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Blockchain and BigLaw seem to be made for each other. Blockchain technology allows lawyers to generate legal documents and smart contracts that can be executed and authenticated electronically. BigLaw has the financial resources to make the technology a standard in the legal profession. So what about small firms and solo attorneys, who have limited resources? And freelance attorneys, who have even less? Freelance: the “Micro-Enterprise” Gina Clarke, a technology writer for Forbes, says 162 million people in the United States and Europe are freelance workers....

The Ninth Circuit tightened the belt on gun laws in the Golden State as well as all the entirety of the nation’s West Coast when an en banc court ruled that the Second Amendment does not guarantee a right to carry loaded concealed weapons in public yesterday. It’s a not-so-stunning reversal of a three-judge panel finding by the Ninth Circuit earlier that took heat and pressure from California Attorney General Kamala Harris....

For the most part, new associates are excited about starting jobs at law firms. After all, they are going to make real lawyer money. And they can’t wait to get into the courtroom or the boardroom. But then reality sets in, and we’re not talking about the discovery doldrums. Here’s how to make them really feel welcome: Be a Mentor New associates need more than a handshake and a pat on the back to start....

Most lawyers have had clients who complained when they were billed for a phone call, or who were shocked when their call wasn’t answered at 11pm on a Saturday. Yes, some clients are clueless, but that’s not just their fault. We often underestimate how little our clients understand of the legal profession. Recognizing that clients don’t know many of the things we take for granted is the first step to avoiding unhappy, or even just annoying, clients in the future....

Answering phone calls, balancing the books, organizing your files – these are the sort of chores that can keep you from doing your actual job: lawyering. Administrative tasks can easily eat up a significant portion of your time, taking up a third or more of many a lawyer’s day. Indeed, administrative duties are such a burden on small firms and solo practices that lawyers rank “spending too much time on administrative tasks and not enough practicing law” as the third most significant challenge they face, according to a survey released by Thomson Reuters this summer....

The 1980s phenomenon of wrestling with big names like Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage and The Undertaker is still around – and, a big business at that. Consider: World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (“WWE”) has ten offices around the world, broadcasts in 150 countries in thirty languages and has a total reach of 650 million homes, according to Business Wire. Yet maybe WWE needed a woman’s touch because today is the first day for their new general counsel – Laura Brevetti, reports the New York Law Journal....

Apple and HTC have reached a settlement that’s the first of its kind in the smartphone patent battle. HTC, a Taiwanese company, was one of the first Android smartphone producers sued by Apple. Their feud started several years ago and, like the Samsung battle, it spread to include lawsuits all around the world. It now appears all of those claims will be put to rest as part of a “global settlement” between Apple and HTC....

Survey says? In-house hiring is up again, with 59 percent of ALM survey respondents reporting an increase in hiring of lawyers in the past year, up from 51 percent last year, and 44 and 39 percent in the two preceding years, reports the ABA Journal. Add it all up, and you have a long-term trend of a growing job market. As for companies cutting back, only 21 percent planned to do so, down from 24, 28, and 33 percent over the three preceding years....

To start, or not to start, that’s the question you’ve been pondering for some time. Maybe you’re taking a leap from law firm or government practice to start your own, maybe you’re a new graduate, maybe you’ve already started your own firm. Wherever you are in the decision process – even if you’ve already started – consider writing a business plan, because you are after all, starting a business. A business plan is your road map; it allows you to set goals and form strategies....

Many lawyers hire high school or college students as office workers. They make coffee, answer phones, run errands, and file. It’s cheap labor and a chance for the attorney to teach the student about the day-to-day responsibilities of the legal profession. Everyone wins. Except, perhaps, for the clients. In case you haven’t noticed, youngins these days post everything online. Even the little hooligans who are committing crimes are bragging about their exploits — with photos!...

Comcast has pulled out of bidding for 21st Century Fox, leaving Disney to close on its offer to buy the media properties for $71.3 billion in cash and stock. Comcast had last offered $65 million in cash, but Fox moved forward with the Disney deal. Shareholders are set to meet on July 27 to vote on it. There are details to work out, but the Justice Department has already approved the merger....

When you’re the CEO of a new company, when is the time to sell your shares and make some actual cash? The answer is probably “not very soon” – at least not so soon that it looks like there’s some impropriety. Case in point: Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, the company that makes those Facebook games where you grow pumpkins or mine diamonds, or something. Thanks to some questionable conduct, some of Zynga’s directors are in Delaware Chancery Court....

The new “Justice Manual” was recently announced by the United States Department of Justice. The Justice Manual is the updated version of the DOJ’s former United States Attorney Manual, which basically lays out the D.O.J.’s policies that the department’s lawyers must abide by. The department’s announcement explains that it had been over 20 years since the last “comprehensive review and overhaul.” The new name is meant to reflect the fact that the manual, over time, has proven useful for more than just AGs and other government attorneys....

In a clash of titans, eBay and PayPal have sued to stop Google implementing a mobile payments system for its Android phone. The system would allow consumers to make bank and merchant payments through mobile phones. The EBay/PayPal lawsuit, filed in California state court this week against Google, highlights an ongoing turf war over a $1 trillion opportunity in mobile payments. Combatants range widely from traditional financial and credit card companies, to tech-sector companies, reports Reuters....

A children’s hospital embezzlement case has embroiled a former general counsel. Roosevelt Hairston, Jr. was the general counsel for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia - until he was found to be embezzling $1.7 million from the non-profit organization. Hairston was charged with the embezzlement of funds, and reportedly created fake companies and submitted phony receipts for expert witnesses and consulting services in his scheme, according to a FBI press release....

Heated debate has raged as to whether or not Apple should, or even could, assist the U.S. government in its quest to pry open his cell phone. After long resisting a court order, it looks like both Apple and the FBI won in the announcement that the FBI had broken into Syed Farook’s phone. But if you really think about, the FBI won more. Go Back and Refresh By now, even the most disinterested of readers is familiar with the Apple iPhone debate that has been dominating headlines....

Turning down journalists’ claims about how the FBI spied on them, a federal judge ruled that the FBI adequately responded to their request for information about the agency’s rules for warrantless searches. The Freedom of the Press Foundation alleged the FBI hid information about spying on at least seven journalists, but the FBI said it had produced sufficient information about its practices under the Freedom of Information Act. “While the FBI’s search may not have been perfect, plaintiff was ’entitled to a reasonable search for records, not a perfect one,’” U....

Reversing a $3 million verdict for a driver who was injured when his car’s accelerator jammed and smashed into a brick wall, a federal appeals court said the plaintiff’s expert was not qualified to testify about the accelerator. The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said that the expert should not have been allowed to testify because he had not published or given scholarly support for his opinion. The appellate panel said the trial judge had “abandoned his gatekeeping duties” and should have excluded the expert’s testimony....

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in a special sitting at the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Law School in Durham, N.C. on March 23, 2012. The court will hear three cases during the NCCU Law session in March. Oral arguments will begin at 9:30 a.m. EST. Driving directions and campus maps are available on the NCCU Law School website. The event is free and open to the public, although no cameras, recorders, laptops, or backpacks are permitted....

Maybe your law firm already has a good social media presence: a blog, a website, a Twitter account, a Facebook page. But, now that Google+ has entered into the fray, does Google+ + law firm marketing = a good deal? One thing to be sure of is that Google+ operates differently than other social media sites, including its closest competitors like LinkedIn or Facebook. Instead of adding users to one generic “friends” list or “followers” list, you can actually sort different people into different “circles....