Selected by vpynchon

• Most Topular Stories

• When Opposing Counsel Uses Your Facebook Friendship Against You

  Legal Blog Watch

  Bruce Carton

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:33 pm

  On the Abnormal Use blog Tuesday, editor Jim Dedman suggested that lawyers may need to start asking themselves the following question: "Will My Advocate Opponent Impeach Me With My Own Legal Social Media?" "Might some of our opinions or blog posts come back to haunt us?" he asked "Might an Internet savvy advocate quote our own posts against us in some future case?" The article cited in the post was focused on the risk of an adversary scouring and scrutinizing a law blogger's posts "to see if her opponent has ever taken a position opposite to the one advanced…

• Valentine's Day news: Love is more than just chemicals in the brain--P.S. So is conflict

  Brains On Purpose™

  StephanieWestAllen

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:51 am

  Understanding love by taking a look at the brain is a bit like understanding a car's driver by looking under the hood of the car he's driving. Such an attempt at comprehending love would be ultimately futile. It's not cognizant of the human spirit. Not wise. Not accurate. Unfortunately some conflict professionals are now reducing conflict to the brain, too....

• Press Announcement: Muttley Dastardly LLP take on the new world of legal services with *Lawyerborg 2.0*

  Charon QC

  Charon QC

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:51 pm

  PRESS RELEASE In just seven days Dr Erasmus Strangelove, senior partner of Muttley Dastardly LLP, will reveal Lawyerborg 2.0 – 20% paralegal 80% machine with no inbuilt soul issues. Dr Erasmus Strangelove said today in Dubai: “We believe that our new creation will transform the way legal services are delivered in the United Kingdom.  We believe that we have addressed the all too common perception by the public  that legal services are expensive and service levels are variable, at times heading towards incompetent.   Lawyerborg 2.0 comes fully equipped with leading legal…

• What Great Basketball Coaches Can Teach Us About Trial Prep

  Deliberations

  Matt McCusker

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:40 am

  Dean Smith, the hall-of-fame University of North Carolina basketball coach, was a master at preparing his players for opponents. I once heard a story that described a time when Coach Smith had to get his Tarheels ready for an opposing team that had significant height at numerous positions around the court. Rather than having a normal practice, he gathered brooms and mops from the janitorial closet and distributed them to defenders as arm extenders to block shots. If Coach Smith’s players could shoot over brooms, then they could certainly shoot over their upcoming vertically-enhanced…

• Want to explore your inner neophile or neophobe? Here are three excerpts from the new book titled, well, NEW

  idealawg

  StephanieWestAllen

  5 Feb 2012 | 10:50 am

  Thanks to wordpandit.com for compiling these three excerpts from Bloomberg. The book: New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change. Excerpts from the excerpts (click on links to see the full excerpts): Exploring Your Inner Neophiliac (Part 1) Through the ages, scientists have proposed many theories to explain our varying reactions to the new and different. In the fifth century B.C., Hippocrates identified three categories: Optimistic, energetic neophiles who crave novelty he called “sanguine.” Fretful, moody neophobes were “melancholic.” Irritable, impulsive neophiliacs were…

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  Legal Blog Watch

• When Opposing Counsel Uses Your Facebook Friendship Against You

  Bruce Carton

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:33 pm

  On the Abnormal Use blog Tuesday, editor Jim Dedman suggested that lawyers may need to start asking themselves the following question: "Will My Advocate Opponent Impeach Me With My Own Legal Social Media?" "Might some of our opinions or blog posts come back to haunt us?" he asked "Might an Internet savvy advocate quote our own posts against us in some future case?" The article cited in the post was focused on the risk of an adversary scouring and scrutinizing a law blogger's posts "to see if her opponent has ever taken a position opposite to the one advanced…

• Wednesday's Three Burning Legal Questions

  Bruce Carton

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:18 am

  Here are today's three burning legal questions, along with the answers provided by the blogosphere. 1) Question: The judge hearing the domestic violence case against me just ordered me to get my wife some flowers, get dressed up, pick up my wife, take her to Red Lobster and then go bowling with her! Can he do this?! Answer: I'm afraid so. Try the Four Course Seafood Feast. (Sun Sentinel, Flowers, dinner, bowling -- and counseling -- ordered by Broward judge in domestic case) 2) Question: The psychiatrist testifying at this competency hearing is wearing a two-foot tall cone-shaped hat that is…

• C'mon Man! PETA Argues SeaWorld Whales Are Slaves in Violation of 13th Amendment

  Bruce Carton

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:30 pm

  The ethical treatment of animals sounds like a reasonable thing that people should support. And it even seems logical that there would be an entire organization of reasonable people who are dedicated to promoting the ethical treatment of animals. You could even call it People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Or something like that. Of course, there is an organization called PETA with that name and mission, but why does it seem like so many things that PETA does are completely over the top? For example, as I wrote back in September 2011, PETA is now finalizing a soft-core porn website on…

• Tuesday's Three Burning Legal Questions

  Bruce Carton

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:58 am

  Here are today's three burning legal questions, along with the answers provided by the blogosphere. 1) Question: That does it. I am broke, disillusioned and have pretty much had it with this country! How do I renounce my U.S. citizenship? Answer: If you are broke then you're going to need to save up your money before renouncing your U.S. citizenship. That costs $450. (New York Daily News, State Department boosts passport fees, sets cost of citizenship) 2) Question: Why am I being arrested for DUI after supposedly failing a sobriety test for not being able to walk a straight line? What part of…

• Things You Can't Do on a Plane: Vol. 12

  Bruce Carton

  6 Feb 2012 | 1:21 pm

  You might think that after Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, Volume 9, Volume 10 and Volume 11 of Things You Can't Do on a Plane, that we'd have exhausted the list of things you can't do on a plane. Nope! The list grows daily. Here are three more things I've recently learned that you cannot do on a plane: Stuff a dirty diaper down the airplane's toilet. Passengers may not throw dirty diapers away in the airplane's toilet, as it may result in a suspicious smell requiring the termination of the flight. CONSEQUENCE: Aircraft will be diverted and make…

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  Brains On Purpose™

• Valentine's Day news: Love is more than just chemicals in the brain--P.S. So is conflict

  StephanieWestAllen

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:51 am

  Understanding love by taking a look at the brain is a bit like understanding a car's driver by looking under the hood of the car he's driving. Such an attempt at comprehending love would be ultimately futile. It's not cognizant of the human spirit. Not wise. Not accurate. Unfortunately some conflict professionals are now reducing conflict to the brain, too....

• Wah, wah, wah: Excellent example of why people don't listen, even if you have good information

  StephanieWestAllen

  1 Feb 2012 | 8:42 am

  The blog post is titled "Meet Me Halfway" (Scientific American) and its author writes about one kind of two-way communication: The speaker gives information and the listener, well, listens. The blogger then gives us some interesting neuroscience-related information about the way the brains of speakers and listeners can synchronize. And then she writes about scientists having much good information for...

• Are character and personality overrated? Yes, says author of new book SITUATIONS MATTER

  StephanieWestAllen

  31 Jan 2012 | 12:38 pm

  [T]he people around us are not who we think they are, and we usually fall into the trap of thinking we know their inner workings better than we really do.--From review of Situation Matters According to Professor Sam Sommers, we are not very consistent and predictable. In this review (Tufts Now), you will find a link to a short animation...

• Lecture on metaphor and embodied cognition

  StephanieWestAllen

  31 Jan 2012 | 6:22 am

  Click to watch a lecture by Professor Raymond Gibbs on metaphor and embodied cognition.

• Rescuing the amygdala from the swamp of pop culture

  StephanieWestAllen

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:11 pm

  Coming on the heels of my blog post Clearing up confusion: The amygdala is not the same as the reptile brain & it's probably not reserved for fear is a news release from Association of Psychological Sciences with more information which I hope will continue the cleaning up of the amygdala's reputation in the media. And clear up its role...

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  Charon QC

• Press Announcement: Muttley Dastardly LLP take on the new world of legal services with *Lawyerborg 2.0*

  Charon QC

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:51 pm

  PRESS RELEASE In just seven days Dr Erasmus Strangelove, senior partner of Muttley Dastardly LLP, will reveal Lawyerborg 2.0 – 20% paralegal 80% machine with no inbuilt soul issues. Dr Erasmus Strangelove said today in Dubai: “We believe that our new creation will transform the way legal services are delivered in the United Kingdom.  We believe that we have addressed the all too common perception by the public  that legal services are expensive and service levels are variable, at times heading towards incompetent.   Lawyerborg 2.0 comes fully equipped with leading legal…

• Doctors advise only one glass of wine a day?!

  Charon QC

  6 Feb 2012 | 11:39 am

  Hat Tip to @Old_Holborn for the link to this pic.  I have seen it before – but it continues to make me laugh.  Monday has not been brilliant – managed to sprain my ankle after slipping on icy slush. I may have a large glass tonight!

• Lawcast 201: Antonin Pribetic on twitter, social media generally and legal services

  Charon QC

  6 Feb 2012 | 11:06 am

  Lawcast 201:  Antonin Pribetic on twitter, social media generally and legal services Today I am talking to Canadian lawyer and blogger Antonin Pribetic about social media:  twitter, blogging and legal marketing. The Trial Warrior blog Listen to the podcast And…thank you to Cassons For Counsel,  Justgodirect.co.uk and  David Phillips & Partners Solicitors , Contact Law UK Solicitors for sponsoring the podcasts and the free student materials on Insite Law.

• #WithoutPrejudice podcast 18: Legal education – Human Rights left wing twaddle? – Assange extradition

  Charon QC

  3 Feb 2012 | 1:32 am

  1. Is the state too weak, too powerful or just right? 2. Why do we need universities? 3. Are human rights left wing twaddle?  and 4.   Commentary on the Assange extradition appeal in the UK Supreme Court after two days of argument before the Justices 5.  Barristers facing financial problems because of government inefficiency Our guests tonight are resident panelist Carl Gardner, Professor Gary Slapper Director of New York University in London and former ‘left wing’ Tory MP Jerry Hayes, a practising barrister specialising in the more serious criminal cases. Listen to the podcast If you…

• O sole mio…. give it to me… we need a bail out…. in Italy… Camcorderdirect meets Italy PM

  Charon QC

  30 Jan 2012 | 3:03 am

  Apropos of nothing… but my Word du Jour is… *Crepuscular*… adjective. 1. of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight; dim; indistinct….. – That is all  

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  Deliberations

• What Great Basketball Coaches Can Teach Us About Trial Prep

  Matt McCusker

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:40 am

  Dean Smith, the hall-of-fame University of North Carolina basketball coach, was a master at preparing his players for opponents. I once heard a story that described a time when Coach Smith had to get his Tarheels ready for an opposing team that had significant height at numerous positions around the court. Rather than having a normal practice, he gathered brooms and mops from the janitorial closet and distributed them to defenders as arm extenders to block shots. If Coach Smith’s players could shoot over brooms, then they could certainly shoot over their upcoming vertically-enhanced…

• Don’t Call Me Fluffy: One Perspective on Mock Trials

  Matt McCusker

  18 Jan 2012 | 7:20 pm

  As a profession, litigation consulting sometimes faces a fluctuating level of credibility within the legal community. At times, trial attorneys question the necessity and even the validity of some trial consulting techniques. Similar to the blowback psychologists encountered at the birth of their field, uninformed naysayers have readily utilized the terms “fluff science” and “voodoo” to describe our work. In my opinion, this is not an accurate description. While I have anecdotally heard of incidents of litigation consultants ignoring a full analysis of questionnaire results in favor…

• The Dangers of “Sending a Message” Through Damage Awards

  Matt McCusker

  27 Dec 2011 | 4:29 pm

  Colleen and Robert Middleton suffered an unspeakable tragedy. In 1998, their 8 year old son (Robbie) was allegedly set on fire by a sexual predator named Donald W. Collins. While he survived the initial attack, Robbie Middleton died 13 years later of cancer that originated from the skin grafts utilized to treat his burns. The criminal case inexplicably disintegrated (read more about it here) , so the Middletons sued Mr. Collins for wrongful death. After seeing videotaped testimony from the now deceased Robbie, a very emotionally charged jury found in favor of the plaintiff. However, they…

• Religion, Politics, Sex (and Sports?): Remembering the Power of Emotions

  Matt McCusker

  22 Nov 2011 | 2:55 pm

  In a recent Psychology Today blog, Sam Sommers explores why Penn State fans would hold a pep rally on Joe Paterno’s lawn despite allegations suggesting he turned a blind-eye towards child rape. It is easy to dismiss these people as rabid football fans who have become soft in the head after years of keg stands and beer funnels. However, a closer examination suggests that this behavior is something we are all capable of. There is a long history of sports fan delusion. One can still see Atlanta Falcons fans who wear Michael Vick jerseys despite his dismissal from the team...

• IN DEFENSE OF LITIGATION CONSULTING...

  Matt McCusker

  3 Nov 2011 | 10:54 am

  Every so often, the field of Trial Consulting comes under attack. Despite our 35 year history, some in the legal field continue to believe that the use of consultants is equivalent to buying car seat warmers. Sure it feels good in the winter, but warm butts have nothing to do with getting you where you want to go. Everyone has the right to their opinion. However, things change dramatically when a judge or prosecutor tries to utilize the law to impose this opinion on parties to a case. Last year, Sonia Chopra and I (Matt McCusker) wrote an Amicus Brief...

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  idealawg

• Want to explore your inner neophile or neophobe? Here are three excerpts from the new book titled, well, NEW

  StephanieWestAllen

  5 Feb 2012 | 10:50 am

  Thanks to wordpandit.com for compiling these three excerpts from Bloomberg. The book: New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change. Excerpts from the excerpts (click on links to see the full excerpts): Exploring Your Inner Neophiliac (Part 1) Through the ages, scientists have proposed many theories to explain our varying reactions to the new and different. In the fifth century B.C., Hippocrates identified three categories: Optimistic, energetic neophiles who crave novelty he called “sanguine.” Fretful, moody neophobes were “melancholic.” Irritable, impulsive neophiliacs were…

• 4 questions to consider when selecting a trustee for estate planning and administration

  StephanieWestAllen

  5 Feb 2012 | 9:56 am

  My friend and colleague Hartley Goldstone is working to improve the relationship between trustees and beneficiaries. To that end, he recently wrote an article; click to read it. Please e-travel on over to Hartley's Web site to see what else this lawyer is doing for trustees and beneficiaries.

• The zeal to heal can lead to pathological altruism: Yes, even in the law and in mediation

  StephanieWestAllen

  5 Feb 2012 | 8:20 am

  Helper syndrome, pathological altruism--both typically do little good. They make some helper professionals feel an immediate "goodness" but the resulting longterm damage often makes both the helper and the helpee worse off than before any intervention. Pathological altruism can be dangerous. Does it seem to you that it's on the increase? Seems that way to me. What is pathological altruism? It's related to the helper sydrome about which I have blogged before; click to read my posts. From "The Pathological Altruist Gives Till Someone Hurts" (New York Times): As the…

• Weather permitting: Clinic in Denver with legendary David Amram Saturday, Feb 4

  StephanieWestAllen

  3 Feb 2012 | 3:22 pm

  Tomorrow, February 4, at noon, David Amram will be giving a clinic in south Denver with one of the Colorado Jazz Workshop combos. If you are interested in attending, email me for details. From Wikipedia: David Amram (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz (including being one of the first noted as an improvising jazz French hornist[1]), ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston…

• A bit of the psychology of executing a will: "A Therapeutic Jurisprudential Framework of Estate Planning"

  StephanieWestAllen

  3 Feb 2012 | 10:44 am

  Attention to the psychology of writing a will and engaging in other activities in furtherance of an estate plan has been somewhat minimal. I am happy to report that the dearth of psychological knowledge is changing; more wise experts are focusing the spotlight on what goes on in the mind and the brain when thinking about transfer of assets and about one's legacy. Here's an article that takes a look at some of the factors involved in this area of psychology. Excerpt: Drawing upon the burgeoning field of therapeutic jurisprudence, this Article analyzes the psychological consequences…

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  Balkinization

• Marriage and the Ninth Circuit: Next Up, Washington

  Jason Mazzone

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:34 pm

  Today in Washington state the house approved a same-sex marriage bill. The state senate approved the same bill last week. The governor promises to sign the bill into law and it will take effect 90 days thereafter. Washington state has had domestic partnership laws since 2007. Opponents of the marriage bill say they plan to gather signatures for a ballot measure to overturn the legislation. After yesterday's decision of the Ninth Circuit panel in Perry v. Brown, would a ballot measure repealing the law violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution? Perhaps the answer depends on…

• Understanding Perry v. Brown

  Marty Lederman

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:54 am

  Jason Mazzone asserts that the Ninth Circuit's decision yesterday in Perry v. Brown was "dishonest and foolish." It is neither. Judge Reinhardt's rationale did not, as Jason argues, rest upon any misreading of Romer v. Evans, nor did the panel hold, as Jason would have it, that "if the state gives you something it can't later take it away." Moreover, in declining to reach out to decide whether a state can ever limit civil marriage to heterosexual couples, the panel not only did not act foolishly; it acted appropriately, since resolution of that question--one that would affect the marriage…

• Marriage and the Ninth Circuit: Collateral Damage

  Jason Mazzone

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:48 am

  In his opinion yesterday in Perry v. Brown, Judge Reinhardt devotes 15 pages to explaining why reasons offered in support of Proposition 8 (childrearing and responsible procreation, proceeding cautiously, protecting religious freedom, and preventing children from being taught about same-sex marriage in schools) are irrational. He then concludes that, absent any such legitimate reason, Proposition 8 must have arisen out of animosity toward or disapproval of gays and lesbians and such motivations cannot sustain the law. Yet by focusing the equal protection analysis on the revocation of…

• Marriage and the Ninth Circuit: Thumbs Down

  Jason Mazzone

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:18 pm

  My initial reaction to the Ninth Circuit panel's decision today in Perry v. Brown is that it is dishonest and foolish. It is dishonest because it warps the relevant background and misrepresents Romer v. Evans to reach the conclusion that Romer requires invalidation of Proposition 8. It is foolish because it misses--indeed evades--a ripe opportunity for a straight-up ruling that a ban on same-sex marriage violates the federal Constitution, a ruling that has a better than even chance of being upheld by the Supreme Court. Judge Reinhardt's opinion for the 2 judge majority today says, in essence,…

