Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/kennedy-mighell-report/2012/07/find-now-read-later/
Friday, November 30, 2012
Find Now, Read Later
We can find almost anything on the Internet, but retrieving the results at a later date isn’t as easy. Are there ways to “harvest” the web so we can find and read relevant research at a later time? Kennedy-Mighell Report hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell, answer this question by sharing ways to save and keep track of web research, the resources for reading web findings later or offline, and whether techniques like capturing a blog post on a Kindle or iPad really help us with the problem of information overload.
The Latest in Court Technology for Paralegals
Find out what’s new in court technology on The Paralegal Voice. Co-hosts Lynne DeVenny and Vicki Voisin join Ted Brooks, the Founder & CEO of Litigation-Tech LLC for his insight on the latest in court technology for paralegals. Ted provides tips for paralegals getting ready for a big trial using extensive technology in the courtroom and explains how paralegals can learn the basics of commonly used trial software. Ted also gives his picks for blogs and online resources for paralegals interested in learning more about courtroom technology.
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Florida Woman Busted For A Very Unusual Ride
Hitching a ride? Not a big deal, unless ... you hitch a ride on a manatee. As reported by The Tampa Bay Times:
Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 53, was arrested on a misdemeanor warrant while working at Sears at Tyrone Square Mall, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Gutierrez had turned herself in to authorities in October after sheriff's officials distributed photographs to local media showing her straddling a manatee at the beach.
The photos were taken by another beach visitor who saw Gutierrez riding the manatee Sept. 30 in the water north of Gulf Pier, authorities said. Onlookers called the Sheriff's Office, but deputies who responded found neither Gutierrez — who was unidentified at the time — nor the animal.So here's what led to her surrender.
The Sheriff's Office shared the photographs a few days later and held a news conference Oct. 2 at which Sheriff Bob Gualtieri referred to manatees as "a huge part of our culture here in Florida" and decried the alleged abuse of the animals.
"Go ride a Jet Ski," the sheriff said. "Don't use animals."
Shortly thereafter, Gutierrez phoned the agency and admitted touching the manatee, authorities said. She later told sheriff's deputies she didn't know that doing so was illegal.
The case was referred to the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, which issued the misdemeanor arrest warrant.
Gutierrez was released Saturday from the Pinellas County Jail on $1,500 bail. She did not return a reporter's request for comment. A man who answered the door at her St. Petersburg home late Saturday denied that she lived there.What's she looking at?
Under the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act, sea cow molestation is a second-degree misdemeanor, an offense punishable by a $500 fine or up to 60 days in jail.The Juice would be fine with community service, with a marine wildlife education component. You'll find the source here, including a mug shot.
Source: http://rss.justia.com/~r/LegalJuiceCom/~3/klqJRzCWP3E/post_538.html
Constitutionality of Prop 8 and the Future of Gay Marriage
Just this month, after a long three year legal battle, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California’s Proposition 8, which is the ballot measure that banned gay marriage, is unconstitutional. The question remains-will this case now head to the U.S. Supreme Court? Lawyer2Lawyer co-hosts and attorneys, Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams, join Jennifer C. Pizer, Legal Director at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law and Vikram David Amar, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis School of Law, to take a look at this ruling and what this means for the future of gay marriage in America.
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LawBiz® Legal Pad: Cash Flow Needs
Ed talks about the cash flow needs of your practice.
Source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/LawBizBlog/~3/6Wfmp8VJ_q8/
NLRB Member Terence Flynn resigns
NLRB Member Terence F. Flynn submitted his resignation to the President and to NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce on May 26.
His resignation is effective July 24, 2012. He has immediately recused himself from all agency business and has asked that the President withdraw his nomination for Board Member of the NLRB.
The NLRB’s Inspector General recently issued two reports on allegations of improper conduct by Member Flynn during the period when he was serving as a Chief Counsel to Member Peter Schaumber.
Flynn was sworn in as a Board Member on January 9, 2012, following a recess appointment by the President.
Flynn's resignation leaves the Board with four Members - three Democrats and one Republican.
Source: http://www.lawmemo.com/blog/2012/05/nlrb_member_ter.html
Making Collaboration Tools Work in 2012
People are collaborating more than ever before. There are more collaboration tools and technologies than ever before. Yet, the actual adoption of collaboration tools seems to lag behind the wish to use collaboration tools. In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the gap between tools and people in collaboration, the common challenges faced when implementing collaboration tools, especially ones used by lawyers, and their best recommendations for improving the adoption of collaboration tools and technologies in 2012. After you listen, be sure to check out Tom & Dennis’ co-blog and book by the same name, The Lawyers Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies.
From the Courtroom to the Comedy Club
Lawyers are very often the brunt of jokes, but there is a group of attorneys that has turned the tables and is making people laugh with them instead of at them. Lawyer2Lawyer co-hosts and attorneys, Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams, share the stage with two of the Comedians At Law. Alex Barnett and Matt Ritter explain how they transitioned from lawyers to comics and how they now make people laugh at the lighter side of the law.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/08/from-the-courtroom-to-the-comedy-club/
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Thursday, November 29, 2012
A Civil Remedy
Professor Kate Nace Day of Suffolk University Law School discusses her new film, "A Civil Remedy," which premieres at the Brattle Theatre on April 26, 2012. For more information, go to http://filmandlaw.com/film.html.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/suffolk-law/2012/04/a-civil-remedy/
Legal Issues Surrounding the Colorado Movie Massacre
The Aurora, Colorado movie theater massacre left 12 people dead and 58 wounded. The latest mass shooting in America brings up many legal issues on a national scale, including gun control, the insanity defense, liability and the death penalty. Lawyer2Lawyer co-hosts and attorneys, Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams, analyze the legal arguments of this case with Professor Adam Winkler from UCLA School of Law and Professor Daniel Filler from the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University.
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Where Nobody Knows Your Name
The Texas Tornado, Mark Bennett, writes about the significance of hiding in the shadows, a problem with which he's taken issue for a very long time.
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
I don’t, as a general principle, allow anonymous comments here. Chief among the reasons is that the more anonymous people are, the worse they behave. People do things behind tinted glass on the freeway that they would never do on the sidewalk. They say things from the cover of darkness that they would never say in the light of day.
Despite the fact that he's right, I've chosen to allow anonymous comments. But like hearsay at a suppression hearing, the assertions of anonymous commenters, whether thoughts, feelings or beliefs, aren't given the credit that goes with putting your name and reputation behind them. You want to hide? Okay, but then don't complain that you aren't treated with the respect you think you deserve. That's the price.
Anonymity on a blog is relatively benign. Sure, it can offer misleading, even dangerous "advice," but I trust that others reading it understand that if the person lacks the guts to put his name to his words, his advice is worth no more than his reputation.
But the same concerns that Bennett has about commenters hiding in the shadows apply to others who, though you know what they're wearing, are similarly anonymous.
