Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/suffolk-law/2012/08/suffolk-laws-pro-bono-program/
Monday, September 30, 2013
Suffolk Law's Pro Bono Program
Mia Friedman, Director of Public Interest and Pro Bono Programs at Suffolk Law's Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service, reviews our Pro Bono Program. Learn more at rappaportcenter.org.
The Importance of Civility in the Courtroom
Join the panel discussion on the importance of civility in the courtroom. Attorney Jill Mariani hosts a roundtable of these influential members in law:
• The Honorable James Holderman: The Chief Judge of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois joined the court in 1985 after he was nominated by President Ronald Reagan. He became Chief Judge in 2006. Holderman is also chair of the ABA’s Commission on the American Jury Project, which focuses on the implementation of the ABA Principles on Juries and Jury Trials into the courtroom and reaching out to the public about the importance of jury service and jury reform. • Dick A. Semerdjian: Attorney Semerdjian is chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS). TIPS is the knowledge and leadership hub for trial practice and issues of justice that involve tort insurance and law. • MaryGrace Schaeffer: As vice president of DecisonQuest, Schaeffer has been a trial consultant for more than 22 years. Her expertise includes strategy and theme development, mock trials, witness evaluation and preparation, shadow juries, post-trial interviews and more. Listen to their thoughts on why legal professionals need to be cognizant of civility in the courtroom, the strategies they use to implement it, changes they’d like to see in the legal world regarding civility, and more.
• The Honorable James Holderman: The Chief Judge of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois joined the court in 1985 after he was nominated by President Ronald Reagan. He became Chief Judge in 2006. Holderman is also chair of the ABA’s Commission on the American Jury Project, which focuses on the implementation of the ABA Principles on Juries and Jury Trials into the courtroom and reaching out to the public about the importance of jury service and jury reform. • Dick A. Semerdjian: Attorney Semerdjian is chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS). TIPS is the knowledge and leadership hub for trial practice and issues of justice that involve tort insurance and law. • MaryGrace Schaeffer: As vice president of DecisonQuest, Schaeffer has been a trial consultant for more than 22 years. Her expertise includes strategy and theme development, mock trials, witness evaluation and preparation, shadow juries, post-trial interviews and more. Listen to their thoughts on why legal professionals need to be cognizant of civility in the courtroom, the strategies they use to implement it, changes they’d like to see in the legal world regarding civility, and more.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/aba-tips/2013/04/the-importance-of-civility-in-the-courtroom
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Supreme Court Watch: Employment law cases
We will be watching three pending cases at the US Supreme Court as the Court's session opens today:
Kloeckner v. Solis
Oral argument on October 2.
The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) hears appeals by federal employees regarding certain adverse actions, such as dismissals. If the employee asserts that the challenged action was the result of unlawful discrimination, that claim is referred to as a "mixed case."
Question Presented: If the MSPB decides a mixed case without determining the merits of the discrimination claim, is the court with jurisdiction over that claim the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or a district court?
Vance v. Ball State Univ
Oral argument on November 26.
Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (1998) and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742 (1998) held that under Title VII, an employer is vicariously liable for workplace harassment by a supervisor of the victim. If the harasser was the victim’s co-employee, however, the employer is not liable absent proof of negligence.
Question Presented: Whether the Faragher and Ellerth “supervisor” liability rule (i) applies to harassment by those whom the employer vests with authority to direct and oversee their victim’s daily work, or (ii) is limited to those harassers who have the power to “hire, fire, demote, promote, transfer, or discipline” their victim.
Genesis HealthCare v. Symczyk
Oral argument December 3.
Symczk sued under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated. This was a section 216(b) collective action. The defendants extended an offer of judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 68 in full satisfaction of her alleged damages, fees, and costs - prior to her moving for conditional certification and prior to other potential plaintiffs opting in.
Question Presented: Whether a case becomes moot, and thus beyond the judicial power of Article III, when the lone plaintiff receives an offer from the defendants to satisfy all of the plaintiff's claims.
Source: http://www.lawmemo.com/blog/2012/10/supreme_court_w_11.html
Vaccine Refusals Fueled California's Whooping Cough Epidemic
The whooping cough vaccine isn't perfect, but public health officials suspected that something else contributed to the 2010 pertussis outbreak in California. A study finds that neighborhoods where more parents filed for vaccination exemptions for their children had higher rates of infection.
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US Senators propose overhaul of surveillance laws
[JURIST] US Senators announced new legislation on Wednesday in a bipartisan effort to reform surveillance laws. In the wake of revealing disclosures from the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website] and Edward Snowden [JURIST news archive], Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), along with co-sponsors Mark Udall (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rand Paul (R-KY), hopes to enact "real, and not just cosmetic, intelligence reform" after outrage from the American public and skepticism from the international community. The bill, which has not...
Source: http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/09/senators-propose-overhaul-of-us-surveillance-laws.php
LawBiz® Legal Pad: Charging for the Initial Consultation
This weeks topic is how to charge a client for the initial consultation.
Source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/LawBizBlog/~3/0U4FID2_ICs/
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Michigan Treasury Department rules same-sex spouses must file separate tax returns
[JURIST] The Michigan Department of Treasury [official website] has determined [text, PDF] that same-sex spouses must file separate tax returns. In a one-page notice posted on the Treasury website, Michigan residents are advised that same-sex couples who file a joint federal income tax return must continue to file income tax returns for Michigan with each individual using the single filing status. The Michigan Income Tax Act [text, PDF] limits a joint tax return to a married couple who are "husband...
Wisconsin public employee collective bargaining statute amendments declared unconstitutional
A teachers' union sought declarative and injunctive relief against the governor, claiming that statutory amendments dealing with municipal employees' collective bargaining rights and payroll deductions of dues and pension contributions were unconstitutional.
