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Earlier this year, we reported that William J. Kayatta was nominated to the First Circuit Court of Appeals to replace the vacancy left by the retirement of Judge Kermit Lipez. We anticipated that the vetting process might be a little more stringent this time around, given the recent controversy over other recent Federal appellate nominees. It’s fair to say, however, that Kayatta has cleared his first round of hurdles this week, as his confirmation hearings were held on March 14....

What’s the most embarrassing thing that could be exposed about you online? Oh wait, that’s already out there, if one reporter’s experience is any indication. Judith Duportail, reporting for the Guardian, asked for a report from her social media service and she got back way more than she expected. So it was from a dating app, but that was just the tip of the internet iceberg. Tinder sent her 800 pages of information it had collected on her, including Facebook “likes,” Instagram photos, and some very personal details culled from its 50-million-user database....

We know, you’re a lawyer, not head of H.R. But we also know that bad human resource management can easily land companies in hot water. We see it every day. Instituting a few proactive H.R. policies can help you reduce your company’s risk of litigation or government enforcement actions. Here are seven human resource and employment policies that we think every in-house attorney should consider. Yes, it does. Lacking a non-discrimination policy doesn’t mean your company doesn’t care about protecting its employees from bias, but it does suggest a casual attitude towards potential problems....

I may not be a smart man, or a funny man, or a particularly good-looking man. (Okay, let’s be honest. I’m all of those.) But one talent that I do possess is the ability to read rapidly, and retain nearly all of it. It has come in handy throughout my life, from standardized tests to late night cram sessions in law school, and even in the present-day gig as a blogger....

Don’t look now, but the FBI is on the run. Twitter sued the FBI and the Department of Justice to establish the company’s right to say how many national security requests it receives from the government. It is part of the company’s transparency report to tell users how often governments request their information. The government recently lost its motion for summary judgment, while Twitter won its motion for an expedited process....

District court’s conviction of defendant, an owner of a medical transportation services provider, for health care fraud and aggravated identity theft and sentenced to sixty-two months’ imprisonment is affirmed where: 1) district court did not err in ruling that defendant’s conduct of use of Medicaid patients’ identifying information was without lawful authority and violated section 1028A(a)(1); and 2) district court did not err in imposing a two-level enhancement to defendant’s Guidelines’ offense level for abuse of trust....

In Florida, it may be harder than ever to “catch a predator” in Florida. (See what I did there?) Last week, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that surreptitiously recorded statements of child sexual abuse couldn’t be admitted at trial. Richard McDade, the petitioner in this case, was secretly recorded by his stepdaughter, whom he was sexually abusing. The statements amounted to McDade’s admission that he was sexually abusing her. The trial court let the audio recordings in....

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Spokeo v. Robins, the most important privacy and technology case of the term, one that could help determine the future of Internet privacy litigation. The question at its heart: do those who’ve had their privacy violated online, with no further harm, even have the right to sue? If the Court says no, it will be a major blow to privacy advocates in particular and the plaintiff’s bar generally....

General counsels are facing new corporate disclosure issues in the wake of the WikiLeaks fallout. As a recent Forbes article detailed, the scandals have attorneys and companies reconsidering their own vulnerabilities for corporate disclosure. For example, what would happen if someone from your company started leaking information to WikiLeaks? Would you be able to stop them? How damaging would the leaking of inside information be for your company? These are questions that any in house attorney should be contemplating....

MCI Constructors, LLC. v. City of Greensboro, 09-1606, concerned a challenge to the district court’s grant of the defendant-city’s motion to confirm an arbitration award in the amount of $14,939,004 in a contract dispute concerning a construction of a wastewater treatment plant. In affirming the decision, the court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in certifying the judgment as final under Rule 54(b), primarily because the relationship between the adjudicated and unadjudicated claims was severed by virtue of the parties’ own admissions....