Why do TSA goons steal? They steal because they can. They steal from your checked luggage because when you get to Chicago and your cufflinks are missing, there is no way for you to track down the guy in the Atlanta airport who stole them. If TSA wanted to stop its employees stealing from checked luggage, there’d be a simple solution: any TSA employee who opens a bag puts his name in it.
But that would create accountability, and the security state cannot operate if its functionaries are accountable. If screeners knew that their mothers were likely to read on the internet about what they were doing on the job, they would be on much better behavior, which would not aid in the government’s avowed program of unquestioning compliance.
The argument against this is one heard frequently, and used a blanket excuse for any wrong that occurs as an unfortunate by-product of a safe society. If the functionaries of government could be put in fear for the performance of the job the government demands of them, then we risk their hesitation, their failure to act as the government tells them, and we will all be put at risk and suffer for their fear. We can't have that, the government says.
The argument is valid, with the caveat that the government imputes good will to the people it pays to do a job. If no TSA agent ever pulled out a pair of cufflinks from a bag he was checking for bombs that have never been found, then it wouldn't be an issue. The government assumes that no agent in its service will do wrong, because they aren't supposed to do wrong, and makes rules based on its assumption.
They are sound rules if the assumption proved accurate. It never does, completely. There are always some who violate the authority and trust, and on the rare occasions that they're revealed, the isolated-incident trope is pulled out of safekeeping.
But Bennett's point is not only that it's not an isolated incident (provided you agree that when something happens constantly, isolated isn't a proper characterization), but that if the assumption was true, it need not happen at all. Why, if our government functionaries are so honorable and trustworthy, should they live in mortal fear? If they steal nothing from your bag, touch nothing on your body, that would give rise to anger, hatred, fear of publicly outing them to their mother, should they need to conceal their identities?
Thoughts immediately flashed back to the Oakland police preparing to put an end to Occupy Oakland, when the first thing they did after strapping on their battle gear was cover their nameplates in black tape. In a bit of total irony, my post about this included a video posted by Carlos Miller, which has since been removed because, according to the Youtube message:
The You Tube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement.
If you're not aware, Carlos has been at the forefront of recording police, making sure the light (if not sun, then klieg) shines on their conduct, and they absolutely hate him for it. Copyright infringement? Not likely.
The black tape didn't appear on their shields by magic. It didn't sneak into their closets at night and affix itself to their nametags. The Oakland cops made an affirmative decision to conceal their identities, since the only description anyone could provide about them aside from their names is that they looked like Federation Storm Troopers in black. And the only answer back would be, "we would love to help, but without knowing whose club broke your skull open, there's nothing we can do."
Anonymity is the refuge of coward and scoundrels. It's where evil can have its way. It's the means by which the psychological forces that prevent our worst angels from taking control of our thoughts and actions are swept away, and we devolve into our most vicious, malevolent selves.
You want to be anonymous when you comment on a blog? Big deal. Say something stupid and that's how you'll be treated. Ideas can be dangerous, but by hiding in the shadows, everyone knows you aren't to be taken seriously. You render yourself worthless by choice, and your cries that you don't want to suffer the consequences of your spewing are a joke for the rest of us to laugh at.
But this can't be said for agents of the government, who bask in anonymity to avoid accountability. The excuse that they can't do their job if they're afraid is a lie, no matter what court, agency or official perpetuates it. Their attempt to conceal themselves is, alone, a wrong perpetrated by an agent of the government on the public, as clearly as the Oakland cops who put tape over their names. And it is incumbent on good people to get the names of those who hide in the shadows and utter them so they don't get away with it.
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/11/19/where-nobody-knows-your-name.aspx?ref=rss
BP Settlement and the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee
In March of 2012, BP Oil reached a proposed class action settlement with the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee which BP has valued at about $7.8 billion. The court will consider final approval of the settlement at a Fairness Hearing scheduled for November 8, 2012. On Ringler Radio, host Larry Cohen and Ringler colleague, Wayne Wagner join guest, Attorney Paul Sterbcow from the firm Lewis, Kullman, Sterbcow & Abramson, to give a behind the scenes look at the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee and provide updates on a potential settlement for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
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BU School of Law’s Semester-in-Practice Program
Boston University School of Law’s Semester-in-Practice Program has provided some great opportunities to law students who are looking to prepare themselves for the legal world. Host David Yas, a BU Law alum, former publisher of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and a V.P. at Bernstein Global Wealth, talks with Professor Sean J. Kealy, director of the Government Lawyering program in Washington D.C, and Michael Greenwald, an alum of BU School of Law, who spent a semester in Washington working for the U.S. Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Sean and Michael talk about the benefits of the program, the hands-on training, and share their personal experiences.
Prop 34, The Death Penalty Initiative Statute
On November 6, 2012, Proposition 34 will be one of the initiatives on the ballot in the state of California. If approved, Prop 34 will eliminate the death penalty in California and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Lawyer2Lawyer host Craig Williams joins Attorney Donald H. Heller to discuss Proposition 34, support and opposition and ultimately the impact on our prison and justice system.
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A Lengthy Yet Random Homage to Family Values
Most readers will be busy today, spending time with the mundane tasks needed to make Thanksgiving the holiday it was intended to be: watching Dallas lose to the Redskins, saying nice things about a turkey, marveling at the cylindrical nature of cranberry sauce in its natural state.
While many are offended by family values as a political plank, not only because they're the values cherished by someone else's family to be imposed on other people's families, but because we have family values of our own. We do not eschew family values as a voluntary exercise. We love family values, and today is a day to honor them. Often with pie.
We do so by sharing our good fortune in having such a wonderful family and such abundance in our lives with those less fortunate. We do not do so because a judge in Stark County, Ohio, well known for the disgusting stripsearch of Hope Steffey, thinks that would be a "poetic" sentence.
But Thanksgiving is one of the uniquely secular holidays, an America invention remembering how Native Americans, called Indians for hundreds of years until someone decided that it was hurtful, gave us help and comfort before we destroyed the fabric of their world to make it more suitable to our desires. That means that there will be no cranberry sauce today in the real India, where the denizens are properly called Indians, even though they have no personal relationships with tomahawks.
Yet, despite their tryptophan deficiency, it appears they are far more like us than we realize. Via Bill Henderson, a letter to graduating Indian students from Mohit Chandra, a KPMG partner, that first appeared in the New York Times, and which I post in full, as it captures the spirit of the day:
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
While many are offended by family values as a political plank, not only because they're the values cherished by someone else's family to be imposed on other people's families, but because we have family values of our own. We do not eschew family values as a voluntary exercise. We love family values, and today is a day to honor them. Often with pie.
We do so by sharing our good fortune in having such a wonderful family and such abundance in our lives with those less fortunate. We do not do so because a judge in Stark County, Ohio, well known for the disgusting stripsearch of Hope Steffey, thinks that would be a "poetic" sentence.