The trial court declared the statute unconstitutional. Madison Teachers v. Walker (Wisconsin Circuit Ct 09/14/2012)
(1) Certain portions of the statute violated the free speech clauses of the Wisconsin and US constitutions. Although there is no constitutional right to collective bargaining, the statute imposes burdens on the speech and associational rights of employees represented by unions which burdens are not imposed on other employees. They cannot negotiate wage increases greater than the cost of living, they cannot pay dues by payroll deductions solely because the dues go to labor organizations. A ban on fair share agreements means that union members bear the cost of bargaining for non-members who receive the befits of bargaining. Requiring unions to be recertified annually burdens members with the full costs of the election.
(2) The trial court applied strict scrutiny to the equal protection claims because of the infringement on speech rights. The statute creates two classes of employees (represented and non-represented), and the defendants "offer no defense of the statute that would survive strict scrutiny."
(3) Certain portions of the statute violated the Wisconsin constitution's home rule amendment, violated the constitutional bar on impairment of contracts, and deprived employees of property without due process.
Source: http://www.lawmemo.com/blog/2012/09/wisconsin_publi.html
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Sunday, September 29, 2013
Taking Advantage of Apps and Plug-ins
Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell enter the realm of apps and plug-ins. Also known as web extensions, browser apps, add-ons, and bookmarklets, these additions to web browsers are made to make your Internet browser experience more efficient. Learn your hosts’ favorite web extensions when browsing for leisure and for work, and how to manage your apps and plug-ins so they don’t slow down your browser speed. The second half of the episode turns toward Internet communication, more specifically, how Twitter users are creating hashtags to express their moods in posts and how this changes the meaning and use of the hashtag.
Bench opening in Ramsey County
The Commission on Judicial Selection is now accepting applications for the seat on the Ramsey County District Court bench recently vacated by Judge Kathleen Gearin. The seat is chambered in St. Paul.
The commission considers integrity, maturity, health (if job related), judicial temperament, legal knowledge, ability, experience and community service.
Applications are available from Lee E. Sheehy, Chair of the Commission on Judicial Selection, at 130 State Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, St. Paul, MN 55155, or by contacting Andrew Olson, Appointments Coordinator, via e-mail at andrew.c.olson@state.mn.us. A cover letter and resume should also be submitted with the application. Application materials are due by close of business, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013. Interviews are scheduled to be held on Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
For inquiries concerning the application process, please contact Andrew Olson at andrew.c.olson@state.mn.us or at (651) 201-3413.
Source: http://minnlawyer.com/minnlawyerblog/2013/09/09/bench-opening-in-ramsey-county/
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New American Bar Association President James Silkenat Outlines His 2013-2014 Agenda
On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams speak with ABA President James Silkenat, on his first day in office, about his goals and initiatives for the ABA agenda.
James Silkenat has been working in international law for more than forty years. He joined the ABA’s first delegation to China in the mid-1970s and since then has chaired the International Law Section. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the American Law Institute, and has served as a Fellow in the U.S. State Department Scholar/Diplomat Program. As well as numerous other positions in and outside of the ABA, he will now serve as the president of the nation’s largest legal organization.
Silkenat will discuss his major platform goals for his presidency, including the legal education financing system and student debt, a legal job corps, the ABA’s stance on gun violence, and more.
Special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.
James Silkenat has been working in international law for more than forty years. He joined the ABA’s first delegation to China in the mid-1970s and since then has chaired the International Law Section. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the American Law Institute, and has served as a Fellow in the U.S. State Department Scholar/Diplomat Program. As well as numerous other positions in and outside of the ABA, he will now serve as the president of the nation’s largest legal organization.
Silkenat will discuss his major platform goals for his presidency, including the legal education financing system and student debt, a legal job corps, the ABA’s stance on gun violence, and more.
Special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.
Justice Department Pushes New Thinking On Kids And Crime
"We believe firmly that children should be kept in school and out of courts," says Justice Department official Robert Listenbee. In his new role leading the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, he's trying to help stop what experts describe as a "school-to-prison pipeline."
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8th District judges appointed
Jennifer K. Fischer and Rodney C. Hanson have been appointed as District Court Judges in Minnesota’s Eighth Judicial District. Fischer will replace the Honorable Kathryn N. Smith and Mr. Hanson will replacethe Honorable Jon Stafsholt, who both retired earlier this year. . Fischer will be chambered at Willmar in Kandiyohi County while Hanson will be chambered at Glenwood in Pope County.
Fischer is the Kandiyohi County Attorney, where she prosecutes crimes and serves as the legal advisor to the County Board of Commissioners. She previously was a partner at Jones & Fischer, P.A., and, prior to that, served as an assistant public defender for the Eighth Judicial District. Fischer earned her B.S. from St. Cloud State University and her J.D. with honors from the William Mitchell College of Law.
Hanson is a partner with Anderson, Larson, Hanson & Saunders P.L.L.P., where he practices primarily in civil litigation. He has maintained a local practice in Willmar since 1985 and is a qualified neutral and arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association. Hanson earned his B.A. with honors from Concordia College and his J.D. from the William Mitchell College of Law.
Source: http://minnlawyer.com/minnlawyerblog/2013/09/10/8th-district-judges-appointed/
Passing the Tech Skills Competency Audit
Casey Flaherty, corporate counsel at Kia Motors America, has gotten a lot of attention recently with a basic technology competency audit he administers to outside law firms and the failing grades lawyers at those firms have received. There has always been an ongoing conversation of what basic technology skills lawyers need. The ABA’s Ethics 2020 recommendation that a basic knowledge of common software techniques be a part of the definition of “competence,” has also shined the spotlight on this issue. In this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss Flaherty’s technology audit approach, the responses it has prompted, and how this may or may not change the ways lawyers deal with technology skills. The second half of the episode will cover Apple’s much-rumored “iWatch” and the future of watch technology.
