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In what may have been the quickest seven minutes today, a bored-looking Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to 30 charges in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing. It was Tsarnaev’s first public appearance since his arrest April 19, The Associated Press reports. Of the 30 charges, 17 carry the possibility of the death penalty or life imprisonment, according to the Boston Herald. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether to pursue capital punishment if he is convicted....

There’s a lot of confusion out there (so imagine the level of non-compliance) about the proper way to handle client funds properly, particularly flat fees. Do you place these in an interest-bearing account for the benefit of the client? How do you go about your business in good faith without putting your license and practice at risk? Unfortunately, the rules are non-universal and can be abstract and ambiguous. Here we’ll look at what some sources have to say....

The city of Oakland is taking the lead when it comes to how it implements new technology in policing. Since 2014, the city has had a Privacy Advisory Commission which serves to evaluate and review the privacy implications of various police surveillance technology. The commission was recently highlighted by Ars Technica, and held out as the standard that every city should strive to meet. In short, the Oakland Police are required to get clearance from the Privacy Advisory Commission before utilizing new technologies....

If you’re starting a home office for your law practice, you’ll hear a lot of tips for your practice, including picking practice areas, getting clients, and making money. However, you’ll probably not hear too much advice regarding one of the most daunting obstacles of a home office – staying sane. There are some obvious struggles of starting a home office. After all, you’ll need a spare space where you can work....

IBM, one of the largest employers in the world, is paying closer attention to its layoffs these days. With more than 380,000 workers worldwide, it was already a touchy issue when the company announced 10,000 layoffs in January. But in the spotlight of a new report, it looks like IBM systematically laid off 20,000 older Americans in recent years. While the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is looking into IBM’s numbers, corporate attorneys might want to double-check their own....

We previously wondered whether failing to keep up with technology could subject a lawyer to discipline or malpractice. There aren’t a whole lot of state bar opinions on the topic. Really, the only time a court has weighed in was Zubulake v. UBS Warburg (Zubulake V), where a federal district court admonished in-house counsel for not knowing how the corporation’s backup tape retention system worked, leading to the loss of highly probative evidence....

Everybody needs their daily fix of current events. The question is – where do you get yours? There are some news sites that are subscription-only. Others offer clunky mobile interfaces. As an attorney, you’re on the go. You want something on your smartphone that can keep you up-to-date on the latest legal trends and news. Enter the free FindLaw Legal News app. Granted, we are partial to this app for a variety of reasons – including the fact that we created it....

Here’s something new for your ear: podcasts for lawyers. If you’re the type of attorney who likes to listen to talk radio while you put together motions or play Brahms while you brief, then lawyer podcasts can offer an enjoyable, educational addition to your playlist. Or, if you’re less of a multitasker, podcasts can liven up your downtime, giving you something interesting to listen to on your commute or at the gym....

Microsoft or Google? If you’d asked me this question at any time in the last ten years, my response would have been an unhesitant “Google.” Heck, I have an Android phone and tablet sitting next to me, and as I’ve lamented before, Google rules everything around me. After the PRISM scandal, and the WiFi sniffing, and the privacy policy concerns, I’m starting to become a disaffected Googler. And with fellow PRISM-er (no one’s perfect) Microsoft catching up to Google in terms of Skype, SkyDrive, Outlook, and collaborative document editing, I’m considering straying....

Last week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, announced that it voted in favor of opening up the web to new domain names, allowing well-funded persons to move away from the traditional dot-coms and dot-nets to more branded sites, like dot-ford and dot-pfizer. Though the organization hopes that the new flexibility will increase innovation, it’s also likely to be a big headache for those who wish to protect their trademarks and brand identities....

Palmer Luckey, the founder of FaceBook’s Oculus VR division, will face a civil lawsuit brought by Total Recall Technologies. However, Luckey was able to have additional claims against him dropped – like fraud. Oculus was acquired by Facebook back in 2014 when the company sought to establish its own foothold in the wearables technology game. But what it probably was not aware of was the fact that Total Recall Technologies, a Hawaii based firm, hired Palmer Luckey to design a wearable head-mounted display prototype....