• How the Cold War Matters to the War Powers Debate

  Mary L. Dudziak

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:20 pm

  This is the second in a series of posts about my new book, War·Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences, kicked off when Eric Posner so helpfully generated an on-line discussion.  He dismisses an argument about Cold War statebuilding because "it would be hard to exaggerate legal scholars’ obsession with the rise of executive power, going back at least to the Nixon administration, indeed to the New Deal."The question of why the Cold War matters to an understanding of the war powers debate might, at first glance, seem obvious.  The most iconic case about presidential war power,…

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  Law Blog

• The AM Roundup: Well Notices, Foreclosure Pact, More

  Joe Palazzolo

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:36 am

  All is Wells: Federal securities regulators plan to warn several major banks that they intend to sue them over mortgage-related actions linked to the financial crisis, the WSJ reports. At issue is whether the banks misrepresented the poor quality of loan pools they bundled and sold to investors. It isn’t clear which firms will receive the “Wells notices.” Banks whose activities are being examined in the civil investigation include Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, according to the Journal. Representatives of the banks…

• Viktor Bout Wants Out Of Restrictive Jail Conditions

  Chad Bray

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:16 pm

  A suspected Russian arms dealer convicted last year of conspiring to sell surface-to-air missiles and other weapons in a U.S. sting operation wants to be held under less restrictive conditions while he’s awaiting sentencing. Viktor Bout, a former Soviet air force officer, no longer wants to be held in the special housing unit, or SHU, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan. He has been held there since he was extradited from Thailand in 2010 after two years of legal wrangling. His lawyer, Albert Dayan, said in a letter to the court that Bout, 45 years old, is…

• Creative Sentencing: Red Lobster and Bowling

  Joe Palazzolo

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:57 pm

  Maybe you saw this gem from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about a man who was sentenced to a date night: A marital spat that began when a Plantation man didn’t wish his wife a happy birthday and then escalated into a domestic violence charge, resulted in an unusual bond court ruling by a perceptive judge. Instead of setting bond or keeping Joseph Bray locked up, [the judge] ordered him to treat his spouse to dinner, a bowling date and then to undergo marriage counseling. “He’s going to stop by somewhere and he’s going to get some flowers,” Judge John “Jay” Hurley said during…

• Spitzer And Breuer Spar On NYU Law Panel

  Reed Albergotti

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:40 pm

  DOJ’s Lanny Breuer You’d think Lanny Breuer, head of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice, would want to avoid a panel discussion called “Crooks on the Loose? Did Felons Get a Free Pass in the Financial Crisis?” Apparently not. Breuer walked into a brawl Wednesday when he sat on the New York University School of Law panel with former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, an outspoken critic of the Justice Department’s lack of criminal prosecutions in the wake of the subprime mortgage collapse. Shots were fired almost immediately when the moderator Neil Barofsky, a…

• The Daily Writing Sample: A ‘Scraggly Expression of Time’

  Joe Palazzolo

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:09 am

  This WS comes to us via Howard Bashman at How Appealing. In a dissent Tuesday, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit let loose his inner grammarian on sentencing guidelines for defendants who illegally re-enter the country after being deported. He wrote, In the richness of the English language, few things can create as much mischief as piling prepositional phrase upon prepositional phrase. The child says, “I saw the man on the hill with the telescope.” Did the child use the telescope to see the man on the hill? Or did the child see a man — or even…

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  Overlawyered

• Scope of existing state employer-contraceptive mandates

  Walter Olson

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:28 am

  It has been asserted in various outlets that many states already mandate contraceptive coverage, that the Catholic church has been content to live with those mandates, and so that the current firestorm over the ObamaCare provision must just be something cooked up by Republican consultants. Here is a response from the National Council of Catholic Bishops via NR’s Kathryn Lopez: 6. The federal mandate is much stricter than existing state mandates. HHS chose the narrowest state-level religious exemption as the model for its own. That exemption was drafted by the ACLU and exists in only 3…

• Law students sue over bad grades

  Walter Olson

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:32 pm

  The former Texas Southern students say their D on Contracts was arbitrary and capricious. [Houston Chronicle] Per @tedfrank, “Doesn’t it sort of prove you deserve the bad law-school grade when you bring a frivolous lawsuit over it?” Tags: colleges and universities, law schools Related posts Law schools roundup (3) Law schools roundup (5) Canada: “Human Rights Tribunal rules it can name university deans” (4) “Nobody held a gun to their head and made them enroll at a school called CATHOLIC University” (14) Yale adopts submissive posture in…

• February 9 roundup

  Walter Olson

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:07 pm

  Ninth Circuit panel strikes down California’s Prop 8 [Volokh, Kerr, Magliocca, Lithwick, Steve Chapman] Judge dismisses PETA “killer whales enslaved” case [Caroline May/Daily Caller, CNN, earlier] “Patent Troll Claims Ownership of Interactive Web – And Might Win” [Joe Mullin/Wired, earlier; more on testimony by Web father Tim Berners-Lee] “Further Analysis of the Bottle-Rocket Case” [Lowering the Bar, earlier] As patients suffer: “The War Over Prescription Painkillers,” start of a Radley Balko series [HuffPo parts one, two so far]…

• Dickens bicentenary

  Walter Olson

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:36 pm

  Kevin at Lowering the Bar recounts Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. Tags: lawyers Related posts Wisconsin lawyer: I won’t represent GOPers since they voted to limit fees (13) When jurors tell lawyer jokes (0) Trade protectionism, the UPL way (0) The case for tissue-box lawyers (4) Sophisticated advisors? (5)

• “Judge rejects injured beer-pong champ”

  Walter Olson

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:11 am

  “A New Jersey man who got so drunk playing beer pong at a Greenwich Village pub that he thought walking across a busy highway was a good idea cannot sue the bar over his injuries, a judge has ruled.” [Dareh Gregorian, NY Post] Tags: alcohol, dramshop statutes, NYC, personal responsibility Related posts NYC subway track totterer awarded $5.95 million (10) John Avlon, “Sue City” (7) Drunken ride on mechanical bull (16) “Charlie Davies sues nightclub, Red Bull” (5) You served me the alcohol, now pay for my crash (5)

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  Concurring Opinions

• Preserving Free Speech Architectures — vs. Designing New Ones

  Marc Blitz

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:32 pm

  Thanks to Marvin for giving us such a fascinating and well-done article to debate here – and to Danielle and Concurring Opinions for giving us a virtual space for that debate can happen. I’m grateful for the invitation to join in. Marvin’s major target throughout his article is the “negative liberty” view of free speech. The First Amendment, he argues, is not only a barrier against official abuse. It is also a constitutional power source that provides a basis for a legislature to do things it otherwise couldn’t do, especially when it comes to safeguarding – or, if necessary,…

• Free Speech and Foot Traffic

  Zephyr Teachout

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:01 pm

  I will be brief for now, though I have much to say about Marvin Ammori’s wonderful article and discussion. Thank you for inviting me to join. Two quick thoughts for today: First, the more I embed myself in public forum doctrine (a dangerous side effect of involvement with Occupy Wall Street), the more Dr. Seuss-like it starts to seem, the rhyme in my head being: “walking means talking and free speech is on beeches.” The short of it being that the likelihood of a court finding a public forum seems highly correlated with whether or not it is (a) a beach or (b) a public thoroughfare…

• How and why to boycott Apple

  Brishen Rogers

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:28 pm

  In the wake of two Times articles and an episode of This American Life exposing working conditions among Apple’s suppliers, various bloggers and commentators have called for a consumer boycott. One respected tech blogger even called the conditions “barbaric,” arguing that “the blame lies not with Apple and other electronics companies—but with us, the consumers.” I find the argument that Western consumers owe a moral duty to overseas workers quite compelling, particularly with regard to luxury goods such as Apple’s. See Iris Marion Young on that point. Yet…

• Free Speech Architecture: Universal Access to Speech Spaces (#7)

  Marvin Ammori

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:53 pm

  So far I have discussed four principles concerning speech spaces (and Brett has added one). This is the fifth principle concerning speech spaces that I set out in my recent article. The First Amendment encourages access for all Americans to physical and digital speech spaces, even if the “unregulated” speech market would not provide access to many speakers. Those that benefit most from government efforts to expand universal access to speech spaces are speakers in rural areas or those without extensive means. The traditional public forum doctrine, of course, promotes universality.

• Employment Division v. Smith is Wrong

  Gerard Magliocca

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:53 pm

  I’ve never been a fan of the Court’s holding that a neutral statute of general application is constitutional even if it imposes a significant burden on a religion.  There is decent evidence that this was contrary to the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment, Michael McConnell wrote a terrific article making the case against the decision when it first came out, and others have offered plenty of criticisms. Recent events, though, show why Smith rests on a questionable understanding of the First Amendment.  When a neutral and generally applicable employment…

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  Robert Ambrogi's LawSites

• Onit App-ifies Legal Process Management

  Robert Ambrogi

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:16 pm

  Onit just may be onto something. At LegalTech last week, the company revealed that it is moving in a new direction, away from a single, soup-to-nuts process-management platform in favor of a new line of task-specific apps, each designed to address a specific business process. It rolled out a series of apps that address legal, governance and compliance, HR and sales functions within an enterprise. Call it the app-ification of process management — or maybe the consumerization of enterprise IT. Our mobile devices have taught us to appreciate the simplicity of apps that address everyday…

• Clio Announces Financing, Document Assembly

  Robert Ambrogi

  31 Jan 2012 | 7:24 am

  Jack Newton I am here at LegalTech in New York where I had an opportunity to meet yesterday with Jack Newton and Rian Gauvreau, founders of Clio, the cloud-based practice management application. They had big news to share: Clio has raised $6 million in financing. This is the first major capital investment in any cloud-based practice management application, so it will be interesting to see where Clio goes from here. Jack and Rian said the financing will be used to further enhance the Clio platform and add new functionality. Clio also plans to expand its marketing beyond the U.S. into other…

• Free Online Course: Topics in Digital Law Practice

  Robert Ambrogi

  28 Jan 2012 | 3:39 pm

  Starting Feb. 10, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction is offering a free, nine-week online course, Topics in Digital Law Practice, taught by a stellar faculty of well-known speakers: This course is designed to provide an overview of the changes that are occurring in the practice of law today, especially with respect to technology. It will introduce law students for real-world situations that they will encounter in the job market and point law professors to new avenues to cover in their courses. The course consists of nine weekly one-hour classes, delivered via webcast on…

• Rocket Matter Releases Version 2.0; Adds Document Assembly and Custom Fields

  Robert Ambrogi

  25 Jan 2012 | 6:02 am

  Assembling a document from a template in Rocket Matter 2.0. The Web-based practice management application Rocket Matter today released version 2.0 of its platform. The new version adds two notable features: document assembly and custom fields. With this release, Rocket Matter becomes the only cloud-based practice management platform to integrate document assembly, according to Larry Port, the company’s co-founder and chief software architect. The document assembly feature allows users to create templates for legal forms or other documents and then automatically merge client and matter data…

• Site Lets Lawyers Build Their Own Mobile Apps

  Robert Ambrogi

  20 Jan 2012 | 6:50 am

  A sample shown on the site I happened across a website called MyPocketAttorney that says it will let lawyers build their own smartphone apps using templates designed for law offices and legal professionals. As of this morning, a notice on the site says, “Site Under Construction! Launch Date 1-20-2012.” Today being Jan. 20, we’ll see if it launches. The site describes its service this way: You can start building your app online using our custom templates. Your clients will appreciate the service as it allows them to contact you faster to access your latest promotions and…

• 

  Above the Law

• Arizona Supreme Court Upholds Discrimination Against People Who Can’t Speak English

  Elie Mystal

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:33 pm

  How much English do you have to be able to speak in order to hold elected office? I don’t know, but apparently justices in Arizona think they know it when they hear it. Continuing Arizona’s quest to become the most racist state in the Union, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed a ruling that prevented Alejandrina Cabrera from running for a city council seat because she doesn’t speak English proficiently. But we can’t just “blame whitey” for this one. Here we’ve got a Southwestern case of Latino-on-Latino crime. Well, you know what they say: when in…

• Non-Sequiturs: 02.08.12

  Elie Mystal

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:55 pm

  Let's just say that my Google Image search for 'black prophet' was underwhelming. * When the student debt bubble bursts and causes general economic ruin, I don’t want to be called a “prophet.” You may call me “messenger,” as in the sentence, “We’d like welcome the messenger, Elie Mystal, to the program. Tell us, seer, what it was like being so far ahead of the curve.” [Democrat and Chronicle] * No one expects the Spanish Inquisition American Government. [The Atlantic] * Here are some good apps for legal types, but I don’t see the one for…

• Thank You to Our Advertisers

  Above the Law

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:44 pm

  We’d like to take a moment to thank our wonderful advertisers here at Above the Law: ALPS BarMax College of Law eLawgic IBM Kinney Recruiting (sponsor of the Asia Chronicles) Lateral Link (sponsor of the Career Center) New York Times Practical Law Company Themis Westlaw If you’re interested in advertising on Above the Law or any other site in the Breaking Media network, please download our media kits, or email advertising@breakingmedia.com. Thanks!

• Quote of the Day: Why Do You Hate America, Justice Ginsburg?

  David Lat

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:16 pm

  [A]mong the world’s democracies … constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s. The turn of the twenty-first century, however, saw the beginning of a steep plunge that continues through the most recent years for which we have data, to the point that the constitutions of the world’s democracies are, on average, less similar to the U.S. Constitution now than they were at the end of World War II.

• House Rules: RIF is a Four-Letter Acronym

  David Mowry

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:45 pm

  When I was a kid, before most of you were born, there were ads during Saturday morning cartoons for a program called “RIF” -– an acronym for Reading is Fundamental. Started in 1966 in Washington, D.C., it is supposedly one of the oldest non-profit educational programs in existence. I mentioned RIFs in my last column, and trust me, in the corporate world, RIFs are not altruistic attempts to get at-risk youth to read. RIF stands for reduction in force – layoffs, terminations, downsizing, etc. A RIF can take various forms, a V-RIF, or voluntary reduction in force, is when a company…

• 

  Lowering the Bar

• Sotomayor Resolves Muppet Dispute

  Kevin

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:12 pm

  While I think it's great that a justice is appearing on Sesame Street, there are some problems with this vignette. First, the case clearly is not properly before the Court, unless they're suggesting Baby Bear filed a cert petition, and there's no constitutional issue here anyway, and no quorum. Second, Justice Sotomayor should be limiting her review to the record below, not hearing testimony from a couple of Muppets who just walk in off the street. Worse, she was apparently about to hear the bear's argument ex parte, if Goldilocks hadn't shown up when she did. Third, what law is she…

• Good Reason to Kill #21: Wanted to Play Through

  Kevin

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 am

  It's pretty well established by now that you golf at your own risk, at least when it comes to the risk of getting hit by a golf ball. But the assumption-of-risk doctrine doesn't apply if the defendant has unreasonably increased the inherent risks of a sport in some way -- for example, let's say, if he stabbed somebody with a broken golf club. On January 27, two groups of gentlemen were enjoying a leisurely, stress-relieving game of golf at the Eagle Mountain Lake golf course near Fort Worth. As sometimes happens, one of the groups was playing faster than the other. In this circumstance,…

• Cross That One Off the List

  Kevin

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  According to the Butte Montana Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Butte area "abounds with outdoor recreation opportunities." It probably does, but apparently it's still possible to get bored there. The Montana Standard reports that a 55-year-old man was charged this week with reckless driving after he led police on a high-speed chase early last Thursday morning. Police said the man tailgated a police car for about seven blocks and then pulled past it and drove away at more than 70 mph. Officers pursued, and after a while the man pulled over. But as an officer approached his car, he took…

• Jokes in the Profession

  Kevin

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:00 am

  From the first chapter of Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, who would be 200 years old today if he hadn't died in 1870: Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least, but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it.

• Again, an Effective Disguise Should Generally Cover the Face

  Kevin

  7 Feb 2012 | 5:30 am

  For many people, the facial area is perhaps the most recognizable area of the body, and for that reason an effective disguise will cover that area almost completely. It is important not to cover the eyes, which are the two round things on either side of the thing that pokes out in the middle. Probably you'll need those during the robbery (you see with them). But you do need to cover the rest of the face, preferably with something that can be easily removed later. A 43-year-old man forgot this rule last Friday when he tried to rob a bank on Stock Island in the Florida Keys. Police said the man…

• 

  The Volokh Conspiracy

• Resolving Conflicting Legal Norms Between US and Foreign Courts: UVA Symposium

  Kenneth Anderson

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:58 am

  (Kenneth Anderson) If you happen to be around Charlottesville tomorrow, Friday, February 10, you might want to come over to a symposium on how to resolve conflicting legal norms in US and foreign courts:   The conference – organized by the student-run Virginia Journal of International Law and the John Bassett Moore Society of International Law – will explore how to resolve conflicting legal norms found in the United States and abroad, particularly as domestic laws extend their reach beyond countries’ borders. ”Although domestic and foreign legal norms have always…

• Reinhardt’s Minimalism, Lowering the Stakes

  Dale Carpenter

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:01 pm

  (Dale Carpenter) In contrast to Judge Walker’s maximalist opinion striking down Prop 8, it’s generally accepted that Judge Reinhardt’s opinion was minimalist. There’s a commonsense way in which the opinion is not at all minimalist. It reverses the results of a plebiscite, which followed the expenditure of $80 million and the mobilization of millions of voters. It brings full same-sex marriage to a state whose cultural, political, and legal influence on the rest of the country outstrips even its massive population. It’s by far the biggest prize (sorry, New York)…

• Sandefur Defends Substantive Due Process

  David Bernstein

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:23 pm

  (David Bernstein) This month’s Cato Unbound is devoted to the propriety of judicial enforcement of substantive rights through the Due Process Clause.  Tim Sandefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation gets things rolling with a rousing defense of SDP. Responses have been posted or are due from Professor Larry Rosenthal of Chapman Law School, attorney Ryan Williams (the author of an important recent article on the origins of substantive due process that I blogged about here), and B.U. Law School’s Gary Lawson.  It should be a very enlightening and engaging debate. For what it’s…

• Cathy Young on Ron Paul, Libertarianism, and Foreign Policy

  David Bernstein

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:11 pm

  (David Bernstein) Young, a libertarian herself, explains why she is very uncomfortable with Ron Paul’s views on foreign policy. I suspect the column reflects the views of many other libertarians who appreciate Ron Paul’s long record of defending individual freedom, but wouldn’t want him anywhere near the Oval Office because of his foreign policy positions, among other things. What I think many libertarians of my acquaintance, including Young, would like is for the U.S. to adopt a less interventionist foreign policy more cognizant of the limits of government competence and…

• The Alien Tort Statute Returns to the Supreme Court: International Law versus Law of the Hegemon?