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Booting Up: New NSA Data Farm Takes Root In Utah
Even as it continues to grapple with concerns about its data-gathering operations, the National Security Agency is poised to open a massive facility where cellphone, text message, email and landline data can be stored and analyzed.
Washington's sexual orientation discrimination amendment is not retroactive
The Washington State Supreme Court held today that a sexual orientation discrimination amendment adopted in 2006 is not retroactive.
The court also concluded that conduct that took place prior to the amendment is admissible background evidence to prove the discriminatory nature of certain conduct occurring after the amendment.
Loeffelholz v. Univ of Washington (Washington 09/13/2012)
Loeffelholz sued under the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) claiming discrimination based on sexual orientation. WLAD was amended in 2006 to include sexual orientation as a protected class, and Loeffelholz alleged several pre-amendment acts and one post-amendment act.
The Washington Supreme Court held that (1) the WLAD amendment is not retroactive and the pre-amendment conduct is not actionable as it was not unlawful when it occurred, and (2) the post-amendment allegedly discriminatory comment is arguably similar enough to the pre-amendment conduct to survive summary judgment.
Loeffelholz alleged that her supervisor between 2003 and June 2006 maintained a hostile work environment based on sexual orientation. This was prior to the WLAD amendment. Loeffelholz also alleged a single act of discrimination by this supervisor after the WLAD amendment.
The court's findings:
(1) Pre-amendment conduct is not actionable. Retroactive application of the amendment would violate the employer's due process rights. The plain language of the amendment and its legislative history indicate only prospective application.
(2) Pre-amendment conduct is admissible as background evidence to prove why the post-amendment conduct is discriminatory.
(3) The post-amendment conduct was a single statement by Loeffelholz's supervisor, who was about to be deployed to Iraq, that he was "going to come back a very angry man." The court found that a reasonable jury could infer that this comment was a natural extension of pre-amendment conduct - the supervisor's dislike of lesbians and his anger management problems as illustrated by his comments that he had a volatile temper and kept a gun. This is enough to preclude summary judgment.
Source: http://www.lawmemo.com/blog/2012/09/washingtons_sex.html
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Saturday, September 28, 2013
Experience User-Friendly Systems
Good usability and user interface design are keys to ensuring that law department staff embrace your department’s technology investments. In this edition of Tech Experts, join usability expert, Yusuke Morita, Associate Principal Developer at Datacert, for a window into the thought process behind the design of a really user-friendly application. Learn what design elements create "ease-of-use" so you can better identify systems your staff will readily adopt and enjoy using.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/tech-experts/2012/10/experience-user-friendly-systems/
This Law Wants To Save Teens' Reputations, But Probably Won't
By 2015, Facebook and other social networking sites will have to allow California minors to delete embarrassing posts. But the law is riddled with loopholes, and teens won't be protected any more than they already are.
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Nourishing Creativity with Constraints
Hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell are exploring a new social media outlet called Vine where users create videos, constricted to six-seconds in length. This inspired the discussion of nourishing creativity with a length constraint. Twitter limits users to 140 characters, Instagram allows only one photo per post, and Snapchat limits users to sending a photo for 10 seconds or less before it disappears from both the sender and the recipient’s device. On this episode of Kennedy Mighell report, your hosts will discuss how technology constraints can produce surprising results for lawyers, whether they participate in social media or not.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/2013/04/nourishing-creativity-with-constraints
Fake Reviewers Get Zero Stars From New York Attorney General
Nineteen companies agreed to pay more than $350,000 in penalties to settle accusations that they wrote or bought phony online reviews of their products, services or restaurants.
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Post DOMA and Prop 8 Rulings: The Next Move for Gay Rights
With the Supreme Court’s Prop 8 and DOMA rulings, same-sex marriage is now legal in California and same-sex married couples can receive federal benefits across the nation. These landmark decisions for gay rights have sparked the question: is nationwide marriage equality on the way? On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams will talk with Constitutional Law Professors Mark Tushnet and William Eskridge about what the history of both the gay rights and the civil rights movements have to say for the future of gay rights in America.
• Harvard Law Professor Mark Tushnet specializes in constitutional law and theory, with a focus in examining the practice of judicial review in the U.S. and worldwide. He has served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall. Currently, his focus is in constitutional history and the development of civil liberties. He is known for his critical and controversial analysis of Supreme Court rulings, including Brown v. The Board of Education and Roe v. Wade.
• William Eskridge, Yale Law Professor, focuses in statutory interpretation. He represented a same-sex-married couple from 1990-1995 who sued for recognition of their marriage and has published many books covering the political framework of gay rights. The historical component of his book GayLaw was the basis of an amicus brief he drafted for the Cato Institute and for much of the Court’s (and dissenting opinion’s) analysis in Lawrence vs. Texas, the decision which made same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state.
These law professors will provide unique insight to the future of gay rights through their knowledge and experience with Supreme Court rulings and civil liberties movements.
Thanks to our sponsor, Clio.
• Harvard Law Professor Mark Tushnet specializes in constitutional law and theory, with a focus in examining the practice of judicial review in the U.S. and worldwide. He has served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall. Currently, his focus is in constitutional history and the development of civil liberties. He is known for his critical and controversial analysis of Supreme Court rulings, including Brown v. The Board of Education and Roe v. Wade.
• William Eskridge, Yale Law Professor, focuses in statutory interpretation. He represented a same-sex-married couple from 1990-1995 who sued for recognition of their marriage and has published many books covering the political framework of gay rights. The historical component of his book GayLaw was the basis of an amicus brief he drafted for the Cato Institute and for much of the Court’s (and dissenting opinion’s) analysis in Lawrence vs. Texas, the decision which made same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state.
