LJN Newsletters

Lawyers leaving a law practice have an economic interest in monetizing their career-long investment in building a client portfolio and a referral network. How each lawyer has accomplished this depends on his or her particular practice, market and style. But while the means may vary, the results are the same ' access to clients who have legal needs. And this is the value the acquirers wish to capture.

Discussion of a case in which a Texas law firm filed a defamation lawsuit over an ex-client's negative Yelp review.

How much would your company pay for a "like" on Facebook?

In June, a 6-3 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court held that Aereo's streaming service ' which allowed customers to view over-the-air TV broadcasts via the Internet ' violated the broadcasters' public performance right under the Copyright Act. Applying what the dissent derided as "an improvised standard ('looks-like-cable-TV')," the majority held that Aereo infringed copyrights owned by the television networks.

The stature and credibility of any marketing and business development team in the country is based on the experiences that internal clients have with the team. The challenge occurs when a ball gets dropped; no matter how significant or insignificant, "marketing" dropped the ball.

By virtue of its decision in Executive Benefits and its grant of certiorari in Wellness International, the Supreme Court has demonstrated that any further clarification of its decision in Stern will come slowly and deliberately.

Shouldn't we be more deliberate and questioning about the assumptions we make about clients ' in order to ensure that we don't end up with self-inflicted client relations issues?

While it is not unusual for federal courts to apply the Wilton/Brillhart abstention doctrine in response to a party motion, a recent case is remarkable because not only did the district court dismiss the case on its own motion, it did so fully a year after removal, with no parallel state court action pending and after the magistrate judge had issued a 39-page report recommending that the coverage question be answered in the insurer's favor.