In Ohio, Stark County Common Pleas Judge Frank Forchione has sentenced Valerie Rodgers, 46, to making Thanksgiving dinner for three police officers on leave or unable to work. In addition to the dinner, she will be on one-year probation for felony assault and three misdemeanors. This follows another judge who sentenced a teen to ten years of church.It's good to embrace faith, but it's not something that can be imposed by judicial fiat. If there is poetic justice, Valerie Rodgers will be a lousy cook. And Forchione will find himself alone today, eating the microwave version of turkey.Rodgers pleaded guilty to knocking over a police officer while he was directing traffic.
Judges know that this type of punishment is hugely popular with the public. It is a trend that is erasing the line between entertainment and the law. She has been a continuing and growing trend of this type of abuse by judges...These judges make a mockery out of our court system and sit like little Caesars in meting out their own idiosyncratic forms of justice — often to the thrill of citizens. They degrade not just their courts in such novel sentencing but the legal system as a whole. This judge appears to relish his reputation as the gavel of God — sending felons to embrace faith.
But Thanksgiving is one of the uniquely secular holidays, an America invention remembering how Native Americans, called Indians for hundreds of years until someone decided that it was hurtful, gave us help and comfort before we destroyed the fabric of their world to make it more suitable to our desires. That means that there will be no cranberry sauce today in the real India, where the denizens are properly called Indians, even though they have no personal relationships with tomahawks.
Yet, despite their tryptophan deficiency, it appears they are far more like us than we realize. Via Bill Henderson, a letter to graduating Indian students from Mohit Chandra, a KPMG partner, that first appeared in the New York Times, and which I post in full, as it captures the spirit of the day:
Dear Graduates and Post-Graduates,
This is your new employer. We are an Indian company, a bank, a consulting firm, a multinational corporation, a public sector utility and everything in between. We are the givers of your paycheck, of the brand name you covet, of the references you will rely on for years to come and of the training that will shape your professional path.
Millions of you have recently graduated or will graduate over the next few weeks. Many of you are probably feeling quite proud – you’ve landed your first job, discussions around salaries and job titles are over, and you’re ready to contribute.
Life is good – except that it’s not. Not for us, your employers, at least. Most of your contributions will be substandard and lack ambition, frustrating and of limited productivity. We are gearing ourselves up for broken promises and unmet expectations. Sorry to be the messenger of bad news.
Today, we regret to inform you that you are spoiled. You are spoiled by the “India growth story”; by an illusion that the Indian education system is capable of producing the talent that we, your companies, most crave; by the imbalance of demand and supply for real talent; by the deceleration of economic growth in the mature West; and by the law of large numbers in India, which creates pockets of highly skilled people who are justly feted but ultimately make up less than 10 percent of all of you.
So why this letter, and why should you read on? Well, because based on collective experience of hiring and developing young people like you over the years, some truths have become apparent. This is a guide for you and the 15- to 20-year-olds following in your footsteps – the next productive generation of our country. Read on to understand what your employers really want and how your ability to match these wants can enrich you professionally.
There are five key attributes employers typically seek and, in fact, will value more and more in the future. Unfortunately, these are often lacking in you and your colleagues.
1.You speak and write English fluently: We know this is rarely the case. Even graduates from better-known institutions can be hard to understand.
Exhibit No. 1: Below is an actual excerpt from a résumé we received from a “highly qualified and educated” person. This is the applicant’s “objective statement:”
“To be a part of an organization wherein I could cherish my erudite dexterity to learn the nitigrities of consulting”
Huh? Anyone know what that means? We certainly don’t.
And in spoken English, the outcomes are no better. Whether it is a strong mother tongue influence, or a belief (mistakenly) that the faster one speaks the more mastery one has, there is much room for improvement. Well over half of the pre-screened résumés lack the English ability to effectively communicate in business.
So the onus, dear reader, is on you – to develop comprehensive English skills, both written and oral.
2. You are good at problem solving, thinking outside the box, seeking new ways of doing things: Hard to find. Too often, there is a tendency to simply wait for detailed instructions and then execute the tasks – not come up with creative suggestions or alternatives.
Exhibit No. 2: I was speaking with a colleague of mine who is a chartered accountant from Britain and a senior professional. I asked him why the pass percentage in the Indian chartered accountant exam was so low and why it was perceived as such a difficult exam.
Interestingly (and he hires dozens of Indian chartered accountants each year), his take is as follows: the Indian exam is no harder than the British exam. Both focus on the application of concepts, but since the Indian education system is so rote-memorization oriented, Indian students have a much more difficult time passing it than their British counterparts.
Problem-solving abilities, which are rarely taught in our schooling system, are understandably weak among India’s graduates, even though India is the home of the famous “jugadu,” the inveterate problem solver who uses what’s on hand to find a solution. Let’s translate this intrinsic ability to the workforce.
3. You ask questions, engage deeply and question hierarchy: How we wish!
Exhibit No. 3: Consistently, managers say that newly graduated hires are too passive, that they are order-takers and that they are too hesitant to ask questions. “Why can’t they pick up the phone and call when they do not understand something?” is a commonly asked question.
You are also unduly impressed by titles and perceived hierarchy. While there is a strong cultural bias of deference and subservience to titles in India, it is as much your responsibility as it is ours to challenge this view.4. You take responsibility for your career and for your learning and invest in new skills: Many of you feel that once you have got the requisite degree, you can go into cruise control. The desire to learn new tools and techniques and new sector knowledge disappears. And we are talking about you 25- to 30-year-olds – typically the age when inquisitiveness and hunger for knowledge in the workplace is at its peak.
Exhibit No. 4: Recently, our new hires were clamoring for training. Much effort went into creating a learning path, outlining specific courses (online, self-study) for each team. With much fanfare, an e-mail was sent to the entire team outlining the courses.
How many took the trainings? Less than 15 percent. How many actually read the e-mail? Less than 20 percent.
The desire to be spoon-fed, to be directed down a straight and narrow path with each career step neatly laid out, is leading you toward extinction, just like the dinosaurs. Your career starts and ends with you. Our role, as your employer, is to ensure you have the tools, resources and opportunities you need to be successful. The rest is up to you.
5. You are professional and ethical: Everyone loves to be considered a professional. But when you exhibit behavior like job hopping every year, demanding double-digit pay increases for no increase in ability, accepting job offers and not appearing on the first day, taking one company’s offer letter to shop around to another company for more money — well, don’t expect to be treated like a professional.
Similarly, stretching yourself to work longer hours when needed, feeling vested in the success of your employer, being ethical about expense claims and leaves and vacation time are all part of being a consummate professional. Such behavior is not ingrained in new graduates, we have found, and has to be developed.So what can we conclude, young graduates?
My message is a call to action: Be aware of these five attributes, don’t expect the gravy train to run forever, and don’t assume your education will take care of you. Rather, invest in yourself – in language skills, in thirst for knowledge, in true professionalism and, finally, in thinking creatively and non-hierarchically. This will hold you in good stead in our knowledge economy and help lay a strong foundation for the next productive generation that follows you.
Together, I hope we, your employer, and you, the employee, can forge an enduring partnership.
The world may be flatter than anyone thought. The Slackoisie can take comfort in knowing they're part of a universal movement, as well as the existence of curmudgeons (like moi) in Delhi.