Three times, attorneys for alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev asked a federal district court in Boston to change the venue for the trial, arguing that he couldn’t get a fair shake in the city where the bombing took place in 2013. The district court denied his request, which meant the ball ended up in the First Circuit’s court. On February 27, a split panel denied Tsarnaev’s petition for a writ of mandamus – again – acknowledging that “any high-profile case will receive significant media attention” but nevertheless concluding that Tsarnaev didn’t meet the criteria for showing “clear and indisputable, irreparable harm....

First Vagabonds Church of God v. City of Orlando, No. 08-16788, involved an action claiming that the City of Orlando’s Large Group Feeding Ordinance, as applied to First Vagabonds Church of God and Orlando Food Not Bombs, violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The court of appeals partially affirmed partial judgment for defendants, on the grounds that the City could rationally conclude that it could more effectively regulate vendors’ conduct in parks directly through the contracts or licenses....

Petition for habeas relief by a defendant convicted of kidnapping and rape is denied where: 1) the prosecutor’s questions did not directly or indirectly suggest that defendant might have invoked his right to remain silent; 2) defendant’s double-jeopardy claim fails on its merits, and thus, his trial attorney was not constitutionally deficient in failing to raise the issue nor did the failure prejudice defendant; and 3) defendant failed to establish that habeas relief is warranted under his collateral-estoppel claim....

US v. Luck, 09-6641, concerned a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s motion to set aside his conviction on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel in a prosecution of defendant for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fifty grams or more of cocaine. In reversing denial and vacating and remanding the conviction, the court held that the trial counsel was ineffective in failing to request an informant instruction and this ineffectiveness prejudiced the outcome of defendant’s trial....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action by a prisoner seeking an order requiring Alabama authorities to send certain evidence to a forensic laboratory of plaintiff’s choice for DNA testing, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where: 1) there was no evidence that a stand-alone claim in Alabama state court seeking DNA testing would fail as a matter of law at the pleading stage; 2) an Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals majority appeared to recognize that a properly presented Alabama Rule of Criminal Procedure 32 petition could be used to seek discovery of physical evidence for DNA testing; and 3) plaintiff failed to meet the actual injury requirement necessary for stating a claim for denial of access to the courts....

It’s a topic that FindLaw contributor Robert Ambrogi is an expert on, and he’s been kind enough to weigh in on the subject. Proposed code 1: “an attorney should withdraw from a case if the opposing side’s expert is a former client, unless the expert consents to the attorney’s continuing involvement.” Proposed code 2: “an attorney should not retain an expert who the attorney opposed in another case if the attorney would have to alter his position on the expert’s credibility....

It just cost Bank of America a record $32 million in a settlement. An Illinois attorney recently was ordered to pay $4.2 million under this law. And other large businesses, such as DirecTV and Dish Network have pending litigation in related matters. What is it? The Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the FCC’s regulations authorized by the statute, violations of which carry a penalty of between $500 and $1,500 per unsolicited call, text, or fax....

One of the technologies underlying document encryption and internet security for years isn’t nearly as secure as once thought. Researchers at Google and CWI Amsterdam announced last week that they have cracked that technology, the Secure Hash Algorithm 1, or SHA-1. That techn has been used for more than 20 years to verify the safety of websites and the authenticity of documents. SHA-1 works by creating a sort of digital fingerprint, allowing for quick authentication of documents, passwords, and websites....

Last week, it was announced that two of the families that were separated at the border while crossing without documentation have filed a lawsuit against various government officials, seeking to hold somebody responsible for the illegal, and traumatic, experience the children and parents suffered. The case makes class action allegations on behalf of the other separated children and families, and also alleges a conspiracy between several top officials to separate families in order to deter immigration via the southern border....

When we last caught up with Firm Central, a cloud practice management program created by our corporate cousins in Minnesota, we came away impressed with its debut, calling it amazing, especially for those who love WestLaw and Outlook. To put it simply, it was more robust than any other platform we had ever tried, almost to a fault. The fault was this: a lot of features, some only loosely integrated from other West products, that could be a bit overwhelming without a training session....