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It’s been years in the making, but disgraced journalist Stephen Glass will finally have his day in court. The California Supreme Court, that is. Glass rose to infamy in 1998 after the world learned that he had fabricated dozens of stories that appeared in The New Republic and other publications. Though he left journalism, he continued on with his law degree at Georgetown, eventually graduating. In 2007, he applied to join the California Bar, but the Committee of Bar Examiners denied his application....

Health care giant Johnson & Johnson has settled its Medicaid fraud lawsuit in Texas for $158 million. The company had faced potential fines of up to $1 billion. The suit centered on the anti-psychotic medication Risperdal. Johnson & Johnson was accused of fraud. Prosecutors claimed the company made false or misleading statement about the drug’s safety, cost, and effectiveness. Johnson & Johnson allegedly also tried to improperly influence health care providers to prescribe the drug....

Parents in Louisiana’s Sabine Parish are embroiled in a legal battle with the school district after their children were harassed for not being Christian. The ACLU sued on Scott and Sharon Lane’s behalf after three of their children were allegedly bullied for their differing religious beliefs. The complaint filed in late January included examples of one of the younger Lane’s science tests, complete with fill in the blank questions like “Isn’t it amazing what the [blank] has made....

Anyone else having a serious case of senioritis, or vacationitis? Whatever you call it, you know what it is: that lax feeling you have right before a vacation or holiday office closure. It’s easy to just glide through these types of days, but instead, why don’t you start wrapping up 2013 and getting a plan in place for 2014? There’s no better time than now to do it because come January, you’ll hit the ground running and all of your free time will be gone....

Last September, just as the Volkswagen emissions fraud was being revealed, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates declared that there would be significant changes to the way the Department of Justice handled corporate misdeeds. That memorandum, now known as the Yates Memo, made it clear that when corporations break the law, individuals will be held accountable. Now, six months later, we’re starting to see just how that might play out, and it could end up reducing corporate cooperation in enforcement actions....

This week is more about the FDA being regulated (and empowered), rather than the agency regulating others, with the exception of their continuing crusade against tobacco use – in any form. The recent trend began with e-cigarettes and menthols, continued with roll-your-own, and now, the FDA is eyeing flavored cigars, reports Fox News. Meanwhile, a district court in California is keeping the pressure on the FDA to issue tardy food safety laws, while the Senate is moving to grant the FDA additional powers to help the agency oversee the operations of compounding pharmacies....

Your company may not be paying its legal department in bitcoin yet – and it may never – but bitcoin technology could soon change the way financial operations work. Nasdaq is currently experimenting with bitcoin’s blockchain technology to see if it can speed up trades on its stock market. Right now, the experiment is limited to a small market for securities in privately held companies. If the project is successful, it could ramp up the speed of securities trades – potentially transforming the industry....

In Opposite World, “yes” means “no” and “no” means “yes.” If you need a better explanation, ask a teenager. The point is that some things are counter-intuitive, like hobbies that can improve your work. You would think that playing chess, for example, might help develop trial-strategy skills. But it doesn’t work like that. According to research, you should have hobbies that are completely the opposite of your work. Apparently, it’s about balance....

In an action challenging the termination of Plaintiff bakery distributors’ routes, the District Court’s grant of a preliminary injunction is affirmed, where a voicemail “threat” by Plaintiffs’ counsel to inform authorities about Defendants’ treatment of its route-holders as employees did not constitute criminal extortion and thus did not violate the parties’ agreement. Read Waldron v. George Weston Bakeries Inc., No. 08-2554. Appellate Information APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE, Hon....

The company break room is so yesterday; today it’s the super cafe. Modern companies are giving employees a lunch space that looks more like a fast-casual restaurant. They don’t have servers, but self-serve and conversation areas are part of the plan. It’s really about refreshing, social interaction. After all, just about everything goes better with good food. Real Breaks It doesn’t take a lot to turn a traditional break room into a super cafe, says Forbes writer Lena Katz....

