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You probably color coded your paper files but are you doing the same thing for electronic files? If you think that’s not necessary then maybe you need to take a hard look at your file system’s efficiency. When everyone relied on paper files it was easy to see if things were messy. But electronic files can hide how disorganized things are under the surface. If you’ve ever read or browsed through David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ you know organization is vital to productivity....

A bit of background for all of you non-gamers out there. Epic Games is the creator of the Unreal Engine (and the criminally-underrated Jazz Jackrabbit), industry-standard software used by many developers to make video games. To date, there have been three versions of the engine released, with a fourth planned for release soon. Silicon Knights licensed Unreal Engine 3 for use in creating video games for the seventh-generation of PC hardware and consoles (Playstation 3 and Xbox 360), but was unsatisfied with the engine and Epic’s support and documentation....

Petitioner’s petition for review of the BIA’s denial of her application for asylum is denied, where the Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction to review the BIA’s determination that Petitioner did not meet the changed or extraordinary circumstances exception. Read Gomis v. Holder, No. 08-1389 Appellate Information Argued: March 25, 2009 Decided: July 6, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Niemeyer Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge Gregory Counsel For Petitioner:...

This guy got screwed. We can all agree on that, right? Frederick Bouchat designed a “Flying B” logo, faxed it to the Baltimore Ravens offices, and when the franchise began play, they used a logo that is pretty much indistinguishable from his design. If you’ve heard about this before, it’s because he has sued. Repeatedly. Bouchat actually won, but was awarded only nominal damages. He’s made multiple trips to the Fourth Circuit and during the last trip, he prevailed on claims that the team’s in-stadium videos, which employed the “Flying B” logo, were not fair use....

If you thought facial recognition software was just an airport security thing, guess again. It’s happening at banks, casinos, stores, workplaces, cell phones, and many other places you would least expect it. For example, if you went to the Rose Bowl last year, there’s a chance your face was scanned. According to industry insiders, facial recognition scanning is no longer future tech. It has gone mainstream. Mainstream Scanning Rolling Stone, which tracks music as well as culture, reported that a kiosk at the Super Bowl was wired to weed out stalkers....

In Bradley v. Allstate Ins. Co., No. 09-30035, an action seeking insurance proceeds arising from the total destruction of plaintiffs’ home as a result of flood and wind damage suffered during Hurricane Katrina, the court affirmed partial summary judgment for defendant in part where the district court did not err in concluding that defendant was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on plaintiffs’ claim for loss of contents. However the court vacated in part where 1) the district court needed to evaluate certain causation issues and ascertain the applicability of the section 5(e) total loss provision; and 2) it was undisputed that plaintiffs had not repaired, rebuilt, or replaced the property within the two-year period allowed under the policy and Louisiana law....

Is it too cheesy to say that the pot practice is growing like a weed? Hey, it is what it is. Marijuana actually does grow like a weed and some lawyers are riding high on its popularity. According to a CBS poll, support for legalized marijuana is growing. More than 60 percent of Americans think it should be legal for recreational use and 88 percent favor it for medical use....

Are you tired of your BigLaw boss’s spittle flying across the room and hitting you in the face? Are getting tired of the tension at the office that’s so thick you can practically cut it with a knife? Are you in desperate need of a break from the stresses of the large law firm experience? Well, you’re in luck – that is, if you can get into Kirkland & Ellis. The well-known corporate BigLaw firm is test driving a kinder-and-gentler approach to on-the-job training for its lawyers....

Millennials, those 18-to-34-year-olds born after Generation X, are now the largest generation in America. They make up about a quarter of the U.S. population and more than a third of the current workforce. And as Millennials come into their own, they’re becoming an increasingly important part of the legal consumer market. But Millennials aren’t your traditional legal consumers, according to a new study by FindLaw’s Lawyer Marketing, and they need a marketing approach tailored just to them....

