friday that several Wikipedia entries about victims of police violence had been edited or deleted by computers with IP addresses registered to the NYPD’s One Police Plaza headquarters. In particular, the article about the death of Eric Garner was modified to make Garner seem more threatening and police actions less outrageous....

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld are engaged in discussion to merge and form an 1,800 attorney firm. A spokeswoman for Akin Gump confirmed the talks, saying that the firms are “in exploratory discussions regarding the possibility of a merger.” Orrick confirmed the talks as well, saying though a spokesman that the firm “have held preliminary discussions about the possibility of a merger … “[but] it is premature and inappropriate to speak publicly in any detail about the process....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Revenge porn is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. Some federal lawmakers agree, and they now seek to push legislation aimed at criminalizing revenge porn. So, what exactly is revenge porn? It often goes something like this: As revenge porn unfortunately has become more prevalent, there have been efforts made at the state level to criminalize such conduct, and now some lawmakers in the U....