  Kenneth Anderson

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:08 pm

  (Kenneth Anderson) As I have occasionally noted here at VC, this term the Supreme Court will hear an Alien Tort Statute case, the Kiobel case, in which a primary question is whether the ATS embraces a theory of corporate liability.  The Supreme Court presumably took the case because of a circuit split that has arisen over the corporate liability question, and perhaps because of a sense that the exceedingly vague guidance of its last visit to the ATS, the Sosa decision, left many crucial items open. The case has attracted intense interest among outsiders, professors particularly – 19…

• 

  BlawgIT

• SOPA and PIPA Are Bad

  Brett Trout

  18 Jan 2012 | 1:13 pm

  Update: KCCI just posted a great news story of me, countering arguments by PIPA/SOPA co-sponsor Sen. Charles Grassley. You can watch it here. SOPA and PIPA Are Bad There seems to be some confusion on this issue, so let me make it clear. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) are bad. They are bad for you, bad for me, bad for anyone with a blog, a Facebook profile, or any other type of website. SOPA and PIPA are bad for anyone who uses the Internet. Isn’t Stopping Infringers a Good Thing? Yes, and ever since the Copyright Act of 1790, United States…

• SOPA – This New Censorship Bill is a Job Killer

  Brett Trout

  17 Nov 2011 | 12:49 pm

  SOPA Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the deceptively named Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Representative Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) introduced the bill on October 26, 2011 as H.R.3261. SOPA expands the Internet censorship provisions of the Protect IP Act, a bill Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) shepherded into law earlier this year. These additional restrictions make it easier for large corporations to stop websites from getting paid, not for just allegedly infringing content, but for all content on the website, even if the alleged infringement makes up only a tiny part of…

• Should I Get A Patent?

  Brett Trout

  14 Nov 2011 | 1:24 pm

  What You Say vs. What Your Patent Lawyer Hears Clients ask me all the time, “Should I get a patent?” While that is certainly the most important question an inventor can ask of a patent lawyer, most patent lawyers answer this question incorrectly. A “Can I” patent question is right in the patent lawyer’s wheelhouse. A “Should I” patent question is not. Patent lawyers therefore tend to hear the question as “Can I get a patent,” which is a much different question. The “Can I” question relates to whether the invention meets the…

• The Mobile Patent Wars – Google, Microsoft and Apple

  Brett Trout

  7 Nov 2011 | 10:22 am

  Google “[O]ne of the most effective ways to respond to a threatened patent assertion is to be able to assert patents of your own,” says Google’s patent lawyer, Tim Porter. Porter made that statement in response to a question about why Google was still buying up patents. Despite Google’s recent patent acquisitions, Porter believes “the current system is broken.” Overly-broad software patents, granted during a salad days of software patent grants prior to 2007, says Porter, are fueling litigation. Despite Google’s concerns over software patents, the…

• What Inventors Need to Know About The New Patent Law

  Brett Trout

  1 Nov 2011 | 3:43 pm

  Touted as a boon for inventors, the “Leahy-Smith America Invents Act,” (AIA) the largest patent overhaul in over a century, is looking more and more like a boon for patent lawyers. So what are the key changes, and how do they affect you. First to file The first-to-file provision of AIA moves the United States closer toward harmonization with the rest of the world. The AIA is a first-to-file system, but gives inventors a one-year grace period for filing after the public disclosure of details of the invention originating from the inventor. Previously, the United States had a…

• 

  Simple Justice

• No Way Out

  SHG

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:12 am

  The jury agreed. William Barnes, who had already served his time for the attempted murder of Police Officer Walter Barclay in 1966, wasn't liable for his death 40 years later. But as one might expect, it wasn't going to be that easy.When Barnes was picked up on the murder charge in 2007, he had a cellphone and car keys on him. Among his parole conditions was the requirement that he have his parole officer's permission for a cellphone and a car, and apparently he didn't. A violation! A technical one, since he had done nothing wrong with them, nor was there any particular reason why…

• Life Plus Cancer in Old Dominion

  SHG

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:05 am

  Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft came up with this charming sentence, for those who thought a life sentence wasn't harsh enough.  For Bennett Barbour, convicted of rape in 1978, it applied.  Investigators knocked on Bennett S. Barbour's door on Valentine's Day 1978 and arrested him on a charge of raping a College of William and Mary student at gunpoint a week earlier. The slight, 22-year-old handyman from rural Charles City County had been married just a few months when he was taken into custody, the romantic greeting card and box of candy for his pregnant wife left unopened. Today,…

• Begging For Attention

  SHG

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:46 am

  Like everyone with a blawg, I get slammed regularly with spam comments and trackbacks, often to the tune of thousands overnight, requiring me to spend significant time banning and deleting comments written in variations of English, often amusing, selling everything from Gordon Ramsey's cookbooks to shoes with red soles, tons of Uggs and marital aids of all sizes.  It's part of the blawger's glamorous life.Every now and again, the spam comes from a lawyer.  The other day, it was from the Mesriani Law Group, ridiculously illiterate and blatant.  Apparently, their spammer was very…

• If You Let Me Play...

  SHG

  7 Feb 2012 | 3:10 am

  Howard Wasserman posted at PrawfsBlawg about the importance of sports for women, one purpose of which was to teach a critical lesson, as expressed by basketball coach Katie Meier: She particularly emphasized something I never thought of--that sports teach you how to fail and how to come back from failure, an ability we can use in all aspects of our lives. Having made this point a few times using the example of fencing, I left Howard a comment, covering the pedagogy of self-esteem and the shame of his not having come to this epiphany sooner. If only lawprofs, who function as…

• The View of Parsimony From the Bench

  SHG

  7 Feb 2012 | 2:07 am

  The requirement of 18 USC §3553(a) is pretty straightforward, that "a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary" to fulfill it's purpose.  The law isn't saying what that sentence must be. Only that it not be greater than necessary, which leaves just barely enough room for the judge to park a Mack truck.  Still, that's not enough for some.Via Doug Berman, the 7th Circuit vacated and remanded the sentencing of Richie Pennington: Richie Pennington pleaded guilty to selling a firearm to a felon, distributing ecstasy, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a…

• 

  What About Paris?

• Writing and Speaking Well: The Overstatement.

  Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk)

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:59 pm

  Blarney Castle, near Cork. Here's something that makes way too much sense, and you can use--starting today. If you're wonderfully but spectacularly Irish, like WAC/P?, you should also take notes. And then take a year off work just to practice. Okay, maybe two or three years. See at The Trial Practice Tips Weblog "The Only Writing Tip That Really Matters", which quotes William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White's The Elements of Style: When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in…

• The Gem of Jacksonville: Cummer Gallery.

  Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk)

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:59 pm

  Return from the Harvest, William Adolphe Bouguereau, 1878

• The Economist: Must a U.S. MBA degree take 2 years? (And must our law degree take 3 years?)

  JD Hull

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:47 pm

  Probably not, to both questions. See at The Economist "Which MBA? Kellogg School of Management: The 21st-Century Knocks" on Dean Sally Blount's rethinking of things at Northwestern's fine B-school in Chicago. She has some brave and interesting thoughts to share. Quote from her: ...as I look back, 2000-2010 was some kind of worm hole that got us from the 20th to the 21st century. If you had told me in 2000 that in a decade the World Trade Centre would fall from a terrorist attack, we’d go into a number of wars, we would elect a black president and Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers would…

• Two FLKs (Funny Looking Kids): But there's something wrong with the kid on the lower left....

  JD Hull

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:36 pm

  I've seen that look before. On Gary Busey. Val Kilmer. On Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. And Al Haig. Ron Paul. Ernie from Glen Burnie. Even on my bud Bill Clinton, some days. And the Scofflaw King of New Orleans. That look like, you know, "someone or something else is actually driving". Seriously, the bespectacled red haired kid's got, well, real joy and resolve in his face--and he's somehow twice as a scary at the Commando-in-Chief. Look, I didn't vote for our President in 2008. But I was wrong about him. He's got Moxie. He's Human. He's just as tough as his scary-as-hell wife. And, forced…

• Happy 200th, Boz.

  JD Hull

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:59 pm

  Charles J. H. Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870)

• 

  ABA Journal Daily News

• Federal Judge Nixes EEOC Breast Milk Pumping Case, Finds No COA re ‘Lactation Discrmination’

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:01 pm

  A federal judge in Texas says a mother was not protected by law from losing her job even if it's true she was fired for asking to pump breast milk at work for her baby. "Lactation is not pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition," and hence there is no cause of action for "lactation discrimination" under federal civil rights law protecting pregnant women, said U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes in a written opinion (PDF) last week in the Houston case, to which KTRK provides a link. "Discrimination because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition is illegal.

• Could Deaths of Two Boys in Supervised-Visitation House Fire Have Been Prevented?

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:05 pm

  In the aftermath of a terrible tragedy, observers are wondering what, if anything, could have been done to prevent two boys, ages 5 and 7, from dying along with their father after his Washington state home erupted in flames during a supervised visit on Sunday. Little, it seems, likely could have circumvented the deaths after Josh Powell shut the door on the caseworker assigned to come inside and supervise the visit, Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Ed Troyer told the Seattle Times. However, Troyer said the sheriff's department it is unhappy about the approximately seven…

• Top Texas Criminal Court OKs Use of Defendant’s MySpace Pages to Convict Him in Slaying

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:19 pm

  Despite an absence of forensic evidence, Ronnie Tienda Jr. was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison in the slaying of a 23-year-old man in a 2007 Dallas freeway shootout. The guns that were fired in the incident were never recovered, nor was there a bullet match. However, Tienda, who was present at the crime scene, according to evidence presented at his Dallas County trial, was convicted after the judge allowed in evidence of postings on Tienda's MySpace account. Today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Tienda's conviction concerning the death of David Valadez, finding…

• Pa. Lawyer Gets 1-Year Suspension for Facilitating Now-Disbarred Partner’s Thefts from Clients

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:39 pm

  A Pennsylvania attorney has been suspended from practice for one year because he failed to act promptly and sufficiently to deal with red flags concerning his law partner's conversion of client settlement funds for his own personal use. Among other signs that should have alerted Lawrence L. Rubin was his partner's statement that he intended to refinance his home to make clients whole, a disciplinary board said in a report and recommendation (PDF) attached to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's order on Monday. Although Rubin had trouble getting a grip on the situation initially, he eventually…

• Judge May Avoid Ruling on the Merits in Suit Seeking to Allow Law Firm Investors

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pm

  Jacoby & Meyers may have failed in its personal appeal to a federal judge overseeing its suit seeking to pave the way for nonlawyers to invest in New York law firms. Jacoby had asserted it needs a judge with a “profile in courage to ensure that antiquated barriers” are cast aside. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan indicated he’s not likely to hear the case, report the New York Law Journal and Thomson Reuters News & Insight. Kaplan said he would either dismiss the suit for lack of standing or he would abstain from hearing it because state courts…

• 

  Legal Juice

• This Guy Picked The Wrong Woman To Follow

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:08 pm

  When this man decided to follow a certain woman, he made a BIG mistake, as reported by BeeNews.com (New York). A male called from Corrine Lane stating that an unknown 
male had followed
his wife from Amherst and that he and some friends had the 
vehicle blocked
in on a dead-end street. The man was a private investigator 
who was
 investigating an insurance disability case. Sounds legit. The problem? The investigator 
had mistakenly
 been following the wrong person. Doh!

• You Did NOT Pull A Gun On That Man Over A Dish!

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:06 pm

  How do you know when it's time to find somewhere else to live? If your landlord starts losing it over the dishes, pack your bags! As reported by TCPalm.com: A man told Port St. Lucie police that he's renting a room from Carraway and "all of a sudden Ricky started yelling at him for leaving his dish out and got into his face," the affidavit states.Uh oh. The man said Carraway entered his room, pushed him against a wall and choked him. He said Carraway left and came back. Carraway, he said, pointed a gun at him and said he was "about to put some holes in you," the affidavit states.Holes?! What…

• Ingrate Of The Week?

  6 Feb 2012 | 9:06 pm

  You try to be nice to people, and what do you get? Spit on, literally, and more. As reported by the Northwest Florida Daily News: A woman who gave her ex-boyfriend a ride to the bowling alley called for help after he called her names, spit in her face, pushed her head against a pillar and threw a glass of water at her. He also pulled her hair, which was a wig and came off in his hand. The 35-year-old Fort Walton Beach man had left the area before Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office deputies arrived, according to his arrest report.Probably didn't even say "thank you." The incident happened on…

• You Drove Drunk Where?

  6 Feb 2012 | 5:58 am

  As reported in the Tacoma Washington News-Tribune: In May, a 22-year-old Gig Harbor man spent a night drinking at a tavern with a friend before seeing how fast he could drive his car – on an airport runway. According to court documents, the man, who worked at the Tacoma Narrows Airport, used a code to let himself in, drove onto the runway – and floored it. He hit 105 mph before the car sheared off a runway light, went airborne and landed upside down at the bottom of an embankment, court records said. He suffered minor scrapes, police said. His passenger was more seriously injured. The man…

• Hard To Believe This Guy Could Find His Bicycle, Much Less Ride It

  4 Feb 2012 | 9:05 pm

  As a daily bicycle commuter, it pains The Juice to blast a fellow cyclist. All he can say about this gent is ... DUDE! From The Cairns Post: A drunken cyclist wobbled along a highway before falling off his bike into a ditch in front of police. Police say the 26-year-old Feluga man’s blood alcohol concentration was more than five times the limit when they breath-tested him after he crashed on the Bruce Highway at Tully. They say he returned a reading of 0.28 per cent just after the incident, which happened about 10.50pm on Saturday. The man was charged with riding a bicycle whilst under the…

• 

  The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

• The Morning Wrap

  Matthew Huisman

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:33 am

  Settlement: The federal government could announce a $25 billion settlement with five of the nation's biggest banks as early as today that would help about two million homeowners who were harmed when the housing bubble burst, The New York Times reports. This is part of a broader effort to hold banks accountable for predatory lending practices and halt the decline of the housing market. Privacy: A watchdog group is suing the Federal Trade Commission to prevent Google from enacting the company's new controversial privacy policy, reports our sister publication, The Recorder.

• Profits Dropped, But Gross Revenues at Dickstein Shapiro Held Firm in 2011

  Matthew Huisman

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:24 pm

  Dickstein Shapiro’s gross revenues held steady during 2011, with the firm generating $267 million, a 0.8% increase from 2010, according to our reporting. But profits per partner fell by 9% to $915,000, and net income sank by 21.7%, to $50.5 million, a $14 million drop from 2010. “It’s no great surprise here, 2011 was not as good as 2010,” said Dickstein chairman Michael Nannes. Nannes said the lower firm income was due to several matters that have yet to be resolved, in which the firm is using alternative fee arrangements. He also said the firm has been reinvesting dollars back into…

• D.C. Lobbyist Frank Cushing Dies at 59

  Andrew Ramonas

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:31 pm

  After about a year battling brain cancer, Oldaker Law Group partner Frank Cushing died Monday at his Falls Church, Va., home. He was 59. Cushing, who joined Washington-based Oldaker in 2008 after working on Capitol Hill, focused on appropriations, budget, energy, environmental and science issues at the firm. In 2011, he lobbied for more than a dozen organizations, including General Atomics Corp., the Environmental Defense Action Fund and University of Chicago, according to congressional records. His last visit to his office was in December, Oldaker partner Joel Widder said. “It wasn’t a…

• Crowell & Moring's Gross Revenues Stay Steady From 2010-2011

  Matthew Huisman

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:41 am

  Reflecting an increase in the use of alternative fee arrangements, Crowell & Moring’s profits per partner decreased 6.1% from 2010 to 2011, falling to $845,000, according to our reporting. Net income also dropped for the D.C.-based firm during that time frame by 12.1% to $80 million. However, gross revenue slightly increased, by 0.6%, to $329.5 million. Crowell chairman Kent Gardiner said that the year’s numbers reflected the firm’s commitment to its clients through the use of alternative fee arrangements. “That is the confluence of a firm that is very busy but has made the…

• Embassy of Cameroon Sued by Harvard Trustees For Overstaying Lease

  Zoe Tillman

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:50 am

  The Embassy of the Republic of Cameroon is facing possible eviction from its Georgetown office building for allegedly overstaying its lease, according to a lawsuit (PDF) filed yesterday in Washington federal court. The Trustees of Harvard University, which own the building in question at 1700 Wisconsin Avenue in northwest Washington, claim the embassy failed to extend or renew the lease before it expired Jan. 31 and are asking U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell to order the U.S. Marshals Service to evict the embassy. According to the complaint, the embassy began looking for a temporary space in…

• 

  ABA Journal Magazine Stories

• Patriots Debate: The Meaning of the Constitution in a Time of Terror

  ABAJournal.com

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:39 am

  Since the events of 2001, the intersection of law and terrorism has become one of the most volatile zones in the public square—a place where qualities of life and manners of death are deliberated against 225 years of the U.S. Constitution.

• Constitutional Dilemma: The Power to Declare War Is Deeply Rooted in American History

  ABAJournal.com

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:35 am

• War Powers Belong to the President

  ABAJournal.com

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:30 am

• Only Congress Can Declare War

  ABAJournal.com

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:20 am

• The Badgering State: Wis. Battles over Worker’s Rights and Skirmishes in the Supreme Court

  ABAJournal.com

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:10 am

• 

  On Point

• Bystander Claims 'Swoon and Fall' Injuries at Church

  17 Jan 2012 | 6:47 pm

  In yet another "swoon and fall" case against a church, an Illinois woman claims she was injured during a church service when a parishioner who was receiving the “spirit” fell backward, knocking several other worshipers into her.

