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The law is all about specificity. Sometimes, the legal profession’s undying devotion to specifics means that an accused person can escape criminal prosecution. Other times, as in today’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals case, the specifics simply delay the inevitable. This week, the Fourth Circuit ordered resentencing in a drug conviction in U.S. v. Bell because the district court failed to properly explain its methodology for calculating a drug quantity and make findings sufficient to permit appellate review of the sentence for procedural reasonableness....

Ming Chen, a political activist and citizen of the People’s Republic of China, entered and stayed in the U.S. illegally. In 1998, Chen submitted an application for asylum and withholding of removal, but an immigration judge denied the application. Yet somehow, Chen managed to stay in the U.S. for another nine years … Chen petitioned the First Circuit to review the BIA’s decision denying his motion. The case highlights the deadline exemption for removal proceedings....

In these modern times of i-devices and wireless everything, cybersecurity is really important. From phishing scams to firewalls, lawyers and law firms need to be in the know in order to avoid being victims. Minimally, practicing good password security is a must as being duty bound to protect client information means potentially massive liability for data breaches and passwords are generally the keys to the data kingdom. Among the most promising cybersecurity developments involves the integration of biometrics into authentication processes....

When it comes to the question of non-lawyer ownership of law firms, there are often a few voices in the crowd that seem to insist it would be good for one reason or another. But, even being as fair as possible, none of those reasons are ever really that good. And when it comes to non-lawyer ownership saving solo law firms, well, that just seems oxymoronic. If a non-lawyer owns a solo law firm, is it even a solo law firm?...

The First Circuit Court of Appeals takes a firm stance on illegal downloads. Or at least it seems that way in light of the Tenenbaum ruling. Now, the Supreme Court has denied certiorari in his case, and it looks like the $675,000 penalty against the former Boston University graduate student will stand. He was fined $22,500 for each song, totaling $675,000. A U.S. district court eventually brought down the fine to $67,500, finding that the original fine was unconstitutionally excessive....

Toora v. Holder, No. 09-60073, involved a petition for review of the BIA’s denial of petitioner’s motion to reopen his deportation hearing. The court of appeals denied the petition on the ground that the departure bar, 8 C.F.R. section 1003.23(b)(1), applied to an alien who departed the U.S. after receiving notice of his deportation proceeding, but before the proceeding was completed and the Immigration Judge entered a deportation order. As the court wrote: “Petitioner, Dhanvir Toora, proceeding pro se, raises on appeal the question of whether the departure bar, 8 C....

Don’t expect President Trump to check out of his own hotel, but some of his foreign guests may have to following a court ruling. A federal judge ruled that the emoluments case may proceed against the president, based on allegations that he has profited from foreign or state officials while in office. Maryland and Washington, D.C. filed suit against him for violating the emoluments clause by receiving income from the Trump International Hotel....

Multitasking is not really a good thing, but sometimes you can’t help it. Business managers, for example, have this problem. They often have to manage multiple projects at the same time. Sometimes multitasking can be hazardous to your health, but there are ways for managers to do it productively. According to one multitasking work management order, here are five: No. 1 One Place Designate one place for all your projects. If you want to see what’s going on with everything at the same time, manage them all in one place....

Some lawyer stereotypes don’t really die. One of the most enduring and dubious quirks attorneys get accused of is being stick-in-the-mud Luddites. Like it or not, technology marches on, and attorneys must adapt. Below is a short list of tech skills that are sine qua non for any modern attorney. 2. Search Ability As an attorney, you should be very good at searching for information. Mercifully for many, improved search algorithms have made the need for persons to be fluent in Boolean copula a thing of the past, but attorneys should still be very familiar between the nuances of and and or....

They call ’em natural disasters for a reason, and years ago, had a hurricane hit your office, many of your files would be completely destroyed. You’d not only have to rebuild your personal life, but you’d have to replace your office, furniture, tech equipment, and try to rebuild your client files, all while continuing to practice law. While there aren’t a lot of things you can do to protect your big heavy desk, or the paper copies of your files, with modern “paperless” and “cloud” technology, your downtime, practice-wise, may only be a few hours or days....

