Features
The Coming Tsunami in the Legal Profession
There have been four waves of change over the last 50 years. We are now entering the fifth wave and this one will be a tsunami. The lawyers who do not recognize the trends will not be able to enter a new era and survive. The fifth wave will turn partnership leverage, compensation systems and the business model upside down. There is not much time to make the incremental changes that will support sustained profitability in law firms.
Columns & Departments
IP News
Federal Circuit Holds Two of Apple's Five Asserted Patents Invalid, Three More Not Infringed
Features
Mobile Medical Apps and Product Liability
As mobile medical apps become central to medical care, litigation is inevitable. A threshold issue in such litigation is likely to be whether or not a mobile app is, in the first instance, subject to FDA regulation.
Features
Copyright Act Preempts Players' Publicity Rights for NFL Films
Twenty-three professional football players brought a class action lawsuit against the NFL, claiming that films produced by NFL Films violated their state rights of publicity and constituted false endorsement under '43(a) of the Lanham Act. Twenty of those players settled with the NFL. However, the other three players elected to pursue their suit.
Features
The Power of the Business Plan
A powerful business plan can change your life, especially if you are in a moment of transition with your practice. Any lawyer who wants to have his or her own clients ' or more of their own clients ' should outline their plan to obtain that goal. Arguably, the most critical juncture is when you are looking at other firms in hopes of making a lateral move, but there are no bad times to put together an action plan for expanding your practice.
Features
AccessData's Summation 6.0
It's understood that the "discovery wars" have long been far more than litigation maneuvering by both sides in a case. Even without intention, the volume and complexity of electronically stored information pertinent to litigation results in cost burdens that affect substantive decisions in a case.
Features
Dismissal of Suit Against TV Program Upheld
A television station's report that two stores in the D'Lites chain of dietary ice cream franchises were mislabeling their "small" portions as low calorie and low carb was "substantially true," and a defamation claim by a franchise owner was properly dismissed, a Manhattan appeals court said on March 15.
Features
Predicting the Tides
It is a fact pattern common to asbestos-related lawsuits: A plaintiff recalls generally working around different products that may or may not have contained asbestos, but cannot pinpoint specific time periods or locations where those products were present and could have exposed the plaintiff to asbestos. Typically, the alleged exposure occurred three or more decades ago, with no potential corroborating documents or witnesses surviving to the present date. This scenario places defendants in the untenable position of defending a claim without access to any information on the products, or the alleged exposure, that will either confirm or deny that the identified products were both present in the plaintiff's workplace and actually contained asbestos.
Features
Non-Reliance Disclaimers and Anti-Waiver Provisions
A number of conflicting decisions over the past year and a half concerning whether provisions prohibiting waiver of duties or liabilities under the New York Franchise Act prohibit franchisors from interposing franchisee "non-reliance" franchise agreement disclaimers when confronting fraud actions brought under the Act makes clear that this critical area of law will remain muddied until the courts decisively rule on the subject.
Features
Leading the Law Department: Hire the Best
For the inside counsel revolution to succeed, the General Counsel must follow a basic dictum: Hire the best. The key to the legal function's credibility with the CEO and senior line executives is to seek broad-gauged lawyers who are outstanding technical experts, wise counselors and effective leaders to occupy the top specialists jobs in the company and to be general counsel in the main operating divisions.
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