For the most part, my posts end up with a cohesive theme, a point. This one is random, as are the things for which we are thankful. Both my children slept under my roof last night, in a home that had heat. For this, I am thankful. We will eat Dr. SJ's fabulous pies after a dry turkey dinner, for which I am thankful. Maybe Jack and I will go for a ride in the Healey between games today, and if it starts up like a champ in the cold New York weather as it always does, I will be thankful, as I always am.
Perhaps some of you will persist in reading to this point, for which I am extremely thankful given its length. I write without knowing whether anyone will read, and without knowing whether it will be embraced by anyone or reviled as stupid and dangerous. Though I don't write for your sake, I do appreciate that you spend your time reading what I write, that so many think it's worth their time to read what I write. Thank you.
If there is any message to be had in this post, honor your own family values, whatever they may be, and try to find something to be thankful for. It's a mean, nasty world out there. Someone will be harmed today, whether in the name of the law or to sate some narcissist's vision of justice. Even on Thanksgiving, someone will suffer. It's okay to take a moment to do what you can to right the wrong, and then have some pie.
Happy Thanksgiving.
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/11/22/a-lengthy-yet-random-homage-to-family-values.aspx?ref=rss
SEC’s Mary Schapiro to Step Down
Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced her departure Monday.
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/11/26/secs-mary-schapiro-to-step-down/?mod=WSJBlog
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Federal appeals court upholds New York concealed-carry law
[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Tuesday held [opinion, PDF] that New York can continue to require residents who seek to carry a concealed weapon to obtain a special license. The plaintiffs sought injunctive relief from a New York handgun law requiring licensing officials to have applicants prove "proper cause" to obtain licenses to carry handguns for self-defense. The plaintiffs, citing the US Supreme Court [official website] decision in District of Columbia v....
Source: http://jurist.org/paperchase/2012/11/federal-appeals-court-upholds-new-york-concealed-carry-law.php
Legal Talk Network Live at LegalTechNY 2012-Law.com’s Jill Windwer on LegalTech Turnout
Jill Windwer, VP of Digital Products and Law.com discusses the great turnout at LegalTechNY 2012 and reaching In-House counsel. Be sure to watch the interview, hosted by Legal Talk Network producer, Kate Kenney.
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E-Discovery: 2011 Year in Review
On this January edition of Law Technology Now, host and Law Technology News’ editor-in-chief, Monica Bay joins Cecil Lynn III, e-discovery counsel at Littler. Lynn, who is based in Phoenix, offers a sneak preview of his second annual "Year in Review" analysis of 2011’s most important electronic data discovery rulings.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/law-technology-now/2012/01/e-discovery-2011-year-in-review/
Law school enrollment continues its decline
Approximately 8,000 fewer first-year law students will show up nationwide this year compared to two years ago, when enrollment reached an all-time high, according to the American Bar Association. This year?s numbers represent a 15 percent decline since then and a 9 percent decline since last year.
Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202579603745&rss=rss_nlj
Act Two: Legal Tech Pioneers Return to Compete in Legal Tech Market
On Law Technology Now, host and Law Technology News magazine editor-in-chief, Monica Bay joins William Bice, co-founder and chair of LiquidPractice, and Graham Smith, founder and CEO of Opus 2 International, to talk about Law Technology News’ April cover story, "Act Two." Bice and Smith explain why they decided to return to the legal technology community after selling ProLaw and LiveNote to an industry giant.
Lawyers' fiduciary responsibility to partners
Yesterday, I watched the Richard Gere film, Aribtrage. The film portrays a successful billionaire's moral decline as he attempts to save his failing company from his poor decisions. He "cooks" the company books by borrowing money that is not shown on the books as such in order to keep up appearances in order to complete a sale of the company, falsifies investors reports and otherwise plays "loose" with the truth. This is a man in trouble, but Gere continues to exude confidence in order to reach his goal.
Coincidentally, in today's Wall Street Journal, reporters once again discuss the Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP demise. Prosecutors are still questioning whether there was deception about the financial condition of the firm in the last few months. Were partners told the truth, were they given accurate financial reports, and were the firm obligations to pay down outstanding debt on behalf of terminated partners honored? And, were the transgressions that did occur a matter of a struggling business doing what it could to survive or a matter of criminal and/or civil fraud?
As a matter of "black letter law," it's clear that management (managing partner and management committee members) owe a fiduciary duty to others -- investors, lenders and partners. Did they breach this duty? How close to Arbitrage did the leaders of Dewey come?
Source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/LawBizBlog/~3/OHm0WYbr8hM/
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Lawyer2Lawyer: A Retrospective
We started Lawyer2Lawyer back in August of 2005 with the idea of providing quality content and discussion of timely legal news and information for the legal profession with regularly published podcasts and often videos too. Since our inception, we have set the precedent for legal podcasting in numbers of listeners globally, but more importantly, we’ve been one of the leaders in great content - our priority over the past 7 years. On this final edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, hosts Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams, talk about their personal experiences over the years with this legal podcast.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/10/lawyer2lawyer-a-retrospective/
Execute a Long-Term Technology Strategy
For today’s corporate law departments faced with the challenge of doing more with less, a legal matter and spend management system is almost an imperative. In this edition of Tech Experts, Mandy Purington, a Managing Director in Datacert’s professional services group, shares best practices and practical tips for keeping your department’s legal matter and spend management system implementation project on-time and on-budget, while also ensuring that it supports your department’s long-term technology strategy.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/tech-experts/2012/09/execute-a-long-term-technology-strategy/
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Living in a Public Beta
There’s been a lot of discussion lately about what many see as Apple’s stumble with its maps application in iOS 6. Bryan Wolfe on AppAdvice.com recently asked "Did I Miss The Memo From Apple Making Us All Beta Testers?" From operating systems to software to apps to web services, we often find that new products and services don’t’ quite feel finished. In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss changing expectations in a world of fast and frequent software releases and updates, the challenge for lawyers wanting stability with their technology, and ways to cope with what feels like living in a giant public beta test.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/kennedy-mighell-report/2012/10/living-in-a-public-beta/
The Legal Limits of Sports Violence
The infamous elbow jab of Metta World Peace, NFL "Bounty Hunters," soccer riots, high school hockey brawls ...where is the legal line drawn when it comes to violence in sports? Or is it just the nature of the game? Lawyer2Lawyer co-hosts and attorneys, Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams turn to Attorney Eldon L. Ham, an adjunct professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and Professor Matthew Mitten, Director of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University Law School, for their take on whether there should be legal implications when an athlete goes too far.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/05/the-legal-limits-of-sports-violence/
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Scandals Call Into Question Crime Labs' Oversight
A report three years ago found serious problems in the nation's forensic science community, but since then, little has changed. In many states, lab employees report to law enforcement, potentially undermining their impartiality. And only a few states require labs to be accredited.
