<b>Practice Tip:</b> Taking Conceptual Search to the Next Level
January 03, 2006
Conceptual search is widely regarded as a technological Rosetta stone enabling faster, more comprehensive, and more revealing evidence review, but its use in the legal community to date has been limited primarily to a handful of outsourced electronic discovery services. At Foley & Lardner LLP, we realized early on that we could take full advantage of this advanced search technology only by bringing it in-house.
Deadlines On Demand Simplifies Calendaring Juggling Act
January 03, 2006
Practicing law has never been a problem for me or for the other attorneys at my firm; we're very confident of our skills as lawyers and our ability to properly serve clients. But keeping up with the administrative details of creating a solid, reliable calendaring system had become particularly labor intensive in our rapidly growing practice.
Employee Blogging: What Employers Don't Know Could Hurt Them
January 03, 2006
According to an American Management Association 2005 survey of 536 employers, 84% of companies have established policies relating to personal e-mail use, and 81% have established policies relating to personal Internet use, but only 23% have policies on personal postings on corporate blogs. <br>This article discusses blogging and the potential for employer liability that employee blogging presents. It recommends that employers establish blogging policies so that such liability hopefully may be avoided.
Leading Questions and Child Witnesses
January 03, 2006
Lawyers involved in product liability cases are occasionally involved with child witnesses, either as plaintiffs or as percipient witnesses to the critical events in the lawsuit. As in other types of litigation, child witnesses present a number of difficult challenges in product liability cases.
Protect Your Network From The Enemy Within
January 03, 2006
They're out there and they're armed. They're armed with knowledge of the vulnerabilities of your law firm's IT systems that could bring operations to a grinding halt or expose the firm to liability. They know where confidential information is kept, which data is essential and they already have access to the network. Who are they? They're not hackers bent on destruction who launch anonymous attacks on e-commerce operations and your own firm from afar. They're your colleagues.
Third Circuit Opens the Door to Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims
January 03, 2006
Recently, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in In re Tower Air, Inc., 416 F.3d 229 (3rd Cir. 2005), queried: 'How far will the federal courthouse door swing open for a direct suit against corporate directors and officers for Breaches of Fiduciary Duties?' In firmly answering this question, the Third Circuit has widened the door for bankruptcy trustees and creditors' committees, by making it easier, at the pleading stage, to assert a claim for breach of fiduciary duty in federal court.
Hotline
January 03, 2006
Employer cannot make assumptions in "regarded as disabled" casesThe Fifth Circuit has ruled that an employer may not maintain a blanket policy to deny…
The Fifth Amendment, Vicarious Liability, and the Attorney-Client Privilege
January 03, 2006
Waiver of the attorney-client privilege by corporations "cooperating" with the government during investigations of alleged misconduct has become an issue of increasing concern within the legal community. Current U.S. Department of Justice policy, as set forth in a document entitled "Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations" (dated Jan. 20, 2003, sets forth a number of factors that federal prosecutors should consider when contemplating whether or not to criminally charge a corporation. It clearly states that "[g]enerally, prosecutors should apply the same factors in determining whether to charge a corporation as they do with respect to individuals." This policy statement goes on, however, to note that "due to the nature of the corporate 'person,' some additional factors are present," including "[t]he corporation's timely and voluntary disclosure of wrongdoing and its willingness to cooperate in the investigation of its agents, including, if necessary, the waiver of the corporate attorney-client privilege and work-product protection."