These law professors will provide unique insight to the future of gay rights through their knowledge and experience with Supreme Court rulings and civil liberties movements.
Thanks to our sponsor, Clio.
Turn Your Solo Practice into a Highly Utilized Business
Looking to get your solo practice off the ground but aren’t sure how? Learn about the tools you need to turn your solo practice into a highly utilized business when New Solo host and solo practitioner, Attorney Kyle R. Guelcher, talks to Alex Vega ,a law firm consultant with The Vega Firm. Alex shares his great insight on the basic human skills a lawyer needs for a successful practice, how a solo can develop an effective word of mouth campaign and the importance of a realistic marketing plan.
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Here Comes the Next Round of E-Discovery Rules
In this May edition of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of ALM’s Law Technology News, invites Mark Michels, a director in Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, and Henry Kelston, senior counsel at Milberg, to discuss the proposed changes in federal e-discovery rules. Kelston’s article, "Are We on the Cusp of Major Changes to E-Discovery Rules?", was recently published in Law Technology News.
Mark Michels is a director at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services. As a former in-house counsel, he specializes in advising on electronic discovery management. Mark has more than 13 years of experience in devising multi-faceted corporate discovery programs, including developing discovery compliance processes and requirements, evaluating and implementing solutions for collection, processing, review, and production of diverse corporate data, and applying continuous process improvement methodologies.
Henry Kelston is senior counsel at Milberg, specializing in complex litigation and electronic discovery. Henry is a member of the firm's e-discovery practice group and The Sedona Conference's Working Group 1 on Electronic Document Retention and Production. He is a frequent writer and speaker on e-discovery issues.
Listen in on the roundtable discussion of the future of e-discovery.
Mark Michels is a director at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services. As a former in-house counsel, he specializes in advising on electronic discovery management. Mark has more than 13 years of experience in devising multi-faceted corporate discovery programs, including developing discovery compliance processes and requirements, evaluating and implementing solutions for collection, processing, review, and production of diverse corporate data, and applying continuous process improvement methodologies.
Henry Kelston is senior counsel at Milberg, specializing in complex litigation and electronic discovery. Henry is a member of the firm's e-discovery practice group and The Sedona Conference's Working Group 1 on Electronic Document Retention and Production. He is a frequent writer and speaker on e-discovery issues.
Listen in on the roundtable discussion of the future of e-discovery.
Friday, September 27, 2013
IRS Official At Center Of Political Scandal Will Retire
Lois Lerner, who admitted that her division had inappropriately singled out Tea Party and patriot groups requesting tax exemption, had been on paid leave since May.
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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Key changes to Patent Law
Back on September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the America Invents Act (AIA) into law, vastly changing the core of the patent system and patent law. Now, a year later, some of the key provisions are going into effect. Lawyer2Lawyer host Bob Ambrogi talks with Attorney Matthew I. Kreeger, the Co-Chair of Morrison Foerster’s Patent Interferences Practice Group and Dennis Crouch, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law and editor of Patently-O, about the implementation of some of the most important provisions of the America Invents Act and their impact.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2012/09/key-changes-to-patent-law/
Comment sought on unauthorized practice opinions
The Virginia State Bar’s standing committee on unauthorized practice of law is seeking public comments by Sept. 9 on two proposed UPL opinions.
One opinion addresses a situation highlighted by a case this year in the Amherst County courts. A juvenile and domestic relations judge allowed a husband involved in a custody case to serve as prosecutor when the wife was charged with criminal contempt for disobeying a visitation order.
Lynchburg lawyer M. Paul Valois – the one-time lawyer for the wife – objected to the litigant serving as a state lawyer, but neither the J&DR judge nor a circuit judge were persuaded to change the arrangement.
Now, the VSB panel proposes UPL Opinion 217 stating that it is the unauthorized practice of law for a non-lawyer party in a civil domestic relations matter to act as prosecutor for criminal contempt proceedings arising from the case.
The proposed opinion will be considered in October by the VSB Council, according to the VSB.
Another proposed UPL opinion would state that a state probation officer is not engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in making a sentencing recommendation or giving an opinion about the appropriate outcome of a criminal matter in a pre-sentence report.
The VSB committee found a “range of legal authority” indicating a probation officer was not straying into legal practice while performing statutory duties to bring issues to the attention of a court.
Written comments about the proposed UPL opinions can be sent to VSB executive director Karen Gould.
Source: http://valawyersweekly.com/vlwblog/2013/08/28/comment-sought-on-unauthorized-practice-opinions/
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The Metrics Behind Predictive Coding
The ESI Report’s Michele Lange, Attorney and Director of Thought Leadership at Kroll Ontrack, chats with Eric Robinson, Solution Architect at Kroll Ontrack, about the key metrics lawyers need to understand when using predictive coding or Technology Assisted Review (TAR) and how these metrics make e-discovery more economical and efficient.
Eric Robinson has more than 20 years of accumulated legal, e-Discovery and project management experience. As a Solution Architect at Kroll Ontrack, Eric works collaboratively and consultatively with clients to develop and implement strategic cost-effective, efficient and defensible discovery strategies. Leveraging his knowledge of current legal trends, regulatory matters, and information management technologies for litigation, Eric recommends defensible processes, procedures and technology solutions to optimize client efficiencies and develop best practices.
The first step to implementing predictive coding into your e-discovery review process is understanding key terms like Confidence Level, Precision, Recall, and Accuracy. And don’t worry, the intent with predictive coding is to have the mathematical values automatically computed by the document review software, no calculator required!