Pop quiz. You’re Lindsay Lohan. Your attorney, Shawn Holley, has spent years helping you avoid significant jail time. You repay her by: Believe it, or not, the answer is D. (a) Giving her a necklace, which you may or may not have purchased. (b) Agreeing to not drive/wreck her car. (c) Punching a psychic in the face. (d) Firing her. Before you pay the $300,000 in legal fees you owe....

A sweeping set of changes is coming to the American patent law system in ten days. The America Invents Act, passed on September 16, 2011, brings significant changes to patent filing, patent disputes, and the definition of prior art. 1. Race to File Perhaps the most talked about change is the “race to file” system that will bring the United States into line with Europe and Japan. Instead of our prior “first to invent” system, the first person to file their patent now wins....

It was just a scant few years ago when temp workers were thought of as legal pariahs. Now? They’re becoming the norm. This is overall good news for lawyers looking for work. According to the National Association of Law Placement, about 82 percent of law firms and legal departments currently use temp or contract lawyers. And that number is expected to grow. Yes, temp workers look like they’re here to stay....

Here today, dead tomorrow. Sorry, but somebody wiser than Nostradamus said there is nothing certain about the future but death and taxes. Still, everybody loves a prophet – as long as there’s good news. So here are what others say about legal tech in 2020. I’ll reserve judgment to the bitter end – death or taxes, whichever comes first. An ‘Awesome’ Year NBCNews is all pumped up about 2020. They’re predicting synthetic brains, moon mining and more....

Conviction of defendant for distributing drugs and sentenced to 120 months imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release is affirmed where: 1) even if the district court erred in admitting defendant’s confession, any error was harmless beyond a reasonably doubt; 2) any error in admitting disputed statements was harmless beyond a reasonably doubt; 3) district court did not commit clear error in determining drug quantity; and 4) defendant has not shown that the district court failed to comply with Rule 32(i)(3)(B) or that any other error occurred by including the acquitted conduct in the PSR....

We could start with cell towers disguised as trees. Or railroad fuel tax. But no, the case we really want to talk about, and the first case out of the Eleventh Circuit that will be argued this year, is the “One fish, two fish, red fish, short fish” case, where a guy, who was debating the size of his red grouper, tossed the fish overboard and was prosecuted under a banking statute (Sarbanes-Oxley) for destroying the evidence....

According to reports, there are more children living on the streets of America than there are prisoners living in its prisons. Yet those 2.5 million homeless children, unlike criminal defendants, have no right to counsel for their legal predicaments. Unlike the inmates, who don’t worry about having a bed or food every day, the homeless have no guarantee they will survive to the next day. There is something tragically wrong with this picture, and the American Bar Association is doing something about it....

Silicon Valley has evolved since silicon chip makers saturated the area in the 1970s and tech companies later grew into monsters like Apple, Facebook, and Google. The valley also became the focus of investors, with about one-third of venture capital going to tech startups. But that was then, and this is now. Reports say that startups are at a 30-year low, and they blame the behemoths. For lawyers facing similar pressures, it may be survival of the technologist....

Third-party litigation funding is a valuable option for many clients who cannot afford the cost of filing suit, but the fact is that the presence of a third party raises questions about attorney loyalty and confidentiality. And sometimes, it might not even be legal. Recognizing that clients are turning to outside funders in this time of economic crisis, the New York City Bar Association has issued Formal Opinion 2011-2: Third Party Litigation Financing....

The breakthrough ruling for the biometrics industry may have just occurred in a sealed matter in a federal court in Oakland, California. Judge Kandis Westmore, in denying law enforcement a search warrant, explained that the court would not compel individuals to provide their biometric data to unlock smartphones as doing so would violate their Fifth Amendment rights because, and this is the big one, providing that biometric data is testimonial....

California telling the Bitcoin Foundation to cease-and-desist from changing money is like us telling California to stop being such a fiscally responsible and socially conservative state. The Bitcoin Foundation does not trade, change, or exchange money for third parties. The closest thing to currency exchange that the organization does is to convert its own donated Bitcoins, via third-party exchange floors such as Mt. Gox, to U.S. dollars for purposes of spending – such as when the Foundation held a convention in San Jose, California, last month....