• Jurors' Comments Fuel New Trial Bid in Bullying Case

  10 Jan 2012 | 10:11 pm

  Jurors may have opened the door to a new trial in a Maryland school bullying case by saying they returned a verdict for the defense because they were afraid of setting a bad precedent for school systems throughout the country.

• Abuse Victim Can Sue Ex-DA Over 'Sexting' Messages

  14 Dec 2011 | 4:36 pm

  A Wisconsin judge has protected a domestic violence victim from a rogue prosecutor, finding that she can sue him for sending her text messages in which he pressured her to have sex with him.

• Four Loko Maker Says Users Knew of Health Dangers

  23 Nov 2011 | 10:29 pm

  The maker of Four Loko has previewed its defense of a slew of product liability lawsuits, arguing that the physical effects of the energy drink's mixture of alcohol and caffeine — far from being an undisclosed risk to consumers — are precisely what made it so popular.

• Ex-Worker Sues Mortician for Speaking Ill of the Dead

  9 Nov 2011 | 5:46 pm

  In a first-of-its-kind unprofessional conduct lawsuit, a woman has sued her former boss at a Michigan funeral home for making an indecent comment about the body of a dead man in front of her.

• 

  The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog

• Video: Law School Faculty on United States v. Jones

  UChicagoLaw

  23 Jan 2012 | 11:32 am

  Today the Supreme Court handed down a decision in United States v. Jones which held that attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and then using the device to monitor the vehicle’s movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. In November, after the Court heard arguments, we interviewed several faculty members about the caseCare to see how their predictions turned out? See the video embedded below.

• Remembering Judge Terence Evans

  Steve Sanders

  11 Aug 2011 | 2:18 pm

    One Sunday morning in the fall of my third year of law school, Judge Terence Evans called to offer me a clerkship in his chambers for the following year.  A judge on the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Evans was calling from his office in Milwaukee, but he got interrupted and had to put me on hold.  After coming back on the line, he explained that his wife had called to remind him to pick up beer for their cookout that afternoon.  Here, plainly, was one federal judge who didn't take himself too seriously. Judge Evans, who had recently taken senior status, died last night at the age…

• The 14th Amendment Meets the Bankruptcy Code

  Randy Picker

  29 Jul 2011 | 2:45 pm

  The danger of blogging—especially late on Friday in the Summer—is that it is too easy to jump in on issues that you haven’t considered fully, but I guess that is one of its joys as well. As an outsider to constitutional law, I have found the discussion of the 14th amendment a tad odd. Section 4 of the 14th Amendment provides that “[t]he validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any…

• Is FICO-Scoring Patients Therapeutic?

  Lior Strahilevitz

  13 Jul 2011 | 3:05 pm

  The Fair Isaac Corporation recently announced the launch of FICO Medication Adherence Scores.  FICO scores, which are famous for predicting whether an individual will become delinquent on a home or car loan, for the first time will be used to assess which patients are likely to take the drugs their doctors prescribe.  The FICO Adherence Score is an algorithm that FICO developed based on the close study of almost 600,000 patients suffering from asthma, diabetes, and heart disease.  FICO identified which patients were likely to have their prescriptions filled and re-filled.  FICO then used…

• Obama and same-sex marriage: the lawyerly straddle continues

  Steve Sanders

  24 Jun 2011 | 12:24 pm

  President Obama's remarks last night to a gay/lesbian fundraising event must have disappointed his supporters who have grown tired of straddling and rhetorical games on the subject of marriage equality from someone who once called himself a "fierce advocate" for gays and lesbians. To be sure, this administration has accomplished far more to advance gay and lesbian equality than any other: the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell; the bold decision not to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); a federal mandate that hospitals allow visitation rights to gay partners; passage of a new…

• 

  Sui Generis-a New York Law Blog

• Cloud Computing, Social Media and Lawyers, Oh My!

  NBlack

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:40 am

  In recent weeks, the legal blogosphere has been abuzz over the value of social media for lawyers. My good friends Kevin O'Keefe of Lexblog (a company that provides legal blogging platforms and social media consulting to attorneys) and New York criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield have been at the core of the discussion, with Kevin arguing that social media provides value for attorneys and Scott contending that it's just child's play. I also chimed in with my 2 cents over at the Small Firm Innovation blog with my assertion that social media can provide value for some lawyers, but not…

• Richard Susskind's Foreward to My Book "Cloud Computing for Lawyers"

  NBlack

  7 Feb 2012 | 5:35 am

  I was deeply honored when Richard Susskind, a leading legal futurist and technology author and someone whom I greatly admire and respect, agreed to write the foreward to my new book, "Cloud Computing for Lawyers." The foreward, in its entirety, follows.  You can learn more about this book and purchase it here. And, if you're interested in buying this book in ebook format, as many have told me they are, rest assured it will be available for purchase in that format in just a few months. HOW SHOULD LAWYERS RESPOND to the emergence of new technologies? This is a question that will regularly…

• More iPad Apps for Lawyers

  NBlack

  6 Feb 2012 | 10:05 am

  This week's Daily Record column is entitled "More iPad Apps for Lawyers." A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here. More iPad Apps for Lawyers IPad sales have exploded since this revolutionary device was released less than 2 years ago in April 2010. In the last quarter of 2011 alone, it is estimated that more than 13.5 million iPads were sold — a 166 percent increase from the same quarter one year ago — and a total of nearly 25 million iPads were sold in 2011.  This is one technology trend that lawyers are embracing, with tablets…

• My blog, lawtechTalk, re-invented

  NBlack

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:33 am

  Image via Wikipedia Just a quick note to let you know that I'm now regularly publishing new posts over at my lawtechTalk blog. My goal is to aggregate my legal technology posts all in one place, in addition to adding new legal technology posts. In addition to cross-posting my Daily Record articles, Legal iPad posts,and Small Firm Innovation posts, I'll also post regular round ups of legal technology posts from other blogs and plan to feature a different legal cloud computing vendor every week or so.  So head on over, check it out and subscribe to the lawtechTalk feed or sighn up to receive…

• NY Bar Gives Guidance for Lawyers Seeking Clients Online

  NBlack

  2 Feb 2012 | 7:48 am

  This week's Daily Record column is entitled "NY Bar Gives Guidance for Lawyers Seeking Clients Online." A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here. NY Bar Gives Guidance for Lawyers Seeking Clients Online As of May 2011, more than 65 percent of adults in the United States participated on social media sites, according to the Pew 2011 Internet & American Life Survey. That’s a lot of people interacting and sharing online, and lawyers are beginning to take notice. Understandably, as more people use social media, more lawyers are…

• 

  Law is Cool

• Islamophobia in Canada: A Primer

  Fathima Cader

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:34 pm

  by Fathima Cader and Sumayya Kassamali Ten years after September 11, 2001, the term “Islamophobia,” once largely obscure, has become all but inevitable when discussing contemporary politics. As Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden became household names, Western fear of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims has also grown. Canada has been no stranger to this phenomenon. Despite its reputation as a haven of multicultural tolerance, one 2011 poll showed that 56% of Canadians believe Western societies are in “irreconcilable conflict” with Muslim societies. 40% of the 1500…

• Occupy Ties to former Bay Street Lawyer

  Omar Ha-Redeye

  4 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pm

  The Occupy movement comes from all aspects of Canadian society, including those with close family ties to the wealthy elite.  Jennifer Yang of the Toronto Star provides this backgrounder on Antonin Yvon Mongeau, He chose the pseudonym “Smith,” the most common of English monikers. It is a name for regular folk and the plebian masses; it is a name for the 99 per cent. In October, a burly, curly-haired activist calling himself Antonin Smith moved into St. James Park, the nexus of the Occupy Toronto movement. Over the next two months, Smith – or “Agent Smith,” as he sometimes referred…

• Keep it in Perspective

  Contributor

  4 Feb 2012 | 11:04 am

• Discrimination at the University of Ottawa?

  Contributor

  31 Jan 2012 | 8:06 am

  Khalid Aba-Alkhail, Manal AlSaigh, and Waleed Alghaithy, three physicians from Saudi Arabia, have filed a lawsuit against the University of Ottawa for over $150 million dollars. The doctors were enrolled in postgraduate medical education programs at the university, where they claimed the experienced discrimination and harassment resulting in the termination of their enrollment. UofO Student Appeal Centre director Mireille Gervais appears to support the plaintiffs, I’ve seen some of the evidence that supports the claim, and I am continuously in shock to see how far the university’s…

• Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Lacked Legal Authority to Cancel Transit City

  Omar Ha-Redeye

  30 Jan 2012 | 11:51 am

  Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre & Cornish released a legal opinion today concluding that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford did not have legal authority to cancel Transit City.  The opinion concludes that the mayor does not have independent power to bind the city, and only exercises power delegated by council or specific legislative responsibility. Also see Pulat Yunusov’s previous post, What can the mayor of Toronto really do? The Executive Summary of today’s opinion follows: Throughout the period 2007 to 2010, the Toronto Transit Commission (the “TIC”) and the Toronto…

• 

  netnetweb.com

• Clients Reconsider Oracle Maintenance?

  30 Jan 2012 | 11:23 am

  At the end of November, 2011, Oracle reported its Fiscal Q2 results, and for only the 2nd time in the last 5 years, reported a sequential reduction in annual maintenance income.    See chart below: This is a significant development, mostly because of how Oracle charges for...

• SAP Survives Oracle Onslaught

  30 Jan 2012 | 11:17 am

  For a while, it appeared that SAP was doomed.  Oracle was winning a high percentage of the deals, and was seen as the innovator, promoting vertically integrated technology solutions that combined hardware, software and services, while SAP was often viewed as being left behind, trying to bilk...

• Microsoft Roadmap Update

  30 Jan 2012 | 11:01 am

  RCP Magazine has posted a very handy update to Microsoft’s upcoming product release plans.  This is of special interest to customers who are planning Enterprise Agreement (EA) or Software Assurance (SA) renewals in 2012.  http://rcpmag.com/articles/2011/02/01/the-2011-microsoft-...

• Enterprise Software Licensing Discounts

  22 Nov 2011 | 10:34 am

  In a recent Information Week article (chart below), we came across this chart of negotiated discount levels, and we were troubled to learn that only 8% of the companies surveyed get greater than 35% discounts most frequently.  Having been helping Clients get greater economic and strategic...

• Putting the BS in the BSA

  22 Nov 2011 | 8:38 am

  The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has recently announced that they're going to offer a "certification" for IT SAM.  http://www.itassetmanagement.net/2011/11/15/vendor-audit-forbearance/ The requirements aren't fully defined on their website, but the gist is that you...

• 

  Tammy Lenski Conflict Resolution

• How do you listen?

  Tammy Lenski

  3 Feb 2012 | 5:06 am

  About the author: Tammy Lenski has been helping individuals and organizations turn conflict into growth and opportunity for two decades. She specializes in transforming interpersonal conflict into stronger personal and professional relationships. How do you listen? copyright 1997-2012 Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.

• And the winners are…

  Tammy Lenski

  1 Feb 2012 | 10:25 am

  The Conflict Zen blog is 10 years old today! For the past month I’ve been celebrating with a blogiversary retrospective, sharing my own and audience favorites from 10 years of conflict resolution blogging. And I’ve been delighted to hear from so many of you as part of that celebration! I’m glad you’re here. Of course, no celebration would be complete without some party favors and I’m here today to announce the prize winners in the random drawing…and to add an additional prize for every single person who joined the drawing. Drum roll please… The…

• From Isaac Asimov to Jimmy Carter: 10-year blogiversary retrospective

  Tammy Lenski

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am

  Ten years of blogging is a long time. And selecting a few from over a thousand posts has been a harder task than I thought it would be, though a fun one. A few of my chosen posts didn’t really fit into any particular category so they’re ending up in this last installment of the 10-year blogiversary retrospective. If you haven’t entered the celebratory prize drawing yet, there’s still time, you know. Thanks for going on this trip down memory lane with me. And here’s to the next 10 years! The best time to resolve conflict A conflict’s greatest opportunity for…

• Negotiation tips for work, home and the marketplace

  Tammy Lenski

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:23 am

  Last fall, my 13 graduate negotiation students, few of whom described themselves as good negotiators when class started, mostly shuddered at the prospect of one assignment in particular: Each week, they had to negotiate something. A matter at home. A better price on a purchase at the mall. A contract with a vendor at work. A problem with a colleague. We kept track of their negotiations outside of class in our online discussion forum, where they could post about the negotiation, celebrate, or ask for insights about what could have been done better. Seven weeks later, when the term ended, these…

• My favorite tips for mediators

  Tammy Lenski

  21 Jan 2012 | 10:42 am

  Some, but not all, of my conflict resolution work is mediation, the act of helping others negotiate a solution to their conflict without having a stake in the outcome. I count among my other hats conflict management consulting, coaching, training and education. Mediation was my “first love” in the conflict resolution field 15 years ago and over the years I’ve written many posts and articles on the subject, not to mention my book, Making Mediation Your Day Job. It seems only right that I highlight a few favorites about mediation, mediators and the mediation business as part…

• 

  Legal Profession Blog

• Lost In A Flood

  Legal Profession

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:55 am

  A public reprimand has been imposed by the Vermont Professional Conduct Board on the Assistant Clerk of the state House of Representatives. The clerk position does not involve the practice of law. He is permitted an outside law practice, which...

• Partnership Perils Lead To Suspension

  Legal Profession

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:25 am

  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has approved the imposition of a one-year suspension in a case where the sanctioned attorney was in a small law firm partnership with an attorney who misappropriated trust account funds. His partner had responsibility for the...

• New book 'Hot Topics in the Legal Profession - 2012' and old classic 'The Bramble Bush'

  Legal Profession

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:52 pm

  As promised last weekend, I announce a book truly on-topic for LPB. This is a collection of essays, on ethics and broader issues of the U.S. profession, from students in my Advanced Professional Responsibility Seminar last year. I added an...

• The Wrong Candidate

  Legal Profession

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:11 am

  The New Jersey Appellate Court has held that the litigation in last year's Republican primary permitted the incumbent to run in the general election for Morris County Freeholder was inproperly decided. An initial count had put the challenger ahead by...

• Double Secret Probation

  Legal Profession

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:03 am

  The Vermont Professional Conduct Board has admonished an attorney and placed her on probation for neglect of an estate matter and failure to respond to the disciplinary inquiry into the matter. In Vermont, the identity of an admonished attorney is...

• 

  Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)

• Patents for Humanity

  Dennis Crouch

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:23 am

  The patent system is sometimes frustrating to policymakers because of its market approach to invention. Innovators and investors decide the focus of research – not policymakers. As such, we tend to see research investment in areas of market value rather than areas that serve humanity in a broader or more altruistic sense. Now, these notions of market incentives and advancing humanism often overlap. A cure for cancer would serve humanity, but would be quite valuable in the marketplace as well. But, the point is that – with the patent system – the decision making is normally well outside…

• In re Google

  Rantanen

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:50 pm

  By Jason Rantanen In re Google Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2012) (Nonprecedential Order) Download In re GooglePanel: Lourie, Prost, and Moore (author) Earlier this week, the Federal Circuit denied a petition for a writ of mandamus sought by Google in a dispute with Oracle.  The petition sought to prevent Oracle from using a juicy email on the ground that the email was privileged.  The email was sent from a Google engineer to Google's VP in charge of its Android operating platform, as well as Google's senior counsel and another engineer.  The email itself is reproduced in the…

• New Post Grant Options and Associated Proposed Fees

  Dennis Crouch

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:49 pm

  Proposed Filing Fee for Petition for Post-Grant Opposition or Covered Business Method Patent Review: $35,800 to review up to 20 claims, $44,750 to request review of 21 to 30 claims, $53,700 to request review of 31 to 40 claims, $71,600 to request review of 41 to 50 claims, $89,500 to request review of 51 to 60 claims, and an additional $35,800 to request review of additional groups of 10 claims. Proposed Filing Fee for a Petition for Inter Partes Review: $27,200 to review up to 20 claims, $34,000 to request review of 21 to 30 claims, $40,800 to request review of 31 to 40 claims, $54,400 to…

• USPTO Begins Process of Setting Fees and Shifting Applicant Behavior

  Dennis Crouch

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:57 am

  My report to Congress last week included a statement regarding the greatest change at the USPTO since the September 16, 2011: Funding. After raising fees and receiving permission to spend fees collected, the USPTO began to quickly implement a plan to address the backlog of patent applications awaiting examination and to address particular bottlenecks in the system such as the 25,000+ queue awaiting action from the Board of Patent Appeals. Under the AIA, the USPTO has authority to set fees within certain limits. In a recent document, the Office has published a proposed patent fee schedule and…

• Federal Circuit Stays Relief Pending Appeal

  Dennis Crouch

  7 Feb 2012 | 8:52 am

  By Dennis Crouch Sciele Pharma v. Lupin (Fed. Cir. 2012) In a December 2011 order, the Delaware district court awarded preliminary injunctive relief to Sciele and Shionogi and forcing Lupin to stop selling generic versions of the patentee's diabetes drug Fortamet (metformin). After an emergency motion, the district court refused to stay relief pending appeal. Based upon a separate emergency motion, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has now vacated the preliminary injunction and remanded the case for a new hearing. Pre-hearing motions to the Federal Circuit are normally decided by a…

• 

  Patent Baristas

• The Hague: Plants Obtained by Unpatentable Processes Are Unpatentable, Too

  Stephen Jenei

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:30 pm

  The Hague rendered a judgment in the patent case between Taste of Nature (Koppert Cress) and Cresco on the patentability of a plant (Raphanus sativa) obtained by an unpatentable biological process. Court of the Hague, 408315 / KG ZA 11-1414. Taste of Nature started the summary proceedings in early December 2011. They were of the opinion that Cresco, by selling their Red Radish Cress (purple Radish sprouts), was infringing the patent of Taste of Nature. Taste of Nature developed a seedling of radish (Raphanus sativa) that is characterized by a high anthocyanin level. Anthocyanin is an…

• Cancer Institute Sues Biotech Company for More than $1 Billion Charging IP Theft

  Stephen Jenei

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  A nonprofit cancer research institute has sued biotechnology company Agios and one of its cofounders for more than $1 billion, alleging they took intellectual property developed at the institute and used it to start a for-profit business. The Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, part of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, alleges in the complaint that Dr. Craig B. Thompson and Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. are developing cancer drugs based on  research conducted while Thompson worked at the institute.  Thompson is currently the President and…

• Who Should Receive a National Medal of Technology and Innovation?