Eric Robinson has more than 20 years of accumulated legal, e-Discovery and project management experience. As a Solution Architect at Kroll Ontrack, Eric works collaboratively and consultatively with clients to develop and implement strategic cost-effective, efficient and defensible discovery strategies. Leveraging his knowledge of current legal trends, regulatory matters, and information management technologies for litigation, Eric recommends defensible processes, procedures and technology solutions to optimize client efficiencies and develop best practices.
The first step to implementing predictive coding into your e-discovery review process is understanding key terms like Confidence Level, Precision, Recall, and Accuracy. And don’t worry, the intent with predictive coding is to have the mathematical values automatically computed by the document review software, no calculator required!
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/esi-report/2013/05/the-metrics-behind-predictive-coding
ITC judge issues preliminary ruling against HTC in Nokia patent dispute
[JURIST] US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] Judge Thomas Pender [official profile] on Monday issued a preliminary ruling [text, PDF] holding that HTC infringed on two patents for mobile technology held by Nokia [corporate websites]. The patents have to do with receiving and sending signals [Reuters report] from mobile telephones and tablets. The full ITC is scheduled to make a final decision on the matter on January 23. Nokia has asked the ITC to block several of HTC products...
Source: http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/09/itc-judge-issues-preliminary-ruling.php
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Getting to Yes: Advice for Legal Entrepreneurs from a Venture Capitalist
In the September edition of Law Technology Now, attorney Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of ALM's Law Technology News, interviews Robert Siegel, general partner at Xseed Capital about how Silicon Valley is becoming a hot bed of legal technology startups. With two major Bay Area universities — Stanford and the University of California Berkeley, both with strong synergies among their law schools and computer, engineering, and design departments — innovative law firms and venture capitalists are ready to collaborate, and the sky is the limit, says Siegel.
He explains how these dynamics combine to create opportunities for legal technology lawyers and vendors, and financiers, and how collaborations can result in companies like Lex Machina. They are creating technology products that ultimately help not just the legal community (lawyers, government, academia, and business) do better, faster, and cheaper work, but benefit consumers and businesses, as well. And for innovators and entrepreneurs, he offers concrete advice about how to best approach venture capitalists to successfully get them to yes.
He explains how these dynamics combine to create opportunities for legal technology lawyers and vendors, and financiers, and how collaborations can result in companies like Lex Machina. They are creating technology products that ultimately help not just the legal community (lawyers, government, academia, and business) do better, faster, and cheaper work, but benefit consumers and businesses, as well. And for innovators and entrepreneurs, he offers concrete advice about how to best approach venture capitalists to successfully get them to yes.
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Thursday, September 26, 2013
IRS Dispute With Tax Preparers Is Horse of a Different Color
At the center of a dispute between the Obama administration and tax-return preparers is a 19th-century law involving horses.
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France ex-president Sarkozy to be investigated for campaign funds fraud
[JURIST] A French appeals court ruled Tuesday that an investigation may proceed into allegations that former president Nicolas Sarkozy [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] exploited aging L'Oreal [corporate website] heiress Liliane Bettencourt [Forbes profile] into donating election campaign funds. A panel of judges for the Court of Appeals of Bordeaux denied a motion brought by Sarkozy's lawyers to dismiss key medical testimony that determined Bettencourt has been suffering from dementia since 2006, before Sarkozy allegedly sought funds for his 2007...
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Straight From The Hole
It's far easier to wrap your head around torture when it involves the infliction of active pain. That doesn't make passive pain, the infliction of often unbearable psychological punishment, an less torturous. And it happens regularly, and many time arbitrarily, as explained in an op-ed by Wilbert Rideau, who served 44 years for manslaughter in Louisiana.
Before you dismiss Rideau as a killer who deserved whatever he got, bear in mind that stories from the inside aren't told by saints. Every once in a while, a former inmate emerges with the erudition necessary to put into words the world that most of us never knew existed. When this happens, it's a window through which we need to look. Rideau offers a view of solitary confinement, the hole.
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Before you dismiss Rideau as a killer who deserved whatever he got, bear in mind that stories from the inside aren't told by saints. Every once in a while, a former inmate emerges with the erudition necessary to put into words the world that most of us never knew existed. When this happens, it's a window through which we need to look. Rideau offers a view of solitary confinement, the hole.
I know something about solitary confinement, because I’ve been there. I spent a total of 12 years in various solitary confinement cells. And I can tell you that isolating a human being for years in a barren cell the size of a small bathroom is the cruelest thing you can do to a person.Deprived of all human contact, you lose your feeling of connectedness to the world. You lose your ability to make small talk, even with the guard who shoves your meal through the slot in the door. You live entirely in your head, for there is nothing else. You talk to yourself, answer yourself. You become paranoid, depressed, sleepless. To ward off madness, you must give your mind something to do. In 1970, I counted the 358 rivets that held my steel cell together, over and over. Every time the walls seemed to be closing in on me, I counted them again, to give my mind something to fasten on to.
Without having been there, it's likely inconceivable to understand what happens to a mind in isolation. Some of us have trouble being alone for an hour, an evening, a day. Add day upon day, year upon year. But not the way it is for us, where we still have access to television or internet, even if there is no other living person around. No, this is completely different.
But to add insult to injury, don't leap to the assumption that if a prisoner ends up in the hole, he must have done something pretty bad to deserve it.
In a world where authorities exercise absolute power and demand abject obedience, prisoners are almost always going to be on the losing side, and they know it.
The typical inmate doesn’t want trouble. He has little to gain and too much to lose: his job, his visits, his recreation time, his phone privileges, his right to buy tuna, ramen and stale bread at inflated prices in the commissary. The ways even a bystander to the most peaceful protest can be punished are limited only by the imagination of the authorities.
Punishment can be deserved or not. There's no due process in prison. There's no one to complain to about being punished based on a false accusation, a trumped up allegation, a guard pissed off by an attitude. Authorities own the lives of prisoners, and can be as harsh as they want to be, as arbitrary as they feel like. And there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.