Transvaginal Mesh Complications and Litigation
Serious complications stemming from transvaginal mesh prompted an FDA warning and lawsuits by women against device manufacturers. On this Ringler Radio podcast, host Larry Cohen joins co-host, Heather Anderson and guest, Attorney Leigh O'Dell from the Beasley Allen law firm, to discuss the dangers, litigation, physical complications, Leigh’s role on the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and next steps.
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Revisiting Voter ID Laws
Since our program spotlighting Voter ID Laws and Voter Purges across the country, there have been big developments in Arizona, Tennessee and key battleground state, Ohio. Lawyer2Lawyer hosts Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams chat with Daniel Tokaji, Professor of Law at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and Lawrence Norden, Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, about this how the upcoming election might be impacted.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/10/revisiting-voter-id-laws/
DFL picks committee chairs at legislature
Rep. John Lesch
The DFL majorities picked their committee chairs for the upcoming legislative session.
Of note to those in the legal profession:
Sen. Ron Latz will chair the Judiciary Committee. Latz is a criminal defense and employment attorney in St. Louis Park and a former prosecutor. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Michael Paymar will chair the Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee in the House. That body has budget oversight over the Department of Correction, Department of Public Safety, Department of Human Rights, the courts and crime victim programs. Paymar chaired that committee the last time the DFL had the majority in St. Paul before the 2010 elections.
He is the executive vice president at Paymar Communications.
Debra Hilstrom will chair the Judiciary Finance and Policy Committee. She is a graduate of the William Mitchell College of Law and received the school’s Student Award of Merit at graduation. She works as an assistant Anoka County Attorney.
John Lesch will chair the Civil Law Committee. He earned his J.D. form Hamline University School of Law and works as a prosecutor with the St. Paul City Attorney’s Office.
Source: http://minnlawyer.com/minnlawyerblog/2012/11/16/dfl-picks-committee-chairs-at-legislature/
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Legal Translation Services for Law Firms
When should a law firm consider either translation or interpretation services? Jared Correia, the host of The Legal ToolKit and Law Practice Management Advisor with Mass. LOMAP gets the answer from George Rimalower, founder and president of ISI Translations, Inc. Jared and George also explain the benefits of using a translation service and how these services can boost your legal firm’s bottom line.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/legal-toolkit/2012/06/legal-translation-services-for-law-firms/
Zoloft MDL Discovery Order Reflects Compromise
The federal judge presiding over the Zoloft multidistrict litigation has approved a discovery plan that the opposing sides negotiated to set relatively early trial dates while also setting early hearings over the science behind the allegations that women's use of Zoloft during their pregnancies caused birth defects in their children.
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Ultrabook Benefits for Attorneys
The big story at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show was "ultrabooks." This new category of computer stole the thunder, at least for a few days, from tablet computers. Should lawyers be considering ultrabooks in 2012? In this episode, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell take a look at the new world of ultrabooks, whether tablet computers like the iPad are taking over the computer market, and what it all means for traditional notebook computers and desktop PCs.After you listen, be sure to check out Tom & Dennis’ co-blog and book by the same name, The Lawyers Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies.
Governor frees wrongly convicted man
Gov. Bob McDonnell issued a conditional pardon late Tuesday that led to freedom for a North Carolina man who has served four years in prison based on false accusations.
The release came after hasty legal and investigative work by lawyers for Montgomery and by the governor’s staff.
Johnathan Montgomery was released on conditional clemency based on his agreement to file a writ of actual innocence within 30 days and to remain under state supervision while the writ petition is pending.
The request for a conditional pardon was received at 10 p.m. Monday night, according to the governor’s office. Over the next 20 hours, the governor’s staff reviewed two taped interviews with Montgomery’s accuser, court records and transcripts, prison records, and the police case file on the accuser’s recantation. McDonnell staffers interviewed the Hampton commonwealth’s attorney and the police department, the pardon recites.
McDonnell called Montgomery at 5:15 Tuesday afternoon to advise him of the pardon. He was released later that evening.
Montgomery’s case led to calls for reform of Virginia’s so-called 21-day rule barring any trial court relief from a criminal judgment after 21 days have passed.
Source: http://valawyersweekly.com/vlwblog/2012/11/21/governor-frees-wrongly-convicted-man/
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NLRB: Firing for Facebook posting was legal
Let the NLRB's press release tell the story:
The National Labor Relations Board has found that the firing of a BMW salesman for photos and comments posted to his Facebook page did not violate federal labor law, because the activity was not concerted or protected. [Decision here]The question came down to whether the salesman was fired exclusively for posting photos of an embarrassing and potentially dangerous accident at an adjacent Land Rover dealership, or for posting mocking comments and photos with co-workers about serving hot dogs at a luxury BMW car event. Both sets of photos were posted to Facebook on the same day; a week later, the salesman was fired from Knauz BMW in Lake Bluff, IL.
The Board agreed with Administrative Law Judge Joel P. Biblowitz, who found after a trial that the salesman was fired solely for the photos he posted of a Land Rover that was accidently driven over a wall and into a pond at the adjacent dealership after a test drive. Both dealerships are owned by the same employer.
In a charge filed with the NLRB, the salesman maintained that he was principally fired for posting photos and sarcastic comments about his dealer serving hot dogs, chips and bottled water at a sales event announcing a new BMW model. “No, that’s not champagne or wine, it’s 8 oz. water,” the salesman commented under the photos. Following an investigation,the regional office issued a complaint. Judge Biblowitz found that this activity might have been protected under the National Labor Relations Act because it involved co-workers who were concerned about the effect of the low-cost food on the image of the dealership and, ultimately, their sales and commissions.
The Land Rover accident was another matter. A salesperson there had allowed a customer’s 13-year-old son to sit behind the wheel following a test drive, and the boy apparently hit the gas, ran over his parent’s foot, jumped the wall and drove into a pond. The salesman posted photos of the accident with sarcastic commentary, including: “OOPS”.
The National Labor Relations Act protects the group actions of employees who are discussing or trying to improve their terms and conditions of employment. An individual’s actions can be protected if they are undertaken on behalf of a group, but the judge found, and the Board agreed, that was not the case here.
As Judge Biblowitz wrote, “It was posted solely by [the employee], apparently as a lark, without any discussion with any other employee of the Respondent, and had no connection to any of the employees’ terms and conditions of employment. It is so obviously unprotected that it is unnecessary to discuss whether the mocking tone of the posting further affects the nature of the posting.” Because the posts about the marketing event did not cause the discharge, the Board found it unnecessary to pass on whether they were protected.
However, the three-member panel differed in its opinions of a “Courtesy” rule maintained by the employer regarding employee communications. Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and Member Sharon Block found the language of the rule to be unlawful because employees would reasonably believe that it prohibits any statements of protest or criticism, even those protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
Dissenting, Member Brian E. Hayes found that the employer’s rule was “nothing more than a common-sense behavioral guideline for employees” and that “nothing in the rule suggests a restriction on the content of conversations (such as a prohibition against discussion of wages)”.
The Board ordered Knauz BMW to remove the unlawful rules from the employee handbook and furnish employees with inserts or new handbooks. The decision, dated Sept. 28 but made public today, was the Board’s first involving a discharge for Facebook postings; other such cases are pending before the Board.