  Stephen Jenei

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:21 pm

  The USPTO is seeking nominations for the 2012 Medal of Technology and Innovation (NMTI), the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement, bestowed by the President of the United States on America’s leading innovators. A nomination form and detailed information about submission requirements can be downloaded here. All completed nominations must be submitted to the USPTO by 5:00 p.m. (ET), Mar. 31, 2012. The medal is awarded annually to individuals, teams (up to four individuals), companies or divisions of companies for their outstanding contributions to America’s economic,…

• Advanced Summit on Medical Device Patents

  Stephen Jenei

  20 Jan 2012 | 2:25 pm

  What: American Conference Institute’s Advanced Summit on Medical Device Patents. A medical device specific intellectual property conference to provide you with practical and tactical strategies for patent filings and challenges, which are more critical than ever in this time of sweeping change. In response to the challenges facing the device industry in this daunting economic climate including the looming medical device tax, ACI’s Advanced Summit on Medical Device Patents provides a forum for the key players- preeminent in-house IP counsel, patent prosecutors and litigators, the PTO, and…

• Book Review Monday: Trademark Surveys

  Stephen Jenei

  20 Dec 2011 | 6:43 am

  “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”  ~British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli Surveys are everywhere and poll results are available for every imaginable topic.  In the U.S.,   there were concerns about the admissibility of surveys for hearsay reasons but legislative amendment (Rule 702 of the 1975 Federal Rules of Evidence) eliminated  objections, making surveys a legally acceptable form of evidence. In fact, the submissions of survey evidence in trademark cases have become commonplace, and judges and juries afford great weight in these types…

• 

  LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®

• The trademark year that was

  Ron Coleman

  6 Feb 2012 | 3:46 pm

  Our hero John Welch is the guest on this podcast thingy (you know I’ve never really understood that stuff — “pod”?) on the Legal Talk Network called, “2011 Intellectual Property Year in Review and Outlook for 2012 – Part II: Trademarks.” Yeah, I know, but did I mention they have John on it?  They do, [...]

• Clearly Not a Trademark

  Ron Coleman

  30 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Originally posted 2005-06-27 00:31:07. Republished by Blog Post PromoterThe glass is half-empty for Pennzoil. John Ottaviani, guest-blogging on Eric Goldman’s “Technology & Marketing Law Blog”, picked up a pretty interesting decision in the trade dress department (which, not surprisingly, John Welch was all over — in vivid detail — when it hit the TTAB in [...]

• Char’ed, I’m sure (updated, January 2012)

  Ron Coleman

  30 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Updated version of the post first found here on December 8, 2009.  See update at the end. Poor Starbucks.  So much trademark trouble they have!  Other trouble, too.  And now the people who gave you five-dollar coffee in a paper cup had lost another one — one they thought they had won, namely the Starbucks [...]

• (RED) my lips

  Ron Coleman

  30 Jan 2012 | 12:50 pm

  Originally posted 2007-06-18 17:02:41. Republished by Blog Post PromoterShould Should the (RED) campaign become Red Hat? You know — (RED). Bono. Africa. Primary color. Ha, ha, just kidding. I still have no idea what the H-E-double-hockey-sticks this gazillion-dollar marketing and licensing and branding campaign the phone booth ads scream about is or does. This certainly [...]

• Fair Googling a la Mode

  Ron Coleman

  30 Jan 2012 | 12:50 pm

  Originally posted 2005-03-24 09:37:00. Republished by Blog Post PromoterVia the In the Agora blog, an update, with useful links, on the suit against Google by Agence France-Presse. Best link is to this article by the ubiquitous Professor Eric Goldman. (Note to self and 100 closest friends: Must read Goldman’s blog more often.) Most interesting, Europhobic [...]

• 

  PsyBlog

• Multiple-Choice Tests: Why Sticking With Your First Answer is (Probably) Wrong

  Jeremy Dean

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:34 am

  What's the best strategy for taking a multiple-choice test? The standard advice for multiple-choice tests is: if in doubt, stick with your first answer. College students believe it: about 75% agree that changing your first choice will lower your score overall (Kruger et al., 2005). Instructors believe it as well: in one study 55% believed it would lower students' scores while only 16% believed it would improve them. And yet this is wrong. One survey of 33 different studies conducted over 70 years found that, on average, people who change their answers do better than those who don't (Benjamin…

• Duck/Rabbit Illusion Provides a Simple Test of Creativity

  Jeremy Dean

  31 Jan 2012 | 10:06 am

  Are you creative? Try this simple test... The well-known known illusion above can be seen in two ways: as both a duck and a rabbit. Which do you see first? And if you see one, can you also see the other? Most people see the duck first and can flip between the two representations, but the question is: how easy is it for you to flip between them? Does it require real mental strain, or can you do it at will? Wiseman et al. (2011) had a hunch that the ability to flip between representations is related to creativity. To test this participants were given a simple test of creativity which involves…

• Powerful People Feel Taller Than They Really Are

  Jeremy Dean

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:05 am

  Experiment demonstrates how a powerful feeling feeds back into self-perception of height. Language can reveal all kinds of truths about our psychology. Take these expressions: He's the big man on this project. We look up to her. Lady Gaga is huge. He puts her on a pedestal. It's not hard to see the strong association here between size and power that's embedded in the way we talk about the relations between people. The reason why is almost too obvious to bother stating: larger people quite often do have more power. As children our parents, teachers and all our authority figures are taller than…

• Why Stories Sell: Transportation Leads to Persuasion

  Jeremy Dean

  18 Jan 2012 | 10:10 am

  Psychological research on persuasion suggests that stories which transport people are more likely to be persuasive. Marketers have known for years that stories are a powerful tool for persuading people. That's partly because stories (unlike statistics) are easy to understand. That's why politicians try to persuade us by telling stories about their vision of the world. They do spout statistics as well, but normally only in support of some kind of grand narrative. We instinctively understand that people resist being told what to do, but will respond to the moral of a story. So we try to…

• The Amazing Power of Regret to Shape Our Future

  Jeremy Dean

  12 Jan 2012 | 8:41 am

  Why people are reluctant to exchange lottery tickets, but will happily exchange pens. Regret might not make a list of the most powerful emotions. It would probably include things like anger, happiness, jealousy, sadness and especially for us English, embarrassment. We tend to think of regret as essentially a backward-looking emotion. We regret things in the past, like not trying hard enough in school, how we treated a friend or the things we said to our partner in the heat of an argument. In this sense you might argue that it's useless: why regret something you can't change? But regret isn't…

• 

  Chicago IP Litigation Blog

• No Injunction Where Products Are Sold in Different Channels

  R. David Donoghue

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:15 am

  Akoo Int’l, Inc. v. Harris, No. 10 C 1685 Slip. Op. (N.D. Ill. Sep. 9, 2011) (Coleman, J.).  Judge Coleman denied plaintiff Akoo International (“AI”) a preliminary injunction to prevent rapper Clifford Harris from using the Akoo mark for his clothing line. The Court held that AI had not shown a sufficient likelihood of confusion: AI’s advertising system was very different than Harris’ clothing line.   The parties sold in different channels.   There was no evidence that Harris began using the mark to confuse AI’s customers.

• Soliciting Illinois Customers Creates Jurisdiction

  R. David Donoghue

  6 Feb 2012 | 2:50 am

  Fasteners for Retail, Inc. v. Andersen, No. 11 C 2164 Slip. Op. (N.D. Ill. Aug. 30, 2011) (Kennelly, J.).  Judge Kennelly denied defendant Andersen’s motion to dismiss this patent and trade secret case. The Court had personal jurisdiction over Andersen because he worked for defendant K International, an Illinois entity, and Andersen had solicited his former customers in Illinois. Venue was also proper in the Northern District. A substantial part of the facts at issue occurred in Illinois. The parties’ prior agreement did not release plaintiff’s trade secret…

• No Personal Jurisdiction Based Upon a Passive Website and a Single Advertisement

  R. David Donoghue

  3 Feb 2012 | 3:38 am

  Modern Trade Comms., Inc. v. PSMJ Resources, Inc., No. 10 C 5380, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Aug. 19, 2011) (Pallmeyer, J.). Judge Pallmeyer granted defendants PSMJ Resources' ("PSMJ") and Oser Communications' ("Oser") motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction in this Lanham Act case involving plaintiff Modern Trade Communications' ("MTC") rights in its Metal Construction News mark for a metal industry trade publication. At the Metalcon tradeshow in 2010, Oser distributed a daily publication entitled Metal Daily News at PSMJ's direction. MTC alleged…

• Determining Senior User is Not an Issue for Motion to Dismiss

  R. David Donoghue

  1 Feb 2012 | 3:10 am

  Arcadia Group Brands Ltd. v. Studio Moderna SA, No. 10 C 7790, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Aug. 15, 2011) (Der-Yeghiayan, J.). Judge Der-Yeghiayan granted plaintiffs' (collectively "Arcadia") motion to dismiss defendants' (collectively "Moderna") counterclaims and denied Moderna's motion to dismiss Arcadia's claims in this Lanham Act case involving Arcadia's TOPSHOP and Moderna's TOP SHOP TV marks.  In 2004, the parties entered a settlement agreement (the "Agreement") pursuant to which Moderna agreed not to use TOPSHOP to sell women's clothing in any country. …

• Second Suit on Different Patents Not Precluded

  R. David Donoghue

  30 Jan 2012 | 7:35 am

  Trading Techs. Int'l., Inc. v. BCG Partners, Inc., No. 10 C 715 (Consolidated), Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Jul. 26, 2011) (Kendall, J.). Judge Kendall denied the SunGuard defendants' (collectively "SunGuard") summary judgment motion arguing that plaintiff Trading Technologies ("TT") second suit against the same SunGuard products should be dismissed based upon claim splitting or claim preclusion. There is much more on this case and the related cases in the Blog's archives. The parties and the accused products were the same in both cases (filed in 2005 and 2010, respectively), but…

• 

  Religion Clause

• U.S. Officials Help Mark Jewish Holiday of Tu Bishvat

  Howard Friedman

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:15 am

  Yesterday was the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat, a minor holiday also known as the "New Year of the trees."  Haaretz reports that to commemorate the day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Under-Secretary who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, Harris Sherman, planted a redwood tree in a ceremony held near USDA headquarters in Washington. Other Obama officials this week planted trees in Arizona, Colorado and Israel to mark the holiday.

• Washington State Legislature Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill With Protections For Religious Organizations

  Howard Friedman

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:10 am

  The Washington state legislature yesterday gave final passage, and sent to the governor for her signature, SB 6239 legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. The House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 55-43, after the state Senate passed it last week by a vote of 28-21. (See prior related posting.)  CNN reports that Gov. Christine Gregoire will sign the bill that will go into effect in June at the end of the legislative session-- unless opponents place it on the November ballot to seek voter disapproval. The bill contains a number of provisions to protect…

• 11th Circuit: No Religious Discrimination In Lay Off of Christian Counselor

  Howard Friedman

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:05 am

  In Walden v. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (11th Cir., Feb. 7, 2012), the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by Marcia Walden, a counselor in an employee assistance program at the CDC, that her free exercise rights under the 1st Amendment and RFRA were violated when she was laid off because of the way in which she handled a client in need of same-sex relationship counseling. Walden was employed by Computer Sciences Corp. which ran the employee assistance program for CDC, and her lay off came when CDC insisted on it.  Walden is a devout Christian who…

• Evolution Weekend Designed To Show Religious Acceptance of Science

  Howard Friedman

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  This week end is the 7th annual Evolution Weekend, sponsored by the Clergy Letter Project. The weekend is designed to demonstrate that many religious faiths see no conflict between religion and science. The Project website says:Religious people from many diverse faith traditions and locations around the world understand that evolution is quite simply sound science; and for them, it does not in any way threaten, demean, or diminish their faith in God. In fact, for many, the wonders of science often enhance and deepen their awe and gratitude towards God.

• Suit Challenges Exclusion of Unvaccinated Students When Disease Occurs

  Howard Friedman

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:43 am

  Today's New York Daily News reports that two parents are suing school officials over decisions by two principals to send unvaccinated children home when other students at their schools contracted communicable diseases.  Plaintiffs had invoked a state law that allowed them to object on religious grounds to having their children vaccinated. They are now challenging a Chancellor's regulation that allows principals to exclude unvaccinated children for up to 3 weeks when others have contracted measles, mumps, chicken pox or other similar diseases. Neither plaintiff would disclose their…

• 

  SCOTUSblog

• Petition of the day

  Kali Borkoski

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:06 pm

  The petition of the day is: Baca v. StarrDocket: 11-834Issue(s): (1) Whether, under Ashcroft v. Iqbal, a county sheriff or other high-level supervisory official may be held liable for an Eighth Amendment violation, stemming from an assault on a prisoner perpetrated by jail inmates and guards, if the plaintiff does not allege facts showing that the sheriff actually knew of, yet failed to respond to, the particular risk of assault the plaintiff faced, and that the sheriff ’s failure to act was the cause of the plaintiff ’s injury; and (2) whether a complaint seeking to hold a high-level…

• Argument preview: Appellate authority to raise AEDPA limitations sua sponte

  Scott Dodson

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:35 am

  When Patrick Wood, a Colorado state prisoner, was too late in seeking federal habeas-corpus relief, the state told the federal district court that it neither challenged nor conceded the timeliness of Wood’s petition.  The district court denied the petition without addressing its timeliness, and Wood appealed.  Under these circumstances, did the court of appeals have authority to affirm the district court on the sole ground that the petition was untimely?  This is the question before the Court on February 27, 2012, in Wood v. Milyard. Facts and procedural history In 1986, Patrick Wood was…

• Wednesday round-up

  Conor McEvily

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:46 am

  As Lyle Denniston reported for this blog, yesterday in Perry v. Brownthe Ninth Circuit struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, kicking off extensive discussion of whether the case will eventually wind up at the Supreme Court.  At the Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr hypothesizes as to the panel’s strategy with regard to possible Supreme Court review, while Eugene Volokh’s analysis of the decision begins by predicting that the case “is going up to the Supreme Court.”  Writing for the Los Angeles Times, David Savage, Carol J. Williams, and Maura Dolan have…

• Ban on gay marriage struck down (FINAL UPDATE)

  Lyle Denniston

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:06 am

  (FINAL UPDATE 3:34 p.m.) In the nation’s most closely watched gay rights case, the Ninth Circuit Court divided 2-1 on Tuesday and struck down “Proposition 8,” the ban on same-sex marriage adopted by California voters in November 2008.  The panel majority did not uphold a broad right of gay couples to wed, saying it was enough for now to rule that it was unconstitutional to take away a right to marry only for one minority group, when everyone had the right before.   The 128-page ruling can be read here. The panel unanimously ruled that the sponsors of Proposition 8 had…

• SCOTUSblog internships

  Kali Borkoski

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:05 am

  This is a reminder that SCOTUSblog is now accepting applications from current law students interested in interning with us.  Details about the position’s qualifications and responsibilities, as well as how to apply, are below the jump. The principal focus of the internship (which is a paid one)  will be assisting Tom with the “Petition of the Day” and “Petitions to watch” features on the blog. This will require roughly ten to twenty hours of work a week on a flexible work schedule, which can be accomplished remotely. The expected commitment would be through the end of the Supreme…

• 

  Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog

• Mobilize Your Legal Firm's Marketing Strategy with QR Codes

  Larry Bodine

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:00 am

  The January issue of the Legal Tech Newsletter lays out  seven strategies for maximizing QR code effectiveness: Remember that QR codes are a mobile tool. Use only one QR code. Make sure your URL contains a name. Optimize QR code size. Brand your QR codes carefully, if at all. Think about the call to action. Make sure users will have an Internet connection. Read the full article to get the details on these steps and find some additional helpful information about incorporating QR codes into your marketing mix. Recent QR Code Study Vizibility also recently conducted a survey with the Legal…

• Online Ad Spending Will Surpass Print Advertising for First Time

  Larry Bodine

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:00 am

  We all know that print is losing readers to online options, and for the first time in U.S. history, marketers are projected to spend more on online advertising than on advertising in print magazines and newspapers. According to a report by eMarketer, online advertising is expected to generate $39.5 billion in sales this year — a 23.3% increase from 2011 — compared to a sum of $33.8 billion on print. That’s impressive growth, especially since 2011 also witnessed a 23% jump in online ad spending, according to eMarketer’s calculations. Online ad revenues should continue…

• Applying Twitter's Best Practices to Lawyers

  Larry Bodine

  7 Feb 2012 | 2:00 am

  I spotted this practical blog post on the Lawyerist by Gyi Taskalakis: Twitter provides the following business best practice advice to build your following, reputation, and client’s trust: Share. Share photos and behind the scenes info about your business. Even better, give a glimpse of developing projects and events. Users come to Twitter to get and share the latest, so give it to them! Listen. Regularly monitor the comments about your company, brand, and products. Ask. Ask questions of your followers to glean valuable insights and show that you are listening.

• Lawyerist: Law Firms Should Delete Their Facebook Pages

  Larry Bodine

  6 Feb 2012 | 2:00 am

  Sam Glover, the editor of the Lawyerist blog, recommends in his latest post that law firms should "Delete your law firm Facebook page." "The only time Facebook pages get interesting is when they are for political candidates, political causes, or entertaining musicians. Or fake political candidates or causes," Glover writes. "Law firms don’t even rate a mention on the scale." "Nobody really “likes” law firms," he says. "People aren’t interested in a law firm. At best, they are interested in a particular lawyer, but normal…

• Check Out the Latest Issue of Best Practices in Lawyer Blogs

  Larry Bodine

  3 Feb 2012 | 2:00 am

  Now you can get your own copy of this newsletter delivered to you by subscribing now for FREE. 15 Business Blogging Mistakes & Easy Fixes Your blog should be one of the key components of your law firm’s marketing strategy. Regularly updated content attracts new visitors, all of whom may be possible clients. But are you making mistakes with your blogging strategy? HubSpot offers a free ebook outlining the most common blogging mistakes and their easy fixes. Learn more ... Basics of RSS for New Bloggers It’s possible to have a loyal readership that rarely—or…

• 

  ScienceDaily: Anthropology News

• Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:36 am

  Scientists have completed the genome sequence of a Denisovan, a representative of an Asian group of extinct humans related to Neanderthals.