Google I/O is happening now, but the keynote happened yesterday. You probably didn’t have three hours free to watch it, but you may be curious about what’s in the Google product pipeline. Smartwatches. An Android visual overhaul. Car stereos. Fitness trackers. A major Google Docs update. And a clear vision: Google as your constant companion, handling everything. Google Docs Just Became Viable Google Docs is a great app, especially for collaborative writing....

We called a similar case against Google “obvious from the outset” when the district court ruled book scanning “fair use.” Thankfully, the Second Circuit didn’t make us look like fools when the issue reappeared this year. If you’ve ever used Google Books, then you know what this is about: library mega catalogs. The HathiTrust Digital Library (HDL), a collection of universities, much like Google Books, scans the content of books in order to create the ultimate catalog: instead of just searching topic, author, or title, it searches the text....

Sometimes, justice takes a long time. But the old saying, “justice delayed is justice denied” isn’t just a rallying cry of civil rights plaintiff lawyers, it’s truth according to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And for the Fifth Circuit, a panel of judges had the unfortunate duty to essentially chastise a district court judge for taking too long to rule on a duo of motions. And if you think you have the right to complain because some judge made you wait a couple months to get a hearing or ruling, think again; the parties in the underlying matter had waited four years for a ruling on two motions....

The arrangements also ensured that the publishers would set universal pricing and commission models that would fix prices, decrease competition, and gouge customers. All of those nasty anti-competitive allegations were found valid by a judge earlier this week. A second trial, to determine damages, is set to follow. Besides the obvious paper trail of identical contracts, the market rates hiking immediately upon the release of the iPad, and the fixed prices between publishers, one thing that truly helped the government’s case was good old-fashioned e-discovery....

Every personal injury lawyer has encountered at least one client in need of a lawsuit cash advance. Clients have medical bills, college tuition payments and need to eat. But are the terms of those advances legally enforceable? Justice Ellen Spodek of Brooklyn is set to make that determination in the coming weeks. She’s hauled third-party lender LawBuck$ into court to defend $4,000 in loans made to police brutality victim Joseph Gill....

Where was Erin Brockovich when this happened? A Chilean chemical company was contaminating the water in Southern California for years, according to a lawsuit filed in City of Pomona v. SQM North America Corporation. The city said the company was responsible for harmful fertilizer chemicals in its water system. A jury didn’t think so, but the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated their judgment. It’s not a Brockovich movie, but it has an interesting plot twist and the story is not over....

Across the country, the federal shutdown continues to cause havoc both politically and in many individuals’ everyday lives. Many government attorneys know this first hand as many have stopped receiving pay. Not only are workers going unpaid, and federal services facing stoppages, but the public is clearly not in support of the shutdown. And for federal courts and law firms that maintain federal practices, it isn’t exactly business as usual. Courts have been asked to scale back to focus on completing the “mission critical” work, which likely includes ensuring the federal criminal docket continues unimpeded....

The EEOC cleared up some confusion surrounding the interaction of corporate wellness programs of other federal laws like GINA and the Americans with Disabilities Act by issuing rules concerning voluntariness. And the results have some upset. In-house lawyers for most companies may be able to slip by without making major changes to legal compliance this time around, as the rules appear to have changed little from the proposed rules of last year....

In plaintiffs’ action against defendants alleging they manufactured and sold defective decking and railing products, judgment of the district court denying plaintiffs’ post-judgment motion is affirmed as plaintiffs have not met the burden of showing that they are entitled to relief from the previously entered judgment as a passing request to a possible future motion to amend, contained in an opposition to a motion to dismiss, is without effect in these circumstances....

Google and Oracle must identify bloggers and journalists who’ve been paid by the companies, federal Judge William Alsup has ordered. But it’s not entirely clear why. Lawyers for the tech giants must file disclosures by Friday, Alsup wrote in his one-page order, according to Wired. Alsup is presiding over the case, in which Oracle accused Google of patent and copyright infringement in developing software for Android smartphones. Jurors delivered split verdicts in May....