Rideau explains that the prison protests in California are an outgrowth of a system run amok and no other means of addressing their grievance.
And yet, sometimes things get so bad that prisoners feel compelled to protest, with work stoppages, riots or hunger strikes. On July 8, some 30,000 inmates in the custody of the California Department of Corrections went on a hunger strike to demand improvements in prison conditions. Their biggest complaint was the runaway use of solitary confinement, the fact that thousands of prisoners are consigned to this cruelty indefinitely, some for decades.
While prisoners are sentenced to incarceration, no judge sentences them to isolation for decades. There is no requirement that any neutral party review the decision to inflict this torture on another human being. It can be imposed for a sound reason or no reason at all. Who is to disagree? But no matter what the reason or nonreason, to put a person in the hole for years, for decades, is to impose psychological torture of a terrible kind on a human being. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing, the prisoner can do about it.
In California, inmates did the only thing left for them to do, protest. Not too many of us care about what happened to "criminals." After all, bad dudes who did bad things to other people. A pox on them. They get what they deserve and their out of sight, out of mind. But there is good reason to give them just a little bit of though. For one thing, they are still people, and we are still purportedly a civilized society that doesn't condone the needless brutal treatment of people. But if you lack anything remotely resembling empathy, than do it for your own sake:
Why should you be concerned about the inhumane conditions of prolonged solitary confinement, with all the social, emotional and mental deterioration that it entails? Well, every year men from California’s Pelican Bay and other supermax prisons around the nation are released directly from the vacuum of their cells into free society, to live and work among you and your loved ones. As a matter of self-preservation, maybe we should all join the prisoners’ request for rehabilitative opportunities that will improve the mental health of those in solitary.
Go say "hi" to the guy who moved in down the block kids. So what if he spent the last two decades in the hole and seems a bit odd. I'm sure he'll get over it.
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Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2013/07/17/straight-from-the-hole.aspx?ref=rss
Nourishing Creativity with Constraints
Hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell are exploring a new social media outlet called Vine where users create videos, constricted to six-seconds in length. This inspired the discussion of nourishing creativity with a length constraint. Twitter limits users to 140 characters, Instagram allows only one photo per post, and Snapchat limits users to sending a photo for 10 seconds or less before it disappears from both the sender and the recipient’s device. On this episode of Kennedy Mighell report, your hosts will discuss how technology constraints can produce surprising results for lawyers, whether they participate in social media or not.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/2013/04/nourishing-creativity-with-constraints
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Sacramento’s New One-Day Divorce Program
On this episode of Lawyer2Lawyer, Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams invite California Judge James Mize to discuss his first-of-its-kind idea to address the heavy congestion of divorce cases in Sacramento’s family court: The One-Day Divorce Program. This allows couples, who meet the specified requirements, to participate in an expedited divorce process that finalizes the separation in just one day. This program aims to serve couples who can’t afford a divorce lawyer. According to Judge Mize, 72% of family law litigants in California don’t have representation.
Judge Mize began his career with an undergraduate degree in psychology, followed by graduate work at the School of Social Welfare where he earned his Master of Social Work. He found his work in social issues to be a defining part of his 26 years working as an attorney, and his current work on the bench. He has served as the presiding judge of the Sacramento Superior Court and is currently the supervising judge of Sacramento’s Family Court. Judge Mize is best known for his civil reform efforts which have garnered him several honors including the California Judge Association’s Alba Witkin Humanitarian Award and Sacramento County Bar Association’s Judge of the Year Award.
Tune into to hear about the inner workings of the new one-day divorce program, who qualifies, how it’s run, and more.
Judge Mize began his career with an undergraduate degree in psychology, followed by graduate work at the School of Social Welfare where he earned his Master of Social Work. He found his work in social issues to be a defining part of his 26 years working as an attorney, and his current work on the bench. He has served as the presiding judge of the Sacramento Superior Court and is currently the supervising judge of Sacramento’s Family Court. Judge Mize is best known for his civil reform efforts which have garnered him several honors including the California Judge Association’s Alba Witkin Humanitarian Award and Sacramento County Bar Association’s Judge of the Year Award.
Tune into to hear about the inner workings of the new one-day divorce program, who qualifies, how it’s run, and more.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/2013/06/sacramentos-new-one-day-divorce-program
LAW SCHOOLS REPORT: Law Schools Get Down to Business
Finance and accounting, management, leadership and entrepreneurship ? all components of a business education, not a legal one, right? Not anymore. A growing number of law schools are borrowing a page from the MBA playbook and adding courses intended to give students a foundation in business, in addition to the law.
Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202620079000&rss=rss_nlj
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Wednesday, September 25, 2013
2013 Legal-Tech Surveys Say . . .
The end of summer marks the release of two legal-tech surveys that create the benchmark for solos and firms on legal technology practices and spending. The ILTA / InsideLegal Technology Survey and the ABA Legal Technology Survey Report define key trends and give lawyers a look at the current state of legal technology. On this episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the highlights and conclusions of each survey and what they mean for today's and tomorrow’s legal technology trends. The second half of the show will cover personal branding and how it has turned into meaning much more than just active social media channels.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/kennedy-mighell-report/2013/09/2013-legal-tech-surveys-say
Desktop as a Service for Lawyers
Desktop as a service, commonly known as DaaS, is a relatively new service which provides users access to their desktops from any computer via the cloud. Your hosts Jared Correia and Heidi Alexander invited Tom Rowe to talk about DaaS for lawyers.
Rowe is a 4th generation attorney with an undergraduate degree in computer science and business administration. He now works as a technology consultant for law firms and businesses at OTB-Consulting and was named Technolawyer’s technology consultant of the year.