• Neanderthal demise due to many influences, including cultural changes

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:01 am

  Although many anthropologists believe that modern humans ancestors "wiped out" Neanderthals, it's more likely that Neanderthals were integrated into the human gene pool thousands of years ago during the Upper Pleistocene era as cultural and climatic forces brought the two groups together. New research suggests that the Neanderthals demise was due to a combination of influences, including cultural changes.

• Following genetic footprints out of Africa: First modern humans settled in Arabia

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:37 am

  A new study, using genetic analysis to look for clues about human migration over sixty thousand years ago, suggests that the first modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.

• Tiny mountainous region in Siberia may have been genetic source of earliest Native Americans

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:36 am

  A tiny mountainous region in southern Siberia may have been the genetic source of the earliest Native Americans, according to new research.

• Dawn of social networks: Ancestors may have formed ties with both kin and non-kin based on shared attributes

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:26 am

  Ancient humans may not have had the luxury of updating their Facebook status, but social networks were nevertheless an essential component of their lives, a new study suggests. The study's findings describe elements of social network structures that may have been present early in human history, suggesting how our ancestors may have formed ties with both kin and non-kin based on shared attributes, including the tendency to cooperate. According to the paper, social networks likely contributed to the evolution of cooperation.

• 

  NYT > Sociology

• Charles Murray’s ‘Coming Apart: The State of White America’

  4 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pm

  The political scientist Charles Murray has a new book, “Coming Apart,” which depicts members of white elites as hypocrites living in a bubble and the white working class as succumbing to moral decay.

• Now We Are Six: The Hormone Surge of Middle Childhood

  26 Dec 2011 | 9:00 pm

  Around 5 or 6, children experience an endocrinological event that propels them toward the ability to control impulses, to reason, to focus, to plan for the future.

• Economists as Grinches

  21 Dec 2011 | 9:00 pm

  A reader responds to an article from Sunday Review about economists.

• Economists Are Grinches

  17 Dec 2011 | 9:00 pm

  Does studying economics make you selfish? Or are economists born that way?

• The Life Reports

  24 Nov 2011 | 9:00 pm

  After a few thousand readers over 70 wrote in with personal histories, here are some of the lessons they shared.

• 

  orgtheory.net

• chicago ethnorgaphy conference 2012

  fabiorojas

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:11 pm

  From the home office in Hyde Park, guest blogger emeritus Mario draws my attention to a conference that should be of special interest to Midwest ethnographers: University of Chicago Urban Network are sponsoring a conference, “Causal Thinking and Ethnographic Research,” devoted to understanding the contributions of ethnographic research to contemporary causal thinking and scientific inference.  Is counterfactual thinking useful to ethnographers?  Does ethnographic research help identify its flaws?  Are the deductive methods underlying QCA appropriate to a research endeavor primarily…

• failing beauchamp’s test

  fabiorojas

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:54 am

  Over at the Andrew Sullivan blog, Zack Beauchamp picks up on my post about Ron Paul’s failure to significantly transform the Republican Party. He thinks that Paul doesn’t represent the best of libertarian face. Paul is tainted by state’s rights fanaticism, association with racists, and homophobia: The real test for libertarianism will be when it gets a champion equipped to stand up for the ideology’s social views as well its economic and international ones. Actually, there was one politician who might be considered a test of Beauchamp’s hypothesis – former…

• conference for orgtheory in developing regions

  fabiorojas

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:15 pm

  Writing from the home office in Switzerland, Tim draws my attention to a conference for management PhD scholars interested in development. From the call for papers for the UNDP Development Academy: The oikos UNDP Young Scholars Development Academy 2012 provides PhD students and young scholars working on poverty, sustainable development, and the informal economy from an Organisation and Management Theory perspective a platform to present and discuss their on-going research projects with fellow students and senior faculty. Research on inclusive business models, market development and…

• ron paul: the good and bad news for libertarians

  fabiorojas

  6 Feb 2012 | 4:04 pm

  So what have we learned from Ron Paul’s run this year? Let’s start the good news for Paul. By dropping the irrelevant Libertarian party and running as a Republican, Paul got be a Congressman, got a national following, got into various nationally televised debates, and came close to winning the Iowa caucus. Paul’s son is now a Senator in Kentucky. How have his comrades in the third party fared? Bob Barr – a former Congressman – ran as the LP presidential nominee and got .4% of the vote.  Worse than Ralph Nader. Bottom line: third parties suck, defecting to a…

• moving up the academic hierarchy

  fabiorojas

  5 Feb 2012 | 4:02 pm

  A question that is often asked goes something like this. “I am working  in an academic career. However, my record isn’t so great. What can I do to improve my position?” For example, last week, a student asked the following question: The first half of my college career was atrocious and my GPA suffered tremendously, which led to being put on academic dismissal. After three years I came back to school and I have been doing well, even making the Dean’s List last semester. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to raise my GPA up to 3.0 by the time I graduate, even if I…

• 

  Material World Blog

• CFP: "Rags and Riches"

  Aaron J Glass

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:05 pm

  We are pleased to announce that the call for papers is open for the one day interdisciplinary conference "Rags and Riches: dress and dress accessories in social context", to be held at the University of Reading on the 21st April 2012. This conference aims to bring together archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and others from related disciplines to discuss current issues of methodology, theory and interpretation of dress and dress accessories, from prehistory to the present day. Details about the call for papers can be found at…

• Post-Doc: Networks of Exchange: Mobilities of Knowledge in a Globalized World

  Aaron J Glass

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:28 am

  The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis invites applications from all disciplines for post-doctoral resident fellowships to be held during the academic year of 2012-2013 from individuals working on topics related to "Networks of Exchange: Mobilities of Knowledge in a Globalized World." How have science, technology and medicine been shaped by global movement, and how has global movement been shaped by science, technology and medicine? This two-year seminar program explores the relationship between varieties of knowledge and practice centering on the natural world and the formation of…

• Two Positions - UCL Digital Anthropology

  Haidy L Geismar

  2 Feb 2012 | 4:54 pm

  The Department of Anthropology at University College London has created two new positions within its new Digital Anthropology Program: Lecturer in Digital Anthropology and Material Culture And Lecturer in Digital Anthropology

• Making History: Antiquaries in Britain

  Patrick Laviolette

  1 Feb 2012 | 9:11 am

  Whilst a resident scholar at the YCBA in New Haven, I've had the privilege over the past few weeks of working in the reading room of Louis Kahn's brilliantly designed space which houses Yale University’s British Art Center. On the same floor, not 10 yards away from the library entrance is the exhibition space for what will soon be the Making History: Antiquaries in Britain exhibition. Pretty much every day on the way to the staff kitchen, I've managed to sneak a peek at the curatorial progress of this forthcoming exhibition which shall be inaugurated at the YCBA by an opening lecture from…

• Lights, Tinsel, Presence

  Haidy L Geismar

  31 Jan 2012 | 6:56 am

  Jennifer Deeger, Visiting Research Fellow at the National Institute for Experimental Arts, Univ. of New South Wales As the holidays recede and we brace for the months ahead, might we take a moment for a backwards glance, so that I can share the highlight of my 2011? On 7 December, Miyarrka Media, the group I co-founded with Yolngu co-directors, Paul Gurrumuruwuy and Fiona Wanambi, and established video artist, David Mackenzie, launched our first exhibition, Christmas Birrimbirr (Christmas Spirit) as an experiment across the spaces of visual art, ethnographic film, and Yolngu ritual…

• 

  Nuts & Boalts

• 9th Circuit Finds Prop 8 Unconstitutional

  A. Fong

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:14 am

  You can download the decision here (PDF). There's a lot to chew on, but the decision appears to be limited. It doesn't say that there's a constitutionally protected right to marry under the Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses, but rather, that eliminating an existing substantive right for a particular class of people is unacceptable.I'm not a huge fan of judicial minimalism, but this decision seems crafted for Anthony Kennedy in light of his opinion in Romer v. Evans.Thoughts?

• The Wonderful/Dreaded Class Campaign

  Armen

  2 Feb 2012 | 10:56 am

  A commenter asks:Can we have a thread on the class campaign? I am a 3L and I don't really understand what it is. They are doing a poor job of explaining it. Is it just a fundraising campaign? Does the money go for a class gift or something (ie. named bench or sculpture)? Why do people seem to have such polarizing views on this? I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts. I figured I'd take a stab at each of the questions posted.   Can we have a thread on the class campaign?Yes.Is it just a fundraising campaign? Does the money go for a class gift or something (ie. named bench or sculpture)?I…

• If I May...

  Armen

  1 Feb 2012 | 2:07 pm

  While we continue to mourn the loss of Polly, I wanted to briefly interject to pass along some uplifting news regarding the Boalt community, namely the appointment of my classmate Sonia G. as the executive director of the California Bar Foundation (the non-profit that you can donate to when filling out your bar payment forms).  The broader mission of the Bar Foundation is to increase access to justice, but as it relates to law students, the Bar Foundation offers scholarships for students from underrepresented communities as well as those who'd like to work in the public interest…

• Polly

  A. Fong

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:47 pm

  Dean H*rshen just sent out an update about Polly, who's been on medical leave for a while: Dear students,Some of you have been asking about Polly. After consulting with Polly and her family, Mind* and I wanted to let you know that Polly is gravely ill and unlikely to recover. She has a very aggressive form of cancer that has progressed rapidly. Many of you have asked what you can do and if you would like to drop off a card for Polly, we will be taking them to her. This is a very sad time for us and we know it may be difficult for some of you as well. If you would like to talk about this,…

• SOPA / PIPA Update

  A. Fong

  20 Jan 2012 | 11:41 am

  Two quick follow-ups to Wednesday's online blackout:First, in the face of tremendous opposition, both SOPA and PIPA have been put on hold. Yay Internet!Second, the day after the online protests, the Department of Justice took down the MegaUpload file locker based on allegations of piracy and is now pursuing a criminal case, even without SOPA / PIPA. If everything in the indictment is true, things don't look good for MegaUpload.But the DOJ's actions are extremely questionable from a due process perspective. MegaUpload was making efforts to comply with DMCA takedown notices.

• 

  NYT > Archaeology and Anthropology

• Gains in DNA Are Speeding Research Into Human Origins

  30 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm

  Remains from a Siberian cave and faster, cheaper technology are helping scientists draw a complex new picture of human origins.

• At La Brea Tar Pits, Relics From Long Before Freeways

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm

  At the La Brea Tar Pits, fossils preserved in tar provide a time capsule of the creatures that roamed Southern California 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.

• ARTSBEAT; Mummified Maori Heads Returned to New Zealand

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm

  France returns the mummified heads of 20 Maori warriors that had been held in French museums for more than two centuries back to New Zealand.

• Debt-Ridden Greece Turns to Sacred Sites for Help

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm

  Officials dealing with budget cuts plan to make monuments and archaeological sites more attractive to foreign film crews, advertising firms and publishing houses by reducing the cost of permits.

• ARTSBEAT; Trial in Rome Comes to an End For American Antiquities Dealer

  19 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm

  Three-judge panel in Rome dismisses charges against American antiquities dealer Robert Hecht, ruling that statute of limitations on crimes he is accused of--receiving artifacts illegally looted from Italy and conspiring to deal in them--has expired. Photo

• 

  the [non]billable hour by Matthew Homann

• Great Writing from the Legal Underground

  Matt Homann

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:17 pm

  My long-time blogging friend Evan Schaffer has compiled all of his best writing (and it is really great stuff) into one post.  Enjoy!

• Make Money Instead of Chasing It

  Matt Homann

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:15 pm

  There are some good tips in this article on taking charge of clients who want free work, but the best one is focused on collections: There are many ways people try to recover money owed to them for services and products delivered. Don’t get yourself too involved in these tricks. Keep everything you do professional and don’t waste time chasing money. You are far better off making it. Leave the chasing to the experts, even if it costs you something in the process. Eventually you will be able to add this cost to the prices you charge. Brilliant advice too many lawyers are guilty of not…

• Communicate Your Quality Checkpoints

  Matt Homann

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:41 am

  As a professional service provider, you’re concerned about the quality of the work you do for clients.  How do you communicate that focus on “quality” to your clients? Perhaps you could take a lesson from Next Day Flyers, an internet-based printing business.  Next Day Flyers puts every order through “33 Quality Checkpoints.” Because 33 checkpoints could be a bit overwhelming to comprehend, they describe it in an easy-to-understand diagram:   Could you come up with a similar Quality Assurance process?  If you already have quality-focused procedures in…

• Speak at LexThink.1 (formerly Ignite Law)

  Matt Homann

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:08 pm

  If you’re interested in speaking at LexThink.1 in Chicago on March 28th this year, there are only a few more days to propose a talk.  Speakers get 20 slides and 6 minutes to share their vision of the future of law practice.  This year’s theme is “Serving the 21st Century Client.”  You can learn more and submit your proposal here.

• What’s Your Firm’s Happiness Report

  Matt Homann

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:38 am

  37Signals, makers of online collaboration tools Basecamp, Highrise and Campfire, are relentless focused on delivering high quality customer service.  What fascinates me is how they “measure” customer satisfaction: After every interaction with our support team, a customer is asked to rate the experience by clicking one of three ratings: “It was great” (happy face), “It was OK” (flat-line face), or “It wasn’t good” (frown face).Here’s what the choices look like on the ticket. The best part of all this is that they’re completely transparent about the results.

• 

  The Legal Satyricon

• The Great American Movie

  J DeVoy

  9 Feb 2012 | 2:09 am

  By J. DeVoy Remember Falling Down, where Michael Douglas goes on a rampage in LA, shooting up a McDonald’s, a phone booth, and attacking a construction project with a rocket launcher?  Cathartic, no?  This appears to be even better. The thing about Falling Down is that it did not go far enough in its attack [...]

• Paramount Throws Down Gauntlet to Academia

  J DeVoy

  6 Feb 2012 | 12:17 pm

  By J. DeVoy In the past few weeks, the MPAA and RIAA have been humbled by the defeat of SOPA and PIPA in Congress.  Eric Goldman has posted a letter that Paramount has apparently sent to various academics, seeking to open a dialogue about piracy and exchange ideas about how to address it.  The letter [...]

• Georgia Supreme Court Helps Legitimize Assisted Suicide

  J DeVoy

  6 Feb 2012 | 11:55 am

  By J. DeVoy While illegal in 39 states, assisted suicide in not illegal in Georgia.  The state attempted to create the illusion that the practice was illegal, however, by outlawing public advertisement of assisted suicide services through OCGA § 16-5-5(b).  The statute did not forbid all offers to provide assisted suicide services, but only those publicly advertised. [...]

• Suit contesting Nevada marriage standards to go forward

  J DeVoy

  23 Jan 2012 | 7:33 pm

  By J. DeVoy District of Nevada Judge Philip Pro declined to dismiss Clark County from a lawsuit brought by the ACLU to challenge Nevada’s “religious test” for whom may solemnize a marriage as implemented by the County.  Clark County handles marriage matters in the Las Vegas metro area, ranging from issuing marriage certificates to authorizing [...]

• What happened to Cohen v. California?

  marcorandazza

  23 Jan 2012 | 7:14 am

  A man was arrested for wearing a jacket with a political message on it while in the history exhibit at the United States Supreme Court. Yes, the same United States Supreme Court that said it was Paul Robert Cohen’s right to wear a jacket in a courthouse emblazoned with the message “fuck the draft.” Cohen [...]

• 

  Connecticut Employment Law Blog

• The Fallout from the Latest NLRB Salvo on Social Media

  Daniel Schwartz

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:26 am

  Last year, I mentioned that I was growing a bit tired about writing about social media in the workplace. It’s not that the topic isn’t interesting; it’s just that there isn’t that much new to discuss.  For those of us who have been writing about it for years, we’ve seen much of this for a while. (Though to be fair, my earliest post on Facebook talked more about its use for employment screening; its adoption in the workplace shows just how far Facebook has come in four years.) And yet, every pronouncement from the NLRB is treated as if it is written in stone…

• CHRO Posts Public Hearing Schedule; Cases Moving Forward

  Daniel Schwartz

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:43 pm

  As a further sign that things are moving more back to normal (whatever normal is these days), the CHRO has released the public hearings schedule for matters before the agency. You can view the schedule here.  Most of the calendar consists of status conferences, but if you’ve had a case that has been pending at the CHRO awaiting a public hearing, expect to receive notice shortly that your case is moving forward. Additionally, the third human rights referee was named and started today: Michele Mount. 

• Governor Proposes Consolidations of State Agencies; Would Impact CHRO, CTDOL

  Daniel Schwartz

  2 Feb 2012 | 7:09 am

  On Friday, Governor Malloy proposed two agency consolidations that would have a significant impact for employers in Connecticut. First, he proposed a new “Department on Human Rights, Protection and Advocacy”.  This new department would combine the Office of Protection and Advocacy and the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (with the directors still appointed by the Governor.) Second, he proposed an expanded Connecticut Department of Labor that would include the existing functions and the Workers Compensation Commission. It is entirely unclear at this point whether…

• Connecticut Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Hostile Work Environment and CTFMLA Cases

  Daniel Schwartz

  31 Jan 2012 | 6:24 am

  It’s not very often that the Connecticut Supreme Court considers employment law issues. But today, two notable cases are being argued in front of the court. Both could have an impact on employers in the state. Court Considers Employment Law Cases In Patino v. Birken Manufacturing, the court is being asked to consider whether a hostile work environment harassment claim can be brought under state law (Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 46a-81c if you’re keeping track at home).  The court’s summary of the case is as follows: The plaintiff, Luis Patino, was employed by the defendant, Birken…

• BREAKING: DOL Proposes New FMLA Rules Impacting Military Leave

  Daniel Schwartz

  30 Jan 2012 | 9:07 am

  The Department of Labor today proposed new regulations of the FMLA that would explain further the military family leave provisions and incorporate some special provisions for airline flight crews.  The new proposed regulations are in response to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 which amended the FMLA to extend the military caregiver leave entitlement to eligible family members of certain veterans and to extend the qualifying exigency leave entitlement to eligible family members of the Regular Armed Forces.  You can find the DOL’s Notice of Proposed…

• 

  Holy Kaw!