Source: http://www.lawmemo.com/blog/2012/10/nlrb_firing_for.html
Technology-Enhanced Television
As rumors of a game-changing new Apple TV begin to swirl, we wonder whether technology will start to change the way we watch television. Or maybe it already has. Does technology always need to have "productive" uses? In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell turn to a "non-serious" technology topic for the end of summer, explore ways technology, especially tablets, can enhance your TV viewing experience, and find some surprisingly serious conclusions about where technology is taking us.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/kennedy-mighell-report/2012/08/technology-enhanced-television/
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Ethics: You Can't Waive Your Own Ineffectiveness
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has issued an ethics opinion in an advisory capacity that raises a new-fangled problem with an old-fashioned concept.
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The question presented is whether it is ethical for a criminal defense lawyer to participate in such a plea agreement in the absence of an express exclusion for claims based on ineffective assistance of counsel.
We have determined that it is not. We also believe that prosecutors may not ethically propose or require such a waiver.
Before you scratch your head and ask, "what kind of idiot would do such a thing," consider the scenario. The defendant wants to cop a plea and the plea agreement shows up in your email that embodies an acceptable deal, the one you negotiated after lengthy discussion and argument. Happy day, right?
Except in the body of the plea agreement, never before mentioned, are some terms and conditions you didn't quite expect. A waiver of appeal, a problematic waiver recently rejected by Colorado Judge John Kane when there wasn't a specific factual basis to justify its inclusion as part of the deal, and/or a waiver of collateral attack, as might be raised under federal habeas law, 28 U.S.C. §2255.
For anyone unaware, what this really means is that you are waiving the defendant's ability to later claim that the plea was the product of ineffective assistance of counsel. Perhaps it's because he wanted to cop out after motions were lost, and it turns out that motions were lost because the defense lawyer overlooked something. Or perhaps there was a lack of investigation that would have produced exculpatory evidence and altered the outcome. Whatever.
It is the opinion of the NACDL Ethics Advisory Committee that, aside from whether the courts might give such waivers, the rules of professional ethics prohibit a criminal defense lawyer from signing a plea agreement limiting the client’s ability to claim ineffective assistance of counsel. The lawyer has a conflict of interest in agreeing to such a provision because it becomes a prospective limiting of liability. Therefore, the lawyer is duty-bound to object to portions of a plea agreement that limit 2255 claims and refuse to assent to such an agreement with such language in it.
It is the opinion of the NACDL Ethics Advisory Committee that such a plea agreement provision creates a personal conflict of interest between the criminal defense lawyer and the client that rises to the level of denial of the right to loyal counsel under the Sixth Amendment. It is also a violation of due process of law under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Defense counsel has a duty to see that the offending provision is removed by the prosecutor or the court because of the inherent conflict it forces on the accused and his or her defense counsel.
All of this is both fine and, frankly, accurate, even though most lawyers wouldn't think of, or be concerned, with, any limitation on their liability. Initially, it's just not a serious concern, but more importantly, few criminal defense lawyers ever think of malpractice liability in the management of their clients or the conduct of their defense. We're a pretty tough group by nature and nurture, and use up all our worrying on the welfare of our clients. We do not tend to worry too much about ourselves, at least in this regard. Getting paid is another matter entirely.
But neither the government nor the courts tend to worry too much about the wholesale evisceration of defendants' rights in the process of disposing of cases. If they could figure out a half-baked legitimate way to toss into a plea agreement a waiver of producing offspring, they might do that as well, and there aren't too many judges (like Judge Kane) who would give it a second thought.
The problem is that the government seeks to impose such collateral terms and conditions by unilateral fiat. They aren't a subject of negotiation. They often aren't even mentioned in the negotiation process. They just show up in the plea agreement, after the deal has been struck and everybody has exhaled.
The defendant has a primary concern: how many years is he going to have to spend in prison. This, by a mile, is the core of the plea, and trumps all other issues at that moment. If he gets a deal he can live with, is he inclined to blow it, to put his foot down and say "I reject the deal" because there are some collateral waivers snuck into the papers at the back end? Not likely.
First, he won't see the waiver as particularly significant, unless the lawyer tells him that there is a serious concern that he's giving up an important right that might later serve to get him out from under the plea. Second, the alternative is going to trial, where he faces his worst nightmare, the million years suggested by the Sentencing Guidelines. Chances aren't good that he'll refuse the plea, with its hard benefits, because of a speculative waiver of dubious worth.
This is why the NACDL's advisory opinion is important. While it's only advisory, it provides a well-conceived argument to go back to the government, and to argue to the judge if he will give a few moments of his important time to such banal matters as a plea agreement, that the inclusion of the waiver would place you in an untenable position of engaging in unethical conduct. It's not that you don't want the plea, but that you cannot be unethical. "Judge, what am I supposed to do? I can't agree to an unethical waiver in a plea agreement."
The best that could come of this opinion is that the issue is resolved by the circuits holding that waiver of the right to collaterally attack a plea based on ineffective assistance of counsel is unethical, and courts must reject plea agreements containing such waivers. This may, and should, happen, but it will take years before the issue ever reaches the circuits, and there is certainly no assurance that they will come out on the right side.
In the meantime, the NACDL ethics opinion provides a well-reasoned basis to refuse to agree to such waivers, and the basis to argue that the government's insistence on a waiver puts defense counsel in an untenable position, as you cannot enter into an agreement that is inherently unethical. Hopefully, district judges will appreciate the problem and refuse to allow the government to ram such waivers down defendants' throats.
H/T Michael K. Bachrach, President, New York Criminal Bar Association
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/11/17/ethics-you-cant-waive-your-own-ineffectiveness.aspx?ref=rss
New Fellow of the COLPM
The College of Law Practice Management met this past week to welcome 18 new inductees as Fellows of the College. Carolyn Elefant, one of the inductees, is shown here with Ed who was pleased to support her entry into the College.
Source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/LawBizBlog/~3/xZh-7yNMBi0/
A Lengthy Yet Random Homage to Family Values
Most readers will be busy today, spending time with the mundane tasks needed to make Thanksgiving the holiday it was intended to be: watching Dallas lose to the Redskins, saying nice things about a turkey, marveling at the cylindrical nature of cranberry sauce in its natural state.
While many are offended by family values as a political plank, not only because they're the values cherished by someone else's family to be imposed on other people's families, but because we have family values of our own. We do not eschew family values as a voluntary exercise. We love family values, and today is a day to honor them. Often with pie.
We do so by sharing our good fortune in having such a wonderful family and such abundance in our lives with those less fortunate. We do not do so because a judge in Stark County, Ohio, well known for the disgusting stripsearch of Hope Steffey, thinks that would be a "poetic" sentence.
But Thanksgiving is one of the uniquely secular holidays, an America invention remembering how Native Americans, called Indians for hundreds of years until someone decided that it was hurtful, gave us help and comfort before we destroyed the fabric of their world to make it more suitable to our desires. That means that there will be no cranberry sauce today in the real India, where the denizens are properly called Indians, even though they have no personal relationships with tomahawks.