Rowe answers questions about DaaS for big, small, and solo firms, how to make DaaS secure, how to make it cost effective, and more. He will also talk about SaaS, software as a service, as it relates to lawyers and DaaS users.
Rowe is a 4th generation attorney with an undergraduate degree in computer science and business administration. He now works as a technology consultant for law firms and businesses at OTB-Consulting and was named Technolawyer’s technology consultant of the year.
Rowe answers questions about DaaS for big, small, and solo firms, how to make DaaS secure, how to make it cost effective, and more. He will also talk about SaaS, software as a service, as it relates to lawyers and DaaS users.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/legal-toolkit/2013/04/desktop-as-a-service-for-lawyers
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Pussy Riot member launches hunger strike to protest prison conditions
[JURIST] A member of the Russian feminist rock group Pussy Riot [RASPI backgrounder; JURIST news archive], Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, launched a hunger strike [letter] Monday in protest of living conditions and death threats from the deputy head of the prison in which she is serving her two-year sentence. Tolokonnikova wrote an open letter [Guardian report] detailing life inside the prison colony, stating that the prisoners work up to 17 hours a day and get four hours of sleep per night. She...
What’s Next for RSS Feeds and News Readers?
After much anticipation, Google Reader has left the webosphere. Users have until July 15th to grab their data from the app and find a replacement. So, what’s next? On this edition of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell will discuss news-reader app options and the future of RSS feeds. In the second half of the episode your hosts ask whether Google Search is still the best search engine. Dare they suggest that users divert from the Google conglomerate? Tune in to find out.
Thanks to our sponsor, Transporter.
Thanks to our sponsor, Transporter.
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LawBiz® Legal Pad: The Best Laid Plans: Why Every Law Firm Needs Them, Part 1
Ed discusses why a law firm needs a business plan.
Source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/LawBizBlog/~3/TBnF2NgGiUY/
Finalists for bench named for 10th District
The vacancies were created by the retirements of Judge P. Hunter Anderson and Judge Elizabeth Martin. Anderson’s seat will be chambered in Cambridge in Isanti County and Martin’s in Center City in Chisago County.
Bollman currently serves as an Assistant Sherburne County Attorney. Previously, she was an Assistant Stearns County Attorney, an Assistant Benton County Attorney and an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Saint Cloud. Bollman was a member of the Supreme Court’s Gender Fairness Implementation Committee and is a union negotiator and steward for AFSCME.
Brosnahan currently serves as the Kanabec County Attorney. Previously, Brosnahan was the Assistant Kanabec County Attorney and, prior to that, was an attorney at the law firm of Leonard, Street & Deinard, where she practiced intellectual property, products liability and construction litigation. Additionally, Brosnahan was a founding member of the Methamphetamine Task Force/Substance Abuse Coalition of Kanabec County.
Dowdal is the chief legal counsel for the Office of Inspector General at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. She previously served as Assistant Dean at the William Mitchell College of Law, as partner at the law firm of Dowdal & Dowdal, PLC, as an Assistant United States Attorney and as a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice. Dowdal has been a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society and the Minnesota Women Lawyers Leadership Award Selection Committee.
Schroeder is a shareholder at Briggs and Morgan, P.A., where his practice focuses primarily on civil litigation, including breach of contract, fraud, trade regulation, and consumer finance litigation. Prior to joining Briggs and Morgan in 1985, Schroeder was a law clerk to United States District Court Judge Donald D. Alsop. He is a qualified neutral.
Source: http://minnlawyer.com/minnlawyerblog/2013/09/20/finalists-for-bench-named-for-10th-district/
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Police visit on ‘whim’ did not taint pot evidence
Does a “country boy” – with a home back in the woods behind a bunch of “no trespassing” signs – enjoy more privacy rights than a city dweller?
Maybe so, but police can still come knocking – even on the back door, says U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser as he allows 182 marijuana plants into evidence against a Patrick County man.
Kiser denied David Jones’ suppression motion in the marijuana possession case of U.S. v. Jones.
Two years ago, police were destroying a crop of 19 pot plants in a Patrick County field when the officers decided “on a whim” to see if someone at the nearest house might have seen anyone hanging out in the area.
The house wasn’t visible from the road, but officers walked up the driveway, passing various signs reading, “No Trespassing,” “Posted: Private Property,” “Keep Out,” and the like. Short of a gate or fence around the property, “I am hard-pressed to think of a home more unwelcome to passers-by,” Kiser said.
While one officer knocked at the front door, another went around back.
The backyard was a veritable pot plantation, as Kiser described it. There were marijuana plants close to the house, in the yard and along trails through woods leading down to a creek.
While the officers waited for a search warrant, Jones arrived home, according to Kiser’s summary. He admitted the plants were his.
Even though Jones had a right to expect privacy in his backyard, Kiser said the officers acted reasonably in knocking on the front and back doors under the “knock-and-talk rule” articulated by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The back yard might normally be off limits, but police noticed a “well-worn path” around the side of the house and they knew the custom in the county was for many residents to use the back door of a house for entry and exit. The decision to follow the path was reasonable under the circumstances, Kiser said.
Source: http://valawyersweekly.com/vlwblog/2013/08/30/police-visit-on-whim-did-not-taint-pot-evidence/
Strategies for Building Your Law Practice: You’ve Started Up, Now What?
“The tools that help you get set up have never been cheaper or easier to access,” says Erik Mazzone, a law practice management advisor with a focus in technology. If you can’t fully run your practice from your mobile phone, he continues, you’re behind. Mazzone talks with Digital Edge hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and Jim Calloway about what you need to know when starting a law practice.
Erik Mazzone is the Director of the Center for Practice Management for the North Carolina Bar Association, where he advises lawyers on technology and practice management. He is a columnist for North Carolina Lawyer Magazine and ABA Law Practice Magazine, as well as a former columnist for TechnoLawyer. He is a graduate of Boston College and Boston College Law School.