You need to know what’s going on in the world, but you’ve rarely got time to sit down for the nightly news, let alone read through a newspaper. Sure, you can scan through social media or quickly browse a website, but that’s a pretty haphazard way to stay informed of major news events. That’s where the Reuters TV app comes in. (Disclosure: Reuters is FindLaw’s sister company.) Reuters TV allows you to get high-quality, authentic journalism no matter how busy you are, by creating a customized news video stream that adapts depending on how much time you have to spare....

You’ve done everything to prepare for that job interview, right? Resume? Check. References? Check. Self-interview? Wh-what? Exactly. There are some things to do before a job interview that you may not have thought of. In a tough job market, they might be the very things that make the difference between a job and just another interview. Try these before your next one: Interview Yourself Interviewing yourself is not as strange as it sounds....

Until a few days ago, parent companies of franchises could disclaim responsibility for labor violations of their franchisees. But The New York Times reports the National Labor Relations Board has thrown a wrench into that comfort, finding McDonald’s – one of the largest franchise operators in the world – jointly liable for its franchisees’ violations. The NLRB’s General Counsel is allowing complaints to proceed against McDonald’s as well as certain franchises that allegedly penalized workers for engaging in pro-labor activities....

Personal injury? Wills and trusts? Even criminal defense? Blech – everyone’s doing that. In this job market, you’ve got to distinguish yourself somehow. You might be tempted to do that by getting into a niche practice. Pros: Not a Lot of Competition, Higher Fees, Specialization This is the No. 1 reason to get into an esoteric practice area. There aren’t a lot of people doing Longshoreman Act workers comp or toxic torts....

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the appeal of Boston Scientific from the $27 million verdict rendered against them in 2014. The verdict stemmed from four consolidated cases as a result of transvaginal mesh implants gone wrong. While Boston Scientific appealed all four cases initially, it dismissed three of the appeals. Only plaintiff Amal Eghnayem’s case, where she was awarded nearly $7 million by the jury, was up on appeal....

What’s the weirdest employee perk you can think of? Tech companies are known for them: keg parties, entire cafeterias, day trips to wineries, on-site laundry, and more. But freezing a female employee’s eggs for purposes of future fertility is a new one. According to NBC News, Apple and Facebook are the first two major employers to offer this perk for non-medical reasons. But the perk isn’t without controversy. While some might see companies doing what they can to empower women to choose to have a high-powered career now, and a family later than what otherwise might be possible naturally, others see an ulterior motive: squeezing more work out of women now, while providing a fertility treatment that may or may not work down the line....

In US v. Saingerard, No. 09-14740, defendant’s appeal from the district court’s determination that defendant was competent to stand trial, the court affirmed where defendant was given ample opportunity to demonstrate incompetence to stand trial, and the district court did not commit clear error in considering the conflicting expert testimony and crediting one view over the other. During a period of supervised release following his conviction for several federal drug offenses, Saingerard resided in an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement processing center....

It is a truth (more or less) universally acknowledged that anonymous speech is protected by the First Amendment: But commercial speech receives fewer protections than other types of speech, such as political speech. “Despite readers’ curiosity and the public’s interest in identifying the creator of a work of art, an author generally is free to decide whether or not to disclose his or her true identity … [T]he interest in having anonymous works enter the marketplace of ideas unquestionably outweighs any public interest in requiring disclosure as a condition of entry....

If you learn anything from street law, you learn never to threaten opposing counsel – especially in writing. It’s not just bad practice, it’s a potential bar complaint. It could even land you in jail. Paul Muckle apparently never learned his lesson. You just can’t threaten to kill opposing counsel. Email Bombed Muckle left little to the imagination when he sent an email warning about how bombs could be made from ordinary household items, such as plastic bottles....