Yet, despite their tryptophan deficiency, it appears they are far more like us than we realize. Via Bill Henderson, a letter to graduating Indian students from Mohit Chandra, a KPMG partner, that first appeared in the New York Times, and which I post in full, as it captures the spirit of the day:
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
While many are offended by family values as a political plank, not only because they're the values cherished by someone else's family to be imposed on other people's families, but because we have family values of our own. We do not eschew family values as a voluntary exercise. We love family values, and today is a day to honor them. Often with pie.
We do so by sharing our good fortune in having such a wonderful family and such abundance in our lives with those less fortunate. We do not do so because a judge in Stark County, Ohio, well known for the disgusting stripsearch of Hope Steffey, thinks that would be a "poetic" sentence.
In Ohio, Stark County Common Pleas Judge Frank Forchione has sentenced Valerie Rodgers, 46, to making Thanksgiving dinner for three police officers on leave or unable to work. In addition to the dinner, she will be on one-year probation for felony assault and three misdemeanors. This follows another judge who sentenced a teen to ten years of church.It's good to embrace faith, but it's not something that can be imposed by judicial fiat. If there is poetic justice, Valerie Rodgers will be a lousy cook. And Forchione will find himself alone today, eating the microwave version of turkey.Rodgers pleaded guilty to knocking over a police officer while he was directing traffic.
Judges know that this type of punishment is hugely popular with the public. It is a trend that is erasing the line between entertainment and the law. She has been a continuing and growing trend of this type of abuse by judges...These judges make a mockery out of our court system and sit like little Caesars in meting out their own idiosyncratic forms of justice — often to the thrill of citizens. They degrade not just their courts in such novel sentencing but the legal system as a whole. This judge appears to relish his reputation as the gavel of God — sending felons to embrace faith.
But Thanksgiving is one of the uniquely secular holidays, an America invention remembering how Native Americans, called Indians for hundreds of years until someone decided that it was hurtful, gave us help and comfort before we destroyed the fabric of their world to make it more suitable to our desires. That means that there will be no cranberry sauce today in the real India, where the denizens are properly called Indians, even though they have no personal relationships with tomahawks.
Yet, despite their tryptophan deficiency, it appears they are far more like us than we realize. Via Bill Henderson, a letter to graduating Indian students from Mohit Chandra, a KPMG partner, that first appeared in the New York Times, and which I post in full, as it captures the spirit of the day:
Dear Graduates and Post-Graduates,
This is your new employer. We are an Indian company, a bank, a consulting firm, a multinational corporation, a public sector utility and everything in between. We are the givers of your paycheck, of the brand name you covet, of the references you will rely on for years to come and of the training that will shape your professional path.
Millions of you have recently graduated or will graduate over the next few weeks. Many of you are probably feeling quite proud – you’ve landed your first job, discussions around salaries and job titles are over, and you’re ready to contribute.
Life is good – except that it’s not. Not for us, your employers, at least. Most of your contributions will be substandard and lack ambition, frustrating and of limited productivity. We are gearing ourselves up for broken promises and unmet expectations. Sorry to be the messenger of bad news.
Today, we regret to inform you that you are spoiled. You are spoiled by the “India growth story”; by an illusion that the Indian education system is capable of producing the talent that we, your companies, most crave; by the imbalance of demand and supply for real talent; by the deceleration of economic growth in the mature West; and by the law of large numbers in India, which creates pockets of highly skilled people who are justly feted but ultimately make up less than 10 percent of all of you.
So why this letter, and why should you read on? Well, because based on collective experience of hiring and developing young people like you over the years, some truths have become apparent. This is a guide for you and the 15- to 20-year-olds following in your footsteps – the next productive generation of our country. Read on to understand what your employers really want and how your ability to match these wants can enrich you professionally.
There are five key attributes employers typically seek and, in fact, will value more and more in the future. Unfortunately, these are often lacking in you and your colleagues.
1.You speak and write English fluently: We know this is rarely the case. Even graduates from better-known institutions can be hard to understand.
Exhibit No. 1: Below is an actual excerpt from a résumé we received from a “highly qualified and educated” person. This is the applicant’s “objective statement:”
“To be a part of an organization wherein I could cherish my erudite dexterity to learn the nitigrities of consulting”
Huh? Anyone know what that means? We certainly don’t.
And in spoken English, the outcomes are no better. Whether it is a strong mother tongue influence, or a belief (mistakenly) that the faster one speaks the more mastery one has, there is much room for improvement. Well over half of the pre-screened résumés lack the English ability to effectively communicate in business.
So the onus, dear reader, is on you – to develop comprehensive English skills, both written and oral.
2. You are good at problem solving, thinking outside the box, seeking new ways of doing things: Hard to find. Too often, there is a tendency to simply wait for detailed instructions and then execute the tasks – not come up with creative suggestions or alternatives.
Exhibit No. 2: I was speaking with a colleague of mine who is a chartered accountant from Britain and a senior professional. I asked him why the pass percentage in the Indian chartered accountant exam was so low and why it was perceived as such a difficult exam.
Interestingly (and he hires dozens of Indian chartered accountants each year), his take is as follows: the Indian exam is no harder than the British exam. Both focus on the application of concepts, but since the Indian education system is so rote-memorization oriented, Indian students have a much more difficult time passing it than their British counterparts.
Problem-solving abilities, which are rarely taught in our schooling system, are understandably weak among India’s graduates, even though India is the home of the famous “jugadu,” the inveterate problem solver who uses what’s on hand to find a solution. Let’s translate this intrinsic ability to the workforce.
3. You ask questions, engage deeply and question hierarchy: How we wish!
Exhibit No. 3: Consistently, managers say that newly graduated hires are too passive, that they are order-takers and that they are too hesitant to ask questions. “Why can’t they pick up the phone and call when they do not understand something?” is a commonly asked question.
You are also unduly impressed by titles and perceived hierarchy. While there is a strong cultural bias of deference and subservience to titles in India, it is as much your responsibility as it is ours to challenge this view.4. You take responsibility for your career and for your learning and invest in new skills: Many of you feel that once you have got the requisite degree, you can go into cruise control. The desire to learn new tools and techniques and new sector knowledge disappears. And we are talking about you 25- to 30-year-olds – typically the age when inquisitiveness and hunger for knowledge in the workplace is at its peak.
Exhibit No. 4: Recently, our new hires were clamoring for training. Much effort went into creating a learning path, outlining specific courses (online, self-study) for each team. With much fanfare, an e-mail was sent to the entire team outlining the courses.
How many took the trainings? Less than 15 percent. How many actually read the e-mail? Less than 20 percent.
The desire to be spoon-fed, to be directed down a straight and narrow path with each career step neatly laid out, is leading you toward extinction, just like the dinosaurs. Your career starts and ends with you. Our role, as your employer, is to ensure you have the tools, resources and opportunities you need to be successful. The rest is up to you.