It’s the blessing and bane of the internet, but it’s as old as the Chinese parable of the farmer and his horses. The horses go from one misfortune to the next, but the farmer sees a blessing each time. And so it is with internet service providers and the Communications Decency Act. Internet companies get sued all the time, but that can be a good thing. It’s up to the courts to give perspective....

Electronic notarization, or eNotarization, is becoming increasingly common, according to a recent whitepaper by the National Notary Association. Lawyers are submitting eNotarized documents to courts, banks are relying on eNotarized mortgage forms, and law enforcement is using eNotarization to sign criminal complaints. In most cases, this eNotarization simply takes the form of an electronic signature on a computer or tablet. Yet a smaller, but growing, approach to eNotarization allows documents to be notarized over webcams, eliminating the need to meet face-to-face with a notary....

If the news of lean finely textured beef (“LFTB”), a/k/a “pink slime,” being sold and used as food brought to mind images like this, then you are not alone. Well, Beef Products, Inc. is not having it. They stand behind their beef, and in 2012 they sued ABC, and the scientist who dubbed LFTB “pink slime,” asking for $1.2 billion in damages resulting from plant closures and layoffs, reports The Hollywood Reporter....

A recent survey finds that 10 percent of U.S. workers have gone to work while high on marijuana. In addition, 3 percent of respondents say they’ve gone to work under the influence of a drug other than marijuana, and 28 percent under the influence of a prescription drug, according to the Mashable/SurveyMonkey survey of 534 Americans. While these self-reported figures aren’t authoritative, they should give you pause. Does your company have a drug policy?...

Summer will be over soon but that doesn’t mean you have to lose law clerks when they go back to school for the semester. Many law schools are now offering courses where students can work part-time and earn credit for doing so. Other students are interested in putting in hours outside of class time in exchange for modest payment. Still, it can be hard to gauge when hiring a semester law clerk will pay off and when it will make problems....

Defendant-appellant Nadia Sol attempted to appeal for a reduced sentence, arguing that it was substantively unreasonable, which the Eleventh Circuit then shot down, affirming the original sentence. Nadia has four children, three of whom are living with her sister who was having serious medical problems. She also said that she had not been convicted of a fraud-related offense since 2002. Lastly, she claims that she was making very notable efforts in an attempt to turn her life back ground in trying to find employment as a manager at a restaurant....

In the case, D.R. Horton, Inc. vs. National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB is opposed to arbitration agreements waiving employees’ rights to class action arbitration against their employers. The NLRB, an independent federal agency used to enforce worker’s rights, decided that the Federal Arbitration Act does not apply to agreements for employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act. The National Labor Relations Act provides various basic rights to private sector employees such as utilizing trade unions, collective bargaining, and pursuing collective action....

Technology is great if you know how to use it, right? And it’s alright to admit if you don’t know how to use everything on your computer or smartphone. Lawyers use only 10 percent of their brains anyway, right? (Well, maybe some of us.) But if you didn’t know how to create your own podcast, you can’t really use the “don’t-know-how-it-works” excuse anymore. That’s because there’s an app for that....

A jury convicted Sedrick Lawson of knowingly and intentionally distributing a mixture and substance containing crack cocaine. Based on Lawson’s total offense level and career-offender status, his guideline range was 262 to 327 months. At sentencing, the district court considered federal sentencing factors and sentenced Lawson to 262 months’ imprisonment. After Lawson was sentenced, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to give retroactive effect to parts of Amendment 750 to the federal sentencing guidelines, which implements the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010....

CBS cut its losses by firing Leslie Moonves, the former chief executive who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault. In firing Moonves “for cause,” the company will deny him a $120 million severance package. CBS will also distance itself from the accusations that forced him to resign in September. The disgraced media executive will not go quietly, however, because he said his sexual encounters were consensual. CBS may need some of that money for attorney’s fees....