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Two years ago, the Supreme Court decided that 1.5 million Walmart employees couldn’t bring a class action discrimination suit against the retail chain because the plaintiffs’ interests were too varied. In the Walmart v. Dukes opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “Because respondents wish to sue about literally millions of employment decisions at once, they need some glue holding the alleged reasons for all those decisions together.” The Court, in another Scalia-authored opinion, reached a similar conclusion this week in Comcast Corp et al v....

It’s time for Discovery’s Shark Week again, the annual celebration of all things cold-blooded, sharp toothed, and, well, sharky. FindLaw is jumping on the bandwagon, celebrating the shark in all lawyers. Even though Shark Week is in its 28th year, lawyers have been called sharks even longer – for several centuries, in fact. Here’s a brief history of the lawyer as shark: Origin of the Term Pull out that Oxford English Dictionary, because it’s time for an etymology lesson....

Under Chief Justice John Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court has increasingly decided favorably for big business interests. The New York Times has highlighted a study by the Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) that tracks the success of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before the Supreme Court. The Huffington Post further analyzed the data as well as additional studies, and found even more evidence of corporate favoritism, as well as a sharp ideological divide on the Roberts court....

At the height of the Space Race and in the chill of the Cold War, the world’s most powerful nations reached an agreement that has remained largely intact for 50 years: The Outer Space Treaty. It was 1967 – only five years after the United States and the Soviet Union squared off in the Cuban missile crisis – when the countries put down their weapons and agreed that space would not be militarized....

Being an expert witness is good work if you can get it. According to a new survey, however, more than 90 percent of the time lawyers want experts who already have litigation experience. It makes sense, and also shows that the road to getting expert work is narrow. That’s why The Expert Institute put together responses from 1,000 attorneys. The survey says it’s not only hard to be an expert; it’s a challenge to find the right one....

Stacy Ehrisman-Mickle is the poster child for a lawyer hanging in the work-life balance. Actually, her child is the poster child because Ehrisman-Mickle had the kid strapped to her chest when she showed up in court. The judge chastised her, but it was his own fault because he denied her request for a continuance after she gave birth just four weeks earlier. That story is history now, but the problem persists today: how do busy lawyers find work-life balance?...

Social media is not just a small part of life, it’s a way of life. Chances are you’ve come across tweets even if you’re not on Twitter – news programs report on the latest tweets and quote celebrities daily. Twitter isn’t all fun and games though, and it can help you build your business and cast you as an expert in your given field. Think of it as a tool to further your legal career, and less as a tool to let your followers know what you had for dinner....

If you step outside this weekend, you’re bound to spot a ghost, vampire, skeleton or two. It’s the season for the undead. But don’t let your guard down throughout the rest of the year. The zombie apocalypse is inevitable and it could come at any time. When the undead rise, who will protect your legal rights? Or theirs? An Underdeveloped Body of Law The CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response has a comprehensive zombie preparedness plan....

Erica Hall worked in a health care office in Florida. Though her day job was as an office assistant, her side gig was stealing identifying information and passing that on to her lovely coconspirators. For her valiant efforts, she was to receive $200 per identifying information stolen and $1,000 if the information was successfully used to create a fraudulent account. When she was sentenced under § 2B1.1(b)(2)(B), the probation officer preparing the sentence report and the district court each took the position that there were 141 victims for purposes of sentencing enhancements....

March is Women’s History Month. So it’s quite fitting that this month, Michelle Lee joins the league of female pioneers as the first female director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Congratulations Ms. Lee! But who is Michelle Lee? Here are nine things you may not know about the USPTO’s fearless new leader: She’s not new to the USPTO. Lee’s official title used to be deputy director of the USPTO....

What’s the extent of a bank’s liability when a customer’s account has been hacked? A district court in Maine held that Ocean Bank wasn’t liable for a hacked account, but the First Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case, finding that the bank could potentially be liable. The quick facts are as follows (courtesy of Network World): A hacker correctly answered the security questions and accessed Patco Construction Company’s Ocean Bank account....

US v. Maldonado, 09-1626, concerned a challenge to the district court’s imposition of a sentence of 120-months imprisonment in a prosecution of defendant for crimes related to his role in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine. In vacating the sentence, the court held that an attaching plates offense under Massachusetts law does not count toward defendant’s criminal history under the guidelines. The court also held that whether defendant qualifies for the safety valve and, if so, whether a different sentence should be imposed are matters for the district court on remand....

In US v. Scher, No. 08-20269, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence for wire fraud for using unauthorized waiver codes to obtain illegal discounts on airline flights, holding that 1) defendant’s argument, that the indictment was constructively amended because the court’s definition of “scheme to defraud” on one occasion included the language “or other things of value,” ignored the balance of the instructions, which were on the whole correct; and 2) defendant did not provide rebuttal evidence that the district court deemed sufficient to undermine the information in the presentence report....

In US v. Knight, No. 09-4282, the Fourth Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s imposition of a 60 month sentence upon a defendant for a felonious possession conviction. In affirming the sentence, the court held that the district court did not err in relying on defendant’s arson conviction to increase her base offense level to 20. The court also held that the district court did not err in concluding that, in light of the obstruction-of-justice enhancement she received for absconding, defendant was not entitled to an acceptance of responsibility reduction....

Does the U.S. government ever use mobster informants like Swedish government did in the Stieg Larsson Trilogy? The answer is yes. And much like Larrson’s Zalachenko, those informants can be difficult to control. In February, the First Circuit Court of Appeals struck an $8.4 million judgment against the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act after finding that the plaintiffs, survivors of a government informant’s victims, failed to timely file their complaint....

How about a Hail Mary? It’s a traditional football pass, but a prayer on the field is going too far. At least, that’s what the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. “Striking an appropriate balance between ensuring the right to free speech and avoiding the endorsement of a state religion has never been easy,” wrote Judge Milan Smith, Jr. It was difficult decision because the court had to consider the right of a popular football coach to kneel at the 50-yard line and pray for his players after high school football games....

If you’re a solo lawyer, there’s a good chance that you have at least some social media presence for your business. But have you ever wondered just how you stack up in comparison to other attorneys out there? What are the other lawyers and firms doing that you might not be? To answer that question, we happily stumbled onto this infographic already put together by the practice management company MyCase.com. We think you should check it out....

Clients are increasingly turning to the internet to find their attorneys. But lawyers don’t just need a working website – they need a website that’s sensitive to the proclivities of the average online user. Think: impatience. Internet users are incredibly impatient. The amount of time it takes for your site to load actually makes a huge difference, as explained by the latest white paper by FindLaw Lawyer Marketing: Seconds Matter: The Real-World Risks of a Slow Mobile Website....

Metrics are all the rage these days. Given the steady invasion of technology into our lives, it was only inevitable that metrics would impact the legal field. For example, now metrics can be used to measure you productivity (or non-productivity) at work. Happily, lawyers offer a somewhat intangible good, so we cannot be measured quite so easily. The focus of legal metrics is, therefore, a bit more “touchy feely” than you might assume....

In an action against a police officer claiming violation of plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights and violation of state civil rights law, district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant is affirmed as officer had ample reasonable suspicion to believe that defendant was a minor in possession of alcohol in violation of state law when he detained the defendant, demanded identification, and briefly retained his driver’s license in order to confirm its validity and check for outstanding warrants....