• The content marketing explosion [infographic]

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:44 am

  Via Blue Glass Interactive. Marketing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 8 historical figures who ate disgusting things

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:26 pm

  Before you read this article, you may have thought your dog had the grossest eating habits ever. But Fido's penchant for poo is nothing compared to some of these sickos highlighted in Cracked. For example, Victorian scientist William Buckland: He didn't just stop at the meat of animals, either. While on a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, a strange mark was found on the floor. A debate broke out as to what the stain could possibly be, at which point Buckland got on his hands and knees, licked the stain and confidently announced it to be bat piss. But the craziest thing Buckland ever did, at…

• 5 explanations of why teenagers act the way the do

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:22 pm

  Understanding the teenage mind could be a life's work. For those of you who don't have that kind of time, however, Mental Floss gives five things that could explain the mind of the teenager. For example, parents, have you ever wondered if your teenager is somehow getting dumber? Parents of teens often wonder what happened to the bright child they used to have. How can someone go from getting A’s to getting C’s when they seem to be doing the same amount of work? Once again, changes in the brain are to blame. While the merits of IQ tests are debatable, scientists used to think IQ…

• Surviving the loss of a star employee

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:16 pm

  Some groups have stellar members who carry the team. That's all well and good until that member leaves. Then what? This Smartblog video will help you answer that question: Full story at Smartblog on Leadership. Top news for leaders. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Disneyland circa 1957 [video]

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:14 pm

  This video was shot in 1957, less than two years after Disneyland had opened. The footage is newly restored and ready to take you to the happiest place on earth as it was in its early days.  Full story at Mental Floss. All the top Internet videos in one place. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 

  JD Supra Hot Docs - Newsworthy Legal Filings From the Source

• Prop 8: Perry v. Brown: Opinion Regarding the Constitutionality of Proposition 8

  Adrian Lurssen

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:09 am

  Case Name: Prop 8: Perry v. Brown Document Name: Opinion Regarding the Constitutionality of Proposition 8 Post Date: 02/07/2012 Filing Date: 02/07/2012 Document Summary: Copy of the 9th circuit appeals court decision ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.Quote: ""Although the constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently. There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted…" Contributor:…

• Lee v Drake - Cash Money Records, Inc.: Complaint for Music Publishing Royalty Accounting

  Tamera Bennett

  6 Feb 2012 | 8:37 pm

  Case Name: Lee v Drake - Cash Money Records, Inc. Document Name: Complaint for Music Publishing Royalty Accounting Post Date: 02/06/2012 Filing Date: 02/02/2012 Document Summary: Grammy nominee Drake has been sued by an ex-girlfriend who claims she co-wrote the hit song "Marvin's Room" and is entitled to part ownership in the copyright in the song; copyright in the sound recording; and payment of songwriter royalties. The first 30 seconds of the song is a recording of a phone conversation with the ex-girlfriend and plaintiff, Erika Lee. Lee asserts that she and Drake had every…

• Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.: Brief of Amicus Curiae The CATO institute In Support Of Respondents

  Cato Institute

  6 Feb 2012 | 10:51 am

  Case Name: Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. Document Name: Brief of Amicus Curiae The CATO institute In Support Of Respondents Post Date: 02/06/2012 Filing Date: 02/03/2012 Document Summary: One of our oldest laws, the Alien Tort Statute (1789), grants federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits brought by aliens for actions “in violation of the law of nations.” Courts have differed in their method of interpreting this “law of nations”—an old way of saying “international law”—and thus in their decisions on what…

• Guggenheim Capital v. Toumei: Order Denying Plaintiff's Motion for an Appeal Bond and Awarding Reduced Attorneys' Fees

  Ronald Coleman

  4 Feb 2012 | 8:16 pm

  Case Name: Guggenheim Capital v. Toumei Document Name: Order Denying Plaintiff's Motion for an Appeal Bond and Awarding Reduced Attorneys' Fees Post Date: 02/04/2012 Filing Date: 01/31/2012 Document Summary: Order on motions by plaintiffs seeking requirement of $100,000 appeal brief and nearly $700,000 in attorneys' fees and costs in Lanham Act statutory damages case where both final judgment and order awarding attorneys' fees were entered on default.We entered an appearance on behalf of certain defendants following the entry of final judgment for purposes of post-trial…

• Landlord bears cost of latent structural defect not cause by tenant alteration unless expressly provides otherwise.: Strict ruling on Landlord responsibility for latent structural defects not cause by tenant alteration

  Reuben Ortenberg

  3 Feb 2012 | 7:47 am

  Case Name: Landlord bears cost of latent structural defect not cause by tenant alteration unless expressly provides otherwise. Document Name: Strict ruling on Landlord responsibility for latent structural defects not cause by tenant alteration Post Date: 02/03/2012 Filing Date: 02/02/2012 Document Summary: Landlord and tenant entered into a lease of commercial space. Tenant took space “as is” and intended to do alteration work to suit its needs. The lease provided that the landlord would not be required to perform any work to ready the space for the tenant, and that landlord would provide…

• 

  Real Lawyers Have Blogs

• Best in Law Blogs : The LexBlog Network : February 8, 2012

  Colin O'Keefe

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:55 pm

  'Twas a great day on the LexBlog Network, and one that makes me smile at how much the quality of content has progressed over time. We have Dan Schwartz with an excellent roundup of posts discussing the NLRB social media report, Seth Borden on some backlash over the NLRB "recess" appointments and Vladimir Gagic going hard at the Scottsdale Police Department after their refusal to release information on the shooting death of a young Marine. And, lastly, we have Robin Shea coming on LXBN TV to discuss the aforementioned NLRB report on social media. Software…

• Social media now part of everyday life : Sheryl Sanberg, Facebook COO

  Kevin O'Keefe

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:39 pm

  The recent World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, co-chaired by Sheryl Sandberg, chief operation officer of Facebook, focused on the "great transformation" reshaping communities, companies and countries. A key element to the "great transformation," per Sandberg, is how social media is changing everything everything from political protest to buying baby shoes. In an interview with The Nation, Sandberg responded to what is the most interesting transformation that we're experiencing or about to experience? 2011 proved to be a year when social media and services like Facebook became part…

• Former Google Exec : Social networks are killing Google search

  Kevin O'Keefe

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:17 am

  Former Google executive Stafford Masie (@staffordmasie) believes that traditional search is dying because users are choosing to query their friends and followers on services like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. This in an interview with Emil Protalinski (@EmilProtalinski) of ZD Net. It’s not that Google is dead, it's just that many people are turning to social networks to find what they've historically found on Google. Per Massie: The pie of search query volumes in the world – that business is shrinking. Why? Because people are going and doing search queries – search query volumes are…

• Seattle University Law School social media program and reception Wednesday evening

  Kevin O'Keefe

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:43 pm

  I'll be presenting at Seattle University Law School Wednesday evening, February 8, during a workshop and panel discussion focusing on ways social media can benefit today’s law student and lawyer. The program is being co-sponsored by the King County Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division and Seattle University School of Law’s Center for Professional Development. The program will run from 4 to 7 p.m. beginning with a one-hour LinkedIn.com workshop with Matt Youngquist, career coach and President of Career Horizons. Following the workshop, I'll be on a panel with Seattle attorneys,…

• Best in Law Blogs : The LexBlog Network : February 7, 2012

  Colin O'Keefe

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:29 pm

  While yesterday's roundup was filled with posts on the Super Bowl—you can actually see all the best Super Bowl posts across the network on LXBN—and we still have Lindsey Griffiths chiming in a bit on the ads, we branch out a bit today, with a range of topics covered. Total posts on the LexBlog Network today: 165. Also, hey, if you're a LexBlog Network author and you'd be interested in coming on LXBN TV to discuss Prop 8, shoot me an email for consideration. Does Energy Efficient Technology Make Buildings More Energy Efficient? The Answer May Not Be So Obvious - Boston…

• 

  Trade Secrets Blog

• Western Digital Hit with $630 Million Award in Trade Secrets Case

  3 Feb 2012 | 10:35 am

  Ah, arbitration! That panacea that will cure all ills associated with our country’s out-of-control litigation system, especially those irrational juries who will do just about anything.Yes, arbitration is just perfect. Except when it isn’t.Just ask Western Digital. Corporate Counsel has an interesting article about a $630 million award against it and in favor of competitor hard-drive maker Seagate Technology. According to the report, the matter arises out of a:four-year battle stemming from accusations by Seagate that a former employee misappropriated trade secrets when he decamped to…

• Do Lawyers Have Trade Secrets?

  2 Feb 2012 | 9:26 am

  That, at least, is the question implicit in a report from Texas Lawyer concerning a dispute between two Houston law firms engaged in a lawsuit in which a TRO was recently entered.Here’s a short summary of the facts as reported: last year, the former office manager of Schrader & Associates was charged with embezzling more than $200,000 from the firm. This January, Schrader learned that she may also have taken “confidential, proprietary and privileged information,” including trade secrets, and shared it with another firm, Stefanides & Associates. How Schrader learned of this is strange,…

• Motorola and Lemko Settle Trade Secrets Claims

  1 Feb 2012 | 7:18 am

  Following up on Todd’s post from last month, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility have settled their long-running trade secrets case with Lemko over 4G technology. Terms of the settlement were confidential. Lemko was founded by former Motorola employees. As reported last month, the judge denied summary judgment to Lemko and the case looked ready to head for trial.The defendant company, Lemko, was started by former Motorola employees.In a related development, the Sun-Times reports that former Motorola software engineer Hanjuan Jin, accused in a…

• Snooki Without Makeup - A Lost Trade Secret of "The Jersey Shore"

  20 Jan 2012 | 11:15 am

  It's Friday at Womble Trade Secrets and we're going to try a new argument on you before the weekend. A trade secret is generally defined as information that (i) derives independent economic value from not being generally known to, and not being readily ascertainable by proper means by, other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use, and(ii) is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.Fans of MTV apparently love this show "The Jersey Shore." We've never seen it, but we are students of the law and do our research and we…

• The Trade Secrets of . . . Helicopter-Aided Ski Companies?

  19 Jan 2012 | 5:08 am

  This just in from the Anchorage Daily News - heli-ski operators up in Haines, Alaska are apparently required to report to the public as follows: "Every commercial ski tour operator shall use global positioning system equipment capable of tracking and preserving information establishing the route taken by the helicopter to and from the skiing and snowboarding area and all landings."Well, the heli-ski operators are apparently asking that the data be treated as their trade secrets and not subject to review by actual or would-be competitors as public records. One of the opponents of the proposed…

• 

  California Employment Law Report

• New Law Effective 2012 Restricts Employers Ability To Conduct Employee Credit Checks

  Anthony Zaller

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:08 pm

  California’s new labor code provision severely restricts an employer’s ability to conduct credit checks on employees. Labor Code 1024.5, which took effect on January 1, 2012, only allows employers to conduct credit checks for employees who meet one of the following categories: A managerial position. A position in the state Department of Justice. That of a sworn peace officer or other law enforcement position. A position for which the information contained in the report is required by law to be disclosed or obtained. A position that involves regular access, for any purpose other…

• Help Needed: Employment Lawyer

  Anthony Zaller

  7 Feb 2012 | 4:51 pm

  That's right, my firm, Van Vleck Turner & Zaller LLP is growing, and we are looking for an employment lawyer with at least seven years of California employment litigation experience.  If you or someone you may know is interested, more information about the position can be found here.  The ideal attorney should be able to work in an entrepreneurial setting, enjoy the practice of law, and enjoy working with every size of client.   Cover letters and resumes can be submitted to me. 

• 2012 Wage and Reimbursement Rates For California Employers

  Anthony Zaller

  12 Jan 2012 | 4:59 pm

    2012 Requirement Source   California Minimum Wage     $8.00 per hour (unchanged from previous years)   California’s Industrial Welfare Commission   San Francisco Minimum Wage     $10.24 per hour   City of San Francisco Computer Professional Exempt Salary Rate       $38.89 or annual salary of not less than $81,026.25 for full-time employment, and paid not less than $6,752.19 per month     Division of Labor Statistics and Research   Hourly Physicians Exempt Hourly Rate     $70.86 per hour  …

• Template To Comply With Wage Theft Protection Act of 2011 Notice Requirement To All Hires Beginning in 2012 Published By Labor Commissioner

  Anthony Zaller

  29 Dec 2011 | 4:53 pm

  Today the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) published a template that employers can use in order to comply with the new notice requirements set forth in Labor Code section 2810.5. A Word version can be downloaded here and a PDF version can be downloaded here. All California employers are required to provide a notice to all employees hired beginning on January 1, 2012 that complies with the requirements of section 2810.5. The new law required the Labor Commissioner to publish a template for employers to use in order to comply with the new law. For more information…

• Can Employees Agree To Waive Berman Hearings In Arbitration Agreements?

  Anthony Zaller

  22 Dec 2011 | 12:26 pm

  I’ve recently written a series of posts regarding the Berman hearing process available for employees to resolve wage disputes before the Labor Commissioner. See previous posts: Overview Of Berman Hearings Before The Labor Commissioner and How To Prepare For a Berman Hearing. But can an employer have an employee sign an arbitration agreement in which the employee agrees to waive any rights to a Berman hearing, and all claims against the employer must proceed directly to arbitration? A good question, to which there is not currently an answer. The issue is currently…

• 

  The Rainmaker Blog

• Law Firm Marketing: The Top 5 Reasons Why Attorneys Need a Blog

  Stephen Fairley

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:10 am

  Just like building good referral sources, blogs are tools of trust-building that eventually result in bringing in new clients. In fact, social media research shows that companies with blogs generate 67% more leads than companies that do not have a blog! That alone should have marketing-minded attorneys scrambling to implement a blog. However, if you are still weighing the pros and cons of blogging as part of your law firm marketing mix, consider these 5 reasons why attorneys need a blog: 1. A blog is a low-cost, long-term venue to reinforce your brand and educate prospects about you…

• Learn How to Turn Random Referrals Into a Regular Referral System at a Rainmaker Retreat

  Stephen Fairley

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:35 am

  If you ask many attorneys where most clients from, they say referrals.  But if you ask them exactly where their referrals come from, you usually get a blank stare in response. The problem with random referrals is that they are...well, random. You can never count on when you might get one. So how you can go from random referrals to create a referral-based practice?    Here’s how:   I encourage you to click here to fill out our short contact form and someone will be with you shortly to answer any questions you may have about the Rainmaker Retreat and how…

• Law Firm Marketing Playbook: Take Time Out to Reassess and Recommit

  Stephen Fairley

  6 Feb 2012 | 10:23 am

  I love the Super Bowl. Not just for the game, but for the commercials. The marketer in me is always anxious to see what kind of talent the big advertisers and their agency teams will put on the field during the biggest showcase in advertising. I loved Chrysler’s Imported From Detroit spot last year and they followed it up with a doozy this year, Halftime in America: Here are the words that resonate when it comes to law firm marketing:  We find a way through tough times, and if we can't find a way, then we'll make one. All that matters now is what's ahead. So what is ahead…

• Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: Proven Tactics for Twitter Success

  Stephen Fairley

  5 Feb 2012 | 8:00 am

  Of the major social media networks, the one that seems to confound attorneys the most is Twitter. Perhaps it’s because there’s a limit (140 characters) on what you can write that frustrates lawyers, or all those #hashtags and @ symbols that confuse.  What you need to keep in mind about Twitter is that it’s all about getting followers. You want to push out ideas and insights that people will want to follow, which is establishing trust, which is bringing you leads. I recently blogged about How to Boost  Your Law Firm Marketing SEO with Twitter.  This…

• Social Media Marketing for Lawyers: Understanding the Social Media Lifecycle

  Stephen Fairley

  4 Feb 2012 | 8:00 am

  Are any of you watching The Firm? It’s a new series on NBC based on the John Grisham best-seller, and continues the story of personal injury lawyer Mitch McDeere after he “escapes” from the big, bad law firm in the original movie and opens his own practice.  It’s a pretty good show, as legal thrillers go. Of course, there are some of the usual legal clichés – like another big, bad law firm burying Mitch’s tiny firm in paperwork to “hide” the smoking gun that will net his client millions.  But the damning memo is…

• 

  Internet Cases

• Six interesting technology law issues raised in the Facebook IPO

  Evan Brown (@internetcases)

  1 Feb 2012 | 8:55 pm

  Patent trolls, open source, do not track, SOPA, PIPA and much, much more: Facebook’s IPO filing has a real zoo of issues. The securities laws require that companies going public identify risk factors that could adversely affect the company’s stock. Facebook’s S-1 filing, which it sent to the SEC today, identified almost 40 such factors. A number of these risks are examples of technology law issues that almost any internet company would face, particularly companies whose product is the users. (1) Advertising regulation. In providing detail about the nature of this risk,…

• On the radio: Mobile devices and the Fourth Amendment

  Evan Brown (@internetcases)

  31 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pm

  I was honored to be a guest on this morning’s episode of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s show Listen Out Loud, talking with host Dave Miller about the recent case of Schlossberg v. Solesbee. Listen to the interview here: MP3 We talked about the Fourth Amendment and, more specifically, the exceptions to the warrant requirement for searches made incident to lawful arrests. Some courts have given special treatment to mobile devices when considering whether the information contained on them may be searched without a warrant, because of the vast amounts of personal information that is…

• Fair use, the DMCA, and presidential politics

  Evan Brown (@internetcases)

  30 Jan 2012 | 5:31 pm

  The 2012 presidential election cycle is already giving internet law enthusiasts things to talk about. Last week it was Ron Paul’s grumblings about an unauthorized campaign ad on YouTube. Now NBC is moaning about a Mitt Romney ad comprised almost entirely of Tom Brokaw on the Nightly News in 1997. NBC has asked the ad be pulled, claiming it is a copyright infringement. Smart people are already saying the ad is fair use. It probably is fair use. And NBC knows that. Romney’s campaign posted the ad on YouTube five days ago, and it is yet to be the subject of a DMCA takedown notice.

