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If you make a mistake in court filings, you can always ask for leave to correct it. It’s embarrassing, sure, but it’s common enough. What you shouldn’t do, of course, is use the court’s leave to correct as a way to sneak in 37 pages of new arguments. You especially shouldn’t pretend that those pages are just a table of contents and expect that no one will notice. But that’s exactly what happened to one Indiana lawyer, who submitted appellate briefs that were, in the court’s opinion, “an abject failure....

You follow a judge on Twitter. (There’s plenty of them to be found.) He tweets about life on the bench. You tweet about cats and the occasional courtroom victory. The judge even retweets you on occasion. If this tweeting takes place while you have a case pending before said judge, have you both engaged in ex parte communication or created the appearance of bias? At least one Ninth Circuit appellant thinks so....

If you follow legal news at all, you’ve likely heard about the controversy surrounding Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In response, the former chief justice, who has served on the Ninth Circuit since 1985, announced his abrupt retirement, effective immediately, on December 18, 2017. Not two weeks after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced, Judge Kozinski felt compelled to step down from the bench. As his official statement explains, he does not feel that he can be an effective judge while fighting these allegations....

It’s Friday, and we’re ready for the weekend, so we thought a good roundup of legal tech news was in order. Today, we hear a court’s concern for the sweeping government requests for searching electronic data, the Government gives procrastinators a break, and Apple gets multicultural – with its emojis, that is. Judge Denies Request to Search iPhone A few weeks ago, a college student found himself in trouble with the FBI after he bragged about making ricin, having learned to make it from an online search on his iPhone....

Benjamin Christopher Carraway planned on spending a night while in Washington to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration, but he didn’t plan on spending the night in the local jail. Carraway was arrested on Inauguration Day with about 230 other people who were demonstrating. Carraway, a Colorado criminal defense attorney, said he was among the protesters who did nothing to warrant the mass arrest. In a class action complaint filed in federal district court, he said police herded the group around 12th and L Street, NW, and indiscriminately deployed chemical irritants, attacked the individuals with batons, and threw flash-bang grenades....

If you’re planning on cutting back your marketing budget in the year ahead, well, you’re almost entirely alone. Nearly one out of every two lawyers is expecting to spend somewhat or significantly more on their marketing efforts in the year ahead, according to a recent survey by Robert Half Legal, the legal staffing company. Almost all others will be keeping their marketing spend the same. So if you don’t have your intentionally ridiculous T....

Fortune magazine released its annual Most Powerful Women list yesterday. The list surveys 50 successful female business women who represent $1 trillion dollars in stock and include over 27 female CEOs (with a bonus shout out to Taylor Swift). Sadly, none of the top 50 are lawyers. But all of them have robust legal departments that would make a great home for any ambitious in-house attorney. Here are the top 3 most powerful women in America and an overview of the legal departments that support them:...

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. The Defense Department has declared that the military Cyber Command is fully operational, according to Reuters. This is important, as the Cyber Command is tasked with protecting approximately 15,000 military computer networks from attacks and intrusion. Indeed, in excess of 100 foreign intelligence organizations are bent on infiltrating U.S. military networks, according to Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn as reported by Reuters, and some of them currently have the ability to interfere with the U....

October 17th isn’t the sexiest date on the calendar. One might expect announcements from two of the leading desktop operating system makers to come on some other day than a middle-of-the-month Thursday. And yet, today was the launch date for updates to both Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13, and the changes, while minimal, are worth the upgrades. We haven’t been too kind to Windows 8, but truth be told, it was Microsoft’s fault....

Texas youth are going to continue having to wait until they turn 21 to get their concealed gun permits. The Fifth Circuit has rejected a claim that Texas law preventing 18 to 20-year-olds from obtaining a Texas concealed weapons permit violates their Constitutional rights. Youth can complain to Congress if they would like. Congress’ determination of young people’s inability to handle handguns safely influenced the court’s decision. Like it or not, the court agrees that young people are irresponsible, emotionally immature, thrill-seeking, and prone to causing crimes....