5. You are professional and ethical: Everyone loves to be considered a professional. But when you exhibit behavior like job hopping every year, demanding double-digit pay increases for no increase in ability, accepting job offers and not appearing on the first day, taking one company’s offer letter to shop around to another company for more money — well, don’t expect to be treated like a professional.
Similarly, stretching yourself to work longer hours when needed, feeling vested in the success of your employer, being ethical about expense claims and leaves and vacation time are all part of being a consummate professional. Such behavior is not ingrained in new graduates, we have found, and has to be developed.So what can we conclude, young graduates?
My message is a call to action: Be aware of these five attributes, don’t expect the gravy train to run forever, and don’t assume your education will take care of you. Rather, invest in yourself – in language skills, in thirst for knowledge, in true professionalism and, finally, in thinking creatively and non-hierarchically. This will hold you in good stead in our knowledge economy and help lay a strong foundation for the next productive generation that follows you.
Together, I hope we, your employer, and you, the employee, can forge an enduring partnership.
The world may be flatter than anyone thought. The Slackoisie can take comfort in knowing they're part of a universal movement, as well as the existence of curmudgeons (like moi) in Delhi.
For the most part, my posts end up with a cohesive theme, a point. This one is random, as are the things for which we are thankful. Both my children slept under my roof last night, in a home that had heat. For this, I am thankful. We will eat Dr. SJ's fabulous pies after a dry turkey dinner, for which I am thankful. Maybe Jack and I will go for a ride in the Healey between games today, and if it starts up like a champ in the cold New York weather as it always does, I will be thankful, as I always am.
Perhaps some of you will persist in reading to this point, for which I am extremely thankful given its length. I write without knowing whether anyone will read, and without knowing whether it will be embraced by anyone or reviled as stupid and dangerous. Though I don't write for your sake, I do appreciate that you spend your time reading what I write, that so many think it's worth their time to read what I write. Thank you.
If there is any message to be had in this post, honor your own family values, whatever they may be, and try to find something to be thankful for. It's a mean, nasty world out there. Someone will be harmed today, whether in the name of the law or to sate some narcissist's vision of justice. Even on Thanksgiving, someone will suffer. It's okay to take a moment to do what you can to right the wrong, and then have some pie.
Happy Thanksgiving.
© 2012 Simple Justice NY LLC. This feed is for personal, non-commercial & Newstex use only. The use of this feed on any other website is a copyright violation. If this feed is not via RSS reader or Newstex, it infringes the copyright.
Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/11/22/a-lengthy-yet-random-homage-to-family-values.aspx?ref=rss
What is Parody?
Our Intellectual Property Podcast Series continues this week with Gordon Firemark, a Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney, discusssing parody. Learn more about Suffolk's nationally ranked IP Concentration at http://bit.ly/xRWIht.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/suffolk-law/2012/01/what-is-parody/
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Sunday, November 25, 2012
Ninth Circuit Holds that Allegations a Defendant Should Have Used a Different Statistical Methodology During Drug Trials is not Sufficient to Allege Falsity Under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5
In In re Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 10-17619, 2012 WL 3858112 (9th Cir. Sept. 6, 2012), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that disagreements between plaintiffs and defendants over statistical methodology and study design are insufficient to allege a materially false statement for purposes of pleading a securities fraud claim under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and Securities & Exchange Commission Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, promulgated thereunder. The Ninth Circuit held that merely because the statistical methodology chosen — and disclosed — by the defendant may not have been the best or most acceptable methodology, use of such an allegedly less-than-optimal methodology does not render statements about the results of the methodology false or misleading for purposes of stating a claim. This is a decision of first impression for the Ninth Circuit.
Defendant Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Rigel”) is a clinical-stage drug development company that discovers and develops novel, small-molecule drugs for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, certain cancers and other diseases. One of those drugs is R788, which Rigel was developing to treat and stop the progression of rheumatoid arthritis. Rigel conducted a Phase IIa clinical trial to evaluate the safety and preliminary clinical efficacy of R788 in patients who were suffering from active rheumatoid arthritis despite therapy with methotrexate.
Plaintiffs, a class of purchasers of Rigel stock, brought a securities fraud action against Rigel and its senior management alleging that the results of Riger’s Phase IIa clinical trials of drug R788 were “false” because they included “statistically ‘false p-values (in clinical trials, p-values usually are used to determine the statistical significance of the results)’” and inaccurate and improper statistical analyses. Plaintiffs also alleged that Rigel should have disclosed more information concerning side effects on the day of the initial press release because the omission of some information related to side effects made the initial statements misleading. The complaint focused on the alleged statements by Rigel and other individuals concerning the results of the R788 clinical drug trial and alleged statements about partnership prospects for Rigel.
The crux of plaintiffs’ allegations of “falsity” was their contention that defendants should have used their chosen statistical methodology rather than the methodology defendants actually used. Plaintiffs alleged that using their proposed statistical methodology would have resulted in different p-values and that these newly calculated p-values were not statistically significant. Therefore, plaintiffs argued, defendants’ statistical results were “false.” Plaintiffs did not allege that defendants inaccurately reported the results of their own statistical analysis. Nor did plaintiffs allege that defendants had chosen or changed their statistical methodology after seeing the unblinded raw data from the clinical trial.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed plaintiffs’ Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 claims on the ground that disagreements over statistical methodology and study design are insufficient to allege a materially false statement. The district court also held that plaintiffs failed to allege scienter. Plaintiffs appealed.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed. The Court held that in order to allege falsity, a plaintiff must plead facts explaining why the difference between the defendants’ statements and what plaintiffs believe was the truth “is not merely the difference between two permissible judgments, but rather the result of a falsehood.” Because plaintiffs did not allege that defendants misrepresented their own statistical methodology, analysis and conclusions, but instead only criticized the statistical methodology employed by defendants, the Court held that plaintiffs did not adequately plead falsity.
Plaintiffs also contended that the district court erred when it ruled that they failed adequately to plead falsity with respect to defendants’ initial statements about certain safety-related results from the clinical trial, arguing that defendants should have disclosed more information about side effects in the initial press release. The Ninth Circuit, however, held that the press release clearly identified its table of results for certain side effects as “key safety results,” not “all safety results” or even just “safety results.” Thus, the Ninth Circuit held, defendants never claimed that these were all of the safety results or that these results included every occurrence of every possible side effect. Accordingly, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s holding that plaintiffs did not adequately allege that the statements related to possible side effects were false or misleading.
Neither the United States Supreme Court nor the Ninth Circuit had addressed the question of whether statements concerning statistical results of a clinical trial may be considered false or misleading under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 based upon the assertion that the statistical methodology that produced those results was not the best or most acceptable methodology. The Ninth Circuit’s decision here confirms that the courts will not impute an implied representation or warranty that a statistical methodology chosen and disclosed by the issuer is necessarily the best or most acceptable, and is consistent with district court decisions that have addressed the issue.
For further information, please contact John Stigi at (310) 228-3717 or Taraneh Fard at (213) 617-5492.
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