Regulation

2016 is in full swing and we will soon be conducting the 2016 Mattern & Associates Cost Recovery Survey. We've been conducting this bi-annual survey since 2004 and, during that time, it has become an industry resource for tracking the cost recovery practices of law firms across size and geography.

In a first-of-its-kind decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit deferred to the EEOC and held that job applicants may bring "disparate impact" claims for age discrimination against potential employers, even in the absence of evidence of intentional discrimination.

On Jan. 28, the Commerce Department issued a much-anticipated policy statement entitled "White Paper on Remixes, First Sale and Statutory Damages: Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy." This article briefly describes the white paper's scope and recommendations, with a focus on the issue of statutory damages, as to which the white paper proposes several amendments to the current Copyright Act.

Electronic discovery is an ever-changing part of the legal profession. Just when lawyers and their clients feel as though they've mastered the discovery of digital evidence, the rules change or technological advances make e-discovery an even greater challenge.

The year 2005 really marked the beginning of the "era of data breaches," and with it, the "era of data breach lawsuits." In its place, what is now commonplace in the wake of major data breaches ' class action "privacy" litigation on behalf of data subjects, seeking millions of dollars in damages, under a dizzying array of legal theories.

The character of a franchise prospect seems relevant. Franchisors want trustworthy participants in the franchise system. A credit report and a criminal history search seem reasonable to screen out undesirables. Roughly one in four adults has some criminal history that would show up on a search, and some of these crimes have since been decriminalized. Using searches of criminal histories and credit reports can also be racially discriminatory.

For the second time in three years, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to consider important questions under the Copyright Act at the behest of Supap Kirtsaeng, a tenacious Thai math professor. In 2013, the Supreme Court handed Kirtsaeng an important victory in a litigation brought against him by a major publisher, holding that a copyrighted work published and purchased abroad may be resold in the United States without the permission of the copyright holder.

Ordinarily, a defendant who wishes to assert the defense of advice of counsel must unlock the door that shields his privileged communications with counsel and divulge those communications to his adversary. But when the defendant is a corporate employee who claims to have relied on advice from the corporation's attorney, the employee may not be able to unlock that door.