Hear more on how to maintain and strengthen your practice, and hear specifics on budgeting, website creation and management, online marketing, and more.
Erik Mazzone is the Director of the Center for Practice Management for the North Carolina Bar Association, where he advises lawyers on technology and practice management. He is a columnist for North Carolina Lawyer Magazine and ABA Law Practice Magazine, as well as a former columnist for TechnoLawyer. He is a graduate of Boston College and Boston College Law School.
Hear more on how to maintain and strengthen your practice, and hear specifics on budgeting, website creation and management, online marketing, and more.
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Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Fake Reviewers Get Zero Stars From New York Attorney General
Nineteen companies agreed to pay more than $350,000 in penalties to settle accusations that they wrote or bought phony online reviews of their products, services or restaurants.
Women Who Opt Out: The Debate over Working Mothers and Work-Family Balance
Bernie Jones, Associate Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School, discusses her new book, "Women Who Opt Out: The Debate over Working Mothers and Work-Family Balance." To learn more about Professor Jones' book, visit http://bit.ly/H6Fd2W.
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The Legal Trade Show Survival Guide
Learn how to make the most of your next legal trade show experience when The Legal ToolKit host and Senior Law Practice Advisor with Mass. LOMAP, Jared Correia, chats with Andrea Cannavina, the Founder and CEO of LegalTypist, Inc. Andrea and Jared explain how to decide which events to attend, how to network, the benefits of getting involved in conference planning, and much more.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/legal-toolkit/2012/07/the-legal-trade-show-survival-guide/
Secure Your Legal Data in the Cloud
The use of cloud-based services and technology is top-of-mind for many law departments today, who wonder, "Is the cloud really secure enough to store my company’s confidential legal data?" In this edition of Tech Experts, information security expert, Joe McMorris, VP of Information Technology at Datacert, will explore this question and offer practical advice about the critical information security and compliance questions you should ask before entrusting a cloud-based legal software vendor with your data.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/tech-experts/2012/07/secure-your-legal-data-in-the-cloud/
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LAW SCHOOLS REPORT: Law Schools Get Down to Business
Finance and accounting, management, leadership and entrepreneurship ? all components of a business education, not a legal one, right? Not anymore. A growing number of law schools are borrowing a page from the MBA playbook and adding courses intended to give students a foundation in business, in addition to the law.
Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202620079000&rss=rss_nlj
Magnuson joins Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
Eric Magnuson has left Briggs and Morgan to join Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, which is expanding its appellate practice. The move is effective Sept. 2.
In an interview with Minnesota Lawyer, Magnuson, 62, indicated he was looking for a new challenge.
“Robins presents a real opportunity for me to do some national work in significant cases.” Magnuson said.
Magnuson, a former chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, joined Briggs and Morgan in 2007after the closure of Rider Bennett, where he had practiced since the late 1970s. Magnuson left Briggs after Gov. Tim Pawlenty appointed him to the Supreme Court in 2008; he rejoined that firm after stepping down from the court in 2010.
Later this week, Minnesota Lawyer will post a transcript of the interview with Magnuson, who was joined by Steven Schumeister, managing partner at Robins and Martin Lueck, the firm’s chair of the executive board.
Source: http://minnlawyer.com/minnlawyerblog/2013/09/03/magnuson-joins-robins-kaplan-miller-ciresi/
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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.
Source: http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/kennedy-mighell-report/2012/07/find-now-read-later/
Police visit on ‘whim’ did not taint pot evidence
Does a “country boy” – with a home back in the woods behind a bunch of “no trespassing” signs – enjoy more privacy rights than a city dweller?
Maybe so, but police can still come knocking – even on the back door, says U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser as he allows 182 marijuana plants into evidence against a Patrick County man.
Kiser denied David Jones’ suppression motion in the marijuana possession case of U.S. v. Jones.
Two years ago, police were destroying a crop of 19 pot plants in a Patrick County field when the officers decided “on a whim” to see if someone at the nearest house might have seen anyone hanging out in the area.
The house wasn’t visible from the road, but officers walked up the driveway, passing various signs reading, “No Trespassing,” “Posted: Private Property,” “Keep Out,” and the like. Short of a gate or fence around the property, “I am hard-pressed to think of a home more unwelcome to passers-by,” Kiser said.
While one officer knocked at the front door, another went around back.
The backyard was a veritable pot plantation, as Kiser described it. There were marijuana plants close to the house, in the yard and along trails through woods leading down to a creek.
While the officers waited for a search warrant, Jones arrived home, according to Kiser’s summary. He admitted the plants were his.
Even though Jones had a right to expect privacy in his backyard, Kiser said the officers acted reasonably in knocking on the front and back doors under the “knock-and-talk rule” articulated by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The back yard might normally be off limits, but police noticed a “well-worn path” around the side of the house and they knew the custom in the county was for many residents to use the back door of a house for entry and exit. The decision to follow the path was reasonable under the circumstances, Kiser said.
Source: http://valawyersweekly.com/vlwblog/2013/08/30/police-visit-on-whim-did-not-taint-pot-evidence/
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Monday, September 23, 2013
Legal-Tech Announcement Kick-off: Smart Phones, Smart Watches, Tablets, and more.
‘Tis the season for new technology. Starting with smart phones, we have the two new iPhones, the Nokia Lumia, and the Google Moto X. In only the start of the season, there are more announcements, including new smart watches and tablets, in the works. On this edition of The Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell will review some of the newly released technology, talk about what will work best for lawyers, and what we should expect to see in the upcoming releases. In the second half of the show your hosts will honor the 15th anniversary of CaseMap, a LexisNexis case-management software made specifically for litigators.
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