• Are nonpirate Megaupload users entitled to compensation from the government?

  Evan Brown (@internetcases)

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pm

  If I left my coat in a taxi that was later impounded because, unknown to me, the driver was transporting heroin in the trunk, would I be left out in the cold? People who used Megaupload to lawfully store and transfer files are rightfully upset that their stuff is unavailable after last week’s raid. Some groups in other countries say they are going to sue the U.S. government. Would a lawsuit like that get anywhere in a U.S. court? The Fifth Amendment — best known for its privilege against self-incrimination — says that “private property [shall not] be taken for public…

• There is no “generalized right to rummage” through an adversary’s Facebook account

  Evan Brown (@internetcases)

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pm

  Tompkins v. Detroit Metro. Airport, 2012 WL 179320 (E.D. Mich. January 18, 2012) Plaintiff filed a personal injury lawsuit against defendants claiming she was impaired in her ability to work and enjoy life. One of the defendants filed a motion with the court asking it to order plaintiff to authorize access to her entire Facebook account. The court denied the motion. Finding that defendant had not made a “sufficient predicate” showing that the sought-after information was relevant, and that the request was overly broad, the court held that defendant “[did] not have a…

• 

  Slaw

• Tips for Reducing Procrastination in Your Practice

  Allison Wolf

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  John is bored. His firm just hasn't been busy this month and instead of the usual big transaction work all he has are small bits and pieces of corporate matters. Even though none of it is complicated he just can't get down to doing any of it and is wasting time surfing the net instead. Terry is deadline driven. Every day is about putting out fires and meeting last minute deadlines. He knows he should plan ahead and get to his projects done before the last minute but he has gotten use to the adrenaline rush and just can't get motivated to do anything without the pressure of a…

• A Judicial Finger Wag

  Omar Ha-Redeye

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:11 pm

  Here is what Justice Corbett of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice had to say recently in Sri Guru Nanak Sikh Centre Brampton v. Dhadda, [1] It is not open to anyone involved in the plaintiff to dispense with the law because they think they are wise and know what is best. “Tradition” is not a basis for ignoring the law. … [4] The plaintiff has a long sad history of conflict. And this just has to stop. It is an embarrassment: the plaintiff is an important religious, social and cultural institution. The conflicts have been riotous, often petty, and are concerned with issues of…

• Marta Lange/CQ Press Award

  John Papadopoulos

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:46 pm

  A little while ago I blogged about legal bibliographies and highlighted some of the work that John Eaton at the University of Manitoba has done in this area. It is very nice to see that John's work has been recognised as he is the 2012 recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries Marta Lange/CQ Press Award. This award recognises librarians who have made a significant contribution to bibliography and information service in law or political science. The press release from the American Library Association announcing the award can be found here. Congratulations John!

• The Quest for a New Law Firm Website

  David Canton

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:41 pm

  As Connie mentioned, our firm launched a new website last week. In this post, I’ll share a few thoughts about the process of creating a new law firm website. Lawyers tend to be a conservative lot, tend to set a low priority on things that don’t bring short term gain, and tend to want to be in control. That combination doesn’t lend itself well to creating a new website that may be somewhat different. It can lead to analysis paralysis, or a conservative approach that leads to either no new site at all, or one that tries to satisfy everyone. So what is the best way to approach it? Some of…

• What's Hot on CanLII This Week

  Simon Fodden

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:33 am

  Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of February 1 – 7. ♨ 1. Reece v. Rumney et al 2012 ONSC 780 [1] This is a motion by the Plaintiff for an Order setting aside the verdict of the jury delivered on December 8, 2011 on the basis that there was no evidence to support the jury’s findings and for an Order that: (a) the action be retried with another jury; or (b) a verdict be delivered by the trial judge (the plaintiff acknowledged at the motion that this likely was not a realistic solution). ♨ 2. Howell v. Yourk 2012 ONSC 766 [1]…

• 

  JD Supra Legal Alerts: All

• Fannie and Freddie: New Appraisal Portal - Deadline Approaches

  Jonathan Foxx

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:09 pm

  Jonathan Foxx

• IP Rights under the FCPA

  Thomas Fox

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:02 pm

  Thomas Fox

• HHS Says Medicare Advantage Premiums Down, Program Stronger Than Ever

  King & Spalding

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:32 am

  King & Spalding

• The Fallout from the Latest NLRB Salvo on Social Media

  Pullman & Comley, LLC

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 am

  Pullman & Comley, LLC

• Right Here, Right Now: Indiana Passes Right-to-Work Legislation

  Littler

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:27 am

  Littler

• 

  Scientific American - Mind & Brain

• Tiny, Tree-Dwelling Primate Called Tarsier Sends and Receives Ultrasonic Calls

  8 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pm

  The Philippine tarsier (Tarsius syrichta) makes ultrasonic calls. (Credit: Nathaniel Dominy, Dartmouth) Let’s be honest: tarsiers look odd. Among the smallest of all primates, most species of tarsier would fit easily in the palm of your hand. They have long, slender, largely hairless tails and elongated fingers with knobby knuckles and mushroom-cap finger pads. [More]

• Sight Seen: Gene Therapy Restores Vision in Both Eyes

  8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 am

  Gene therapy has markedly improved vision in both eyes in three women who were born virtually blind. The patients can now avoid obstacles even in dim light, read large print and recognize people's faces. The operation, researchers predict, should work even better in children and adolescents blinded by the same condition. [More]

• Can't fool me, I know you aren't you at all

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  One commenter didn’t like my take on Cotard’s last week. I ran it past a couple of friends who said they had no problems with it and I’m not an expert, just an interested researcher. Its a good chance to say if I’m wrong or you disagree please let me know. If I need to change anything I will and if you want to argue then I might, depending on my free time Following on from Cotard s Syndrome last week I wanted to talk a little about a related condition that is equally interesting, Capgras Delusion. Where Cotard s involved the patient doubting their own existence,…

• What You Need to Succeed and How to Find Out If You Have It

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:13 am

  Courtesy of wovox via Flickr. Whether you succeed at work may depend on many factors intelligence, empathy, self-control, talent and persistence, to name a few. But one determinant may outweigh many of these: how you perceive those around you. New research suggests that your own ability to get things done not to mention your success in non-work relationships is highly correlated with how you see others. Are your coworkers capable and kind, or are they, dare I say, incompetent jerks? [More]

• This is your brain on psilocybin...

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:52 pm

  …and this is a paper which is not quite what it’s cracked up to be. Because while it does, indeed, have great pictures of your brain on drugs, it doesn’t really go any further than that. It doesn’t explore why these changes are occurring or what they say about the functions of psilocybin. So while it provides some nice correlations, the causation is still lacking. [More]

• 

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin current issue

• The Evolutionary Armistice: Attachment Bonds Moderate the Function of Ovulatory Cycle Adaptations

  Eastwick, P. W., Finkel, E. J.

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 am

  Natural selection modified the attachment-behavioral system to bond adult mating partners in early members of the genus Homo, thus facilitating increased investment, especially paternal investment, in offspring. Previously existing adaptations that fostered intersexual conflict (e.g., ovulatory adaptations) could have threatened attachment bonds; therefore, the attachment-behavioral system might have evolved the ability to mute or refocus such adaptations for the purpose of strengthening the bond. Two studies offer support for this prediction. Women who were strongly attached to their…

• Why Men (and Women) Do and Don't Rebel: Effects of System Justification on Willingness to Protest

  Jost, J. T., Chaikalis-Petritsis, V., Abrams, D., Sidanius, J., van der Toorn, J., Bratt, C.

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 am

  Three studies examined the hypothesis that system justification is negatively associated with collective protest against ingroup disadvantage. Effects of uncertainty salience, ingroup identification, and disruptive versus nondisruptive protest were also investigated. In Study 1, college students who were exposed to an uncertainty salience manipulation and who scored higher on system justification were less likely to protest against the governmental bailout of Wall Street. In Study 2, May Day protesters in Greece who were primed with a system-justifying stereotype exhibited less group-based…

• Social Roles, Basic Need Satisfaction, and Psychological Health: The Central Role of Competence

  Talley, A. E., Kocum, L., Schlegel, R. J., Molix, L., Bettencourt, B. A.

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 am

  The authors propose that competence need fulfillment within valued role domains (i.e., spouse, parent, worker) will account, in part, for associations between autonomy and relatedness need fulfillment and psychological health. Testing these assertions in cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys of women in two independent community samples, the findings are the first to formally examine whether the satisfaction of competence needs within social roles accounts for associations between other types of need satisfaction and affective outcomes as well as depressive symptomology. Evidence…

• Social Exclusion and Pain Sensitivity: Why Exclusion Sometimes Hurts and Sometimes Numbs

  Bernstein, M. J., Claypool, H. M.

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 am

  Some research indicates that social exclusion leads to increased emotional- and physical-pain sensitivity, whereas other work indicates that exclusion causes emotional- and physical-pain numbing. This research sought to examine what causes these opposing outcomes. In Study 1, the paradigm used to instantiate social exclusion was found to moderate the social exclusion-physical pain relation: Future-life exclusion led to a numbing of physical pain whereas Cyberball exclusion led to hypersensitivity. Study 2 examined the underlying mechanism, which was hypothesized to be the severity of the…

• Understanding the Better Than Average Effect: Motives (Still) Matter

  Brown, J. D.

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:48 am

  People evaluate themselves more positively than they evaluate most other people. Although this better than average (BTA) effect was originally thought to represent a motivated bias, several cognitively oriented theorists have questioned whether this is the case. In support of a motivational model, the author reports five studies showing that the BTA effect is stronger for important attributes than unimportant ones (all five studies) and that once attribute importance is taken into account, the effect occurs when self-evaluations are compared with a single peer (Study 2) and when self is…

• 

  Mind Hacks

• goCognitive 2.0

  tomstafford

  4 Feb 2012 | 5:30 am

  We’ve reported before on the Univeristy of Idaho’s goCognitive project. It’s a enticing collection of videos and demonstrations, including many guest spots by the glitterati of cognitive neuroscience. The site has more free video content in cognitive neuroscience than before – and it is more easily accessible as well. Check it out

• Dressing psychologists as wizards in court

  tomstafford

  4 Feb 2012 | 1:53 am

  From overlawyered.com we hear that in 1995, New Mexico state senator Duncan Scott introduced a legislative ammendment providing that When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a cone-shaped hat that is not less than two feet tall. The surface of the hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightning bolts. Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a white beard that is not less than 18 inches in length, and shall punctuate crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air…

• A treasure hunt for the mysteries of mind and brain

  tomstafford

  21 Jan 2012 | 6:22 am

  I’ve published a couple of free ebooks recently: Explore your blind spot shows you how to reveal the gap we all have in our visual experience of the world, and discusses what it means about consciousness that this gap is kept hidden from us most of the time. Control Your Dreams, co-written with Cathryn Bardsley and illustrated beautifully by Harriet Cameron, tells you how to have lucid dreams, those dreams where you realise you are dreaming and can take control over reality. Both books are written as treasure hunts – travel guides, but for exploring inner space. When you start…

• The peak experiences of Abraham Maslow

  vaughanbell

  19 Jan 2012 | 4:48 pm

  The New Atlantis has an in-depth biographical article on psychologist Abraham Maslow – one of the founders of humanistic psychology and famous for his ‘hierarchy of needs’. Maslow is stereotypically associated with a kind of fluffy ‘love yourself’ psychology although the man himself was quite a skeptic of the mumbo jumbo that got associated with his work. The association is not so much because of Maslow’s focus on self-actualization, a goal where we use our psychological potential to its fullest, but because of his association with the ‘human…

• Gimme Shelter

  vaughanbell

  16 Jan 2012 | 5:44 pm

  The Rolling Stones launched their career in a social therapeutic club, designed to help troubled youth with communication skills. The club became legendary in rock ‘n roll history but its therapeutic roots have almost been forgotten. Eel Pie Island is a small patch on the River Thames famous for the underground club that earned a place in 60′s history for hosting the cream of jazz bands and rock n’ roll outfits. Less well known, is the story of how the club was created as a therapeutic environment to help troubled youth. Its place in music history has been recounted many…

• 

  Herd - the hidden truth about who we are

• How DOES advertising work then?

  Mark Earls

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:22 am

  For adplanners and the like: In the pre Christmas (holidays to you, Gareth) rush, you might have missed this major U-turn by the lovely folks at Millward Brown research (the people who brought you the "awareness index" a key metric that assumes that advertising achieves its effect primarily by impacting memory - awareness and recall).  Suddenly - after years of dissing those like my chums at Brainjuicer - who dared to suggest that emotions were the key to advertising effectiveness, the folk we used to know as The Leamington Spa Gang have turned 180 degrees. Apparently, emotion…

• Neurononsense revisited: a new dawn?

  Mark Earls

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:05 am

  Last night at a reception in memory of the late and great Ginny Valentine, an old buddy of mine asked me what I thought about the proliferation of neuromarketing techniques and the general air of "brain is best" in market research communities. Perhaps I should have just referred him to David Penn of Conquest who is delighting in being the continuing scourge of snake-oil neuro-research sales persons: his "neuromania" schtick is coming to the MRS in March. Always good value. Regular readers will know that - like David - I'm deeply suspicious of the willing…

• Do this for you

  Mark Earls

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:35 am

  I speak at a lot of conferences and gatherings and such like. Undoubtedly the best of these are the Do Lectures, held in a field in "a small clever country called Wales".  This is my picture from my visit a couple of years ago as a speaker (I went back last year as an audience member) and this is the speech I gave. You should go, too.  Not because of what your ticket does for other people (it helps pay for the free-to-air archive of 200 going on 1000 videos of Do Lectures and it also makes sure that there's another interesting person to spend the days and evenings…

• I'll have what she's having at the RSA

  Mark Earls

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:46 am

        Oops forgot to post the RSA video of Alex and myself explaining the big ideas behind our book I'll Have What She's Having - Mapping Social Behaviour. Here it is  Apologies if you've seen it before - but here it is again...! Enjoy   BTW here's the book itself

• More on Networks from the irrepressible Mr Rheingold

  Mark Earls

  6 Feb 2012 | 3:01 am

  This is a doosie. Not sure we'd agree with everything.Put your feet up for 15 minutes and listen to the man.   

• 

  Amitai Etzioni Notes

• Can a nuclear Iran be deterred?

  Amitai Etzioni

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  There is a growing interest among U.S. foreign policy officials and scholars in deterring Iran; that is, in tolerating a nuclear armed Iran but keeping it at bay by threatening it in kind should it use its nuclear weapons. Although the Obama administration has not embraced this position, some observers believe this is the direction it is headed. One indication comes from Thomas Donilon, the national security adviser. In a speech late last year, he remarked, "We will continue to build a regional defense architecture that prevents Iran from threatening its neighbors. We will continue to…

• No Revolution at the Pentagon

  Amitai Etzioni

  3 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  Later this month, the Obama administration will present the details of its FY2013 defense budget to Congress, the broad outlines of which the president unveiled during a January speech at the Pentagon. The plan calls for cutting $487 billion over the next ten years. Republicans criticized it as a sign that the Democrats are again (or still) weak on defense; Democrats and several independent experts hailed it as prudent and suitable for an age of tight budgets. Both sides may well be wrong, because they assume that the strategy will be implemented. But Congress may alter the trajectory of this…

• In China's Shoes

  Amitai Etzioni

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  President Obama recently announced the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq and plans to pull them out of Afghanistan. But the administration is sending Marines to a new U.S. military base—in Australia. Although the number of the Marines is small, perhaps a symbolic move, many interpret it as part of an American “pivot” from the Middle East to the Far East. And the Far East is a code word for China, increasingly viewed as a major threat to American interests. All but the most hawkish hawks agree that the Chinese military will not pose a threat to the United States for decades. Still,…

• "The Construction of Europe." Amitai Etzioni's interview with The European.

  Amitai Etzioni

  19 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  The European: Community identity is often based on a shared history, shared customs, shared symbols. Is there a comparable narrative in Europe? Etzioni: I agree that a joint narrative is important. But right now, there is too much time pressure. When I talk about a referendum, I don’t see it primarily as a voting mechanism. I see it as a mechanism to force us into discussion and bring about shared values. Don’t relegate important decisions to experts and politicians in Brussels. Let us all take part. The more we are forced to become political decision-makers, the more we have to raise our…

• Is China America's new enemy?

  Amitai Etzioni

  10 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  President Barack Obama unveiled Thursday a new military strategy. It calls for "pivoting" from the Middle East to the Far East, focusing partly on the military buildup of China. Without a major public debate of the kind we have about raising taxes, or a congressional vote, the U.S. government is moving slowly but surely toward characterizing China as an aggressive superpower and is preparing for war, should it become necessary. James Clapper, retired lieutenant general and current director of national intelligence, characterized China, "growing in its military…

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  e! Science News - Psychology & Sociology

• UCLA scientists strengthen memory by stimulating key site in brain

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:31 pm

  Ever gone to the movies and forgotten where you parked the car? New UCLA research may one day help you improve your memory. read more

• After-school program can reduce alcohol use among middle school students, study finds

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:37 pm

  A voluntary substance prevention program held after school and presented by trained facilitators can help reduce alcohol use among young adolescents, according to a new RAND Corporation study. read more

• Physical activity yields feelings of excitement, enthusiasm

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:36 pm

  People who are more physically active report greater levels of excitement and enthusiasm than people who are less physically active, according to Penn State researchers. People also are more likely to report feelings of excitement and enthusiasm on days when they are more physically active than usual. read more

• New study shows Facebook use elevates mood

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:34 pm

  People visit social networking sites such as Facebook for many reasons, including the positive emotional experience that people enjoy and want to repeat, according to an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.  read more

• Top off breakfast with -- chocolate cake?

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:34 pm

  When it comes to diets, cookies and cake are off the menu. Now, in a surprising discovery, researchers from Tel Aviv University have found that dessert, as part of a balanced 600-calorie breakfast that also includes proteins and carbohydrates, can help dieters to lose more weight -- and keep it off in the long run. read more