If you recently bought Lenovo computers for your office or firm, then you may want to make sure they’re not running a vicious piece of adware that can impersonate a website’s security certificate. According to various reports, confirmed by security researchers, some Lenovo-brand computers ship with a kind of malware called “Superfish” that injects advertisements into users’ browsers and impersonates security certificates, meaning the “secure” website you’re visiting isn’t secure at all....

While nearly all lawyers will, at some point or another, consider representing themselves in some legal matter, it’s often a bad idea. Perhaps the worst areas a lawyer can elect to self-represent include attorney discipline, personal family law matters, as well as personal criminal matters. If you, unfortunately, are facing any of these matters yourself, or will down the road, below you can find a list a reasons why you should definitely consider the age old idiom: A lawyer that represents themselves, has a fool for a client (especially if statutory attorney fees are available)....

District court’s denial of habeas relief by a defendant convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death is affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded where: 1) with respect to Atkins and Atkins-related claims, decision of the district court is vacated and remanded as it was error for the district court to refuse to consider evidence of defendant’s mental retardation because the evidence does not fundamentally alter defendant’s claims and because habeas counsel was diligent in searching for it; and 2) district court’s denial of defendant’s ineffective assistance claims for both the guilt and sentencing phases, and jury instruction claim are affirmed....

The Marines used to say they were looking for a few good men, but times have changed. The military is not just for men, and the truth is, it’s not for every man. Joseph S. Hajdusek, for example, found out the training was more than he could handle. In Hajdusek v . United States of America, a federal appeals court said it wasn’t the government’s fault that he suffered a disabling injury when a sergeant drilled him into the ground....

Nearly one out of five Americans experiences mental illness at some point in their life, making it likely that, sooner or later, you’ll encounter a client with a mental illness or impairment, whether it’s a major impairment like dementia, or something more minor, such as moderate depression. These relationships can be fraught with strategic, legal, and ethical concerns. To help you prepare for these tricky situations, here are five tips, from the FindLaw archives....

Have you been following this story? Roca Labs sells “neutraceuticals” that it claims on its website create the same effect as a gastric bypass without surgery. Many unsatisfied customers who bought Roca Labs’ products vented on a website called Pissed Consumer. Roca Labs, pursuant to a clause in its contract with customers, turned around and tried to sue Pissed Consumer for interfering with Roca’s contractual relations with its customers. Pretty prosaic stuff, right?...

Billable hours are still king of the castle when it comes to law firm billing. Alternative fee arrangements, however, are increasing in popularity for a variety of reasons, according to The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. The alternative billing scheme can be a benefit to both a firm and clients. Some 56% of in-house counsel polled in a recent survey responded that alternative fee arrangements may be here to stay. Why? Because they often provide a more predictable measure of costs to clients....

For anyone who has graduated in the last ten years from law school: How did you take notes in class? For the vast majority of us, it was on a laptop. And we communicate with professors either through email or in person. This is not news, unless you’re sitting on the Supreme Court. But, recently, I’ve been noticing a growing backlash: professors barring laptops from class or refusing to take emails from students....

While lawyers can have a difference of opinion as to what constitutes a bad client, it’s likely that there are a few common types of problem clients that can be screened out through careful conversation. Basically, the best and only way to screen out the bad clients is to talk to them. Beyond having an intake clerk (staff member) fill out a traditional intake form that describes the potential client’s case, actually having an in-person, sit down meeting with potential clients to not just talk about their case, but also how you operate, is critical....

You’re probably familiar with how data analytics can speed up the eDiscovery process, helping attorneys quickly review documents for responsiveness. You may have heard about how “big data” can be mined to improve law firm practices, helping lawyers monitor clients and improve their efficiency. You probably also know of legal tech companies who are mining data in order to make legal services and research faster, better, and more automated. In sum, there’s a lot that data analytics can do for lawyers....