Legal Docs LibraryKnow Your Rights

Two gay couples in California filed suit May, 2009 in federal court in the Northern District of California challenging Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on gay marriage in that state. Originally, the California court had allowed the proceedings to be viewed over YouTube. But the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked that ruling, at the request of supporters of Proposition 8, who intervened in the law suit. You can get the full text of the documents of the case, including hearing transcripts at the site of www.EqualRightsFoundation.org, which seems to have been formed as a 501(c)(3) corporation specially to challenge Prop 8. The website includes not only plaintiffs’ and defendant’s legal filings, but also links to news and media.

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Interpreting Rule 1.6(b)(1) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct in the context of wrongful convictions is complicated by evidentiary and practical considerations surrounding the potential use of such information. This article by Ken Strutin examines resources about several notable cases and the scholarly literature analyzing different approaches to resolving this dilemma.

It’s been three years now since the electronic data discovery rules were added to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the number of reported cases involving electronically stored information has skyrocketed. But some lawyers still “simply do not anticipate ESI issues. On this edition of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay chats with Cecil Lynn of counsel to Ryley Carlock and Applewhite, to discuss key 2009 rulings and why most of them are reiterating established principles. Later in the program, Monica is joined by Henry Dicker, vice president of ALM Events and executive director of LegalTech, to talk about the upcoming LegalTech NY 2010.

This time of year, predictions abound, but most of them turn out to be wide of the mark. However, this prediction, from Newsweek’s Techtonic Shifts Blog, has the ring of truth about it. In his post, Barrett Sheridan states that “Many of the startups and media sites that define the e-commerce ecosystem are, at long last, making serious plans to make serious money.” He lists Hulu and music sites, including iTunes. Apple recently purchased Lala, a streaming music service, for around $100,000,000. Sheridan opines that Apple bought Lala for “its talented engineers and their cloudy expertise,” not for its revenues, which are “negligible.”

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2009 was a tumultuous year, filled with lows and highs. From the inauguration of President Obama and Captain Sullenbergers miraculous landing on the Hudson to layoffs and cutbacks in the legal community and the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. On Lawyer2Lawyer, attorney and co-host, Bob Ambrogi will talk to returning guest, Attorney Stephen L. Kaplan, principal in the law firm of Hicks, Mims, Kaplan & Burns, to reflect on 2009 and look ahead to the new year of 2010 and a new decade!

The 2009 Law School Survey of Student Engagement was just published. The report, which has been issued annually for the last five years, is based on input from over 26,000 law students at 82 different law schools. Not surprisingly, the economy figures prominently in the survey. More students than ever are graduating with over $120,000 in debt–a staggering figure by any measure. Fewer students now expect to practice in a private law firm than in the past, with a growing percentage of students expressing interest in public-interest or government positions. I wonder how they will pay off those huge loans with the lower salaries that public-interest and government lawyers usually command? Other insights from the report (courtesy of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 6, 2010):

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It was the year of the woman with stand-outs like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Judge Sonia Sotomayor taking center stage. In this edition of the Boston University School of Law podcast, host and media veteran, Dan Rea of WBZ-Radio 1030 welcomes Professor Linda C. McClain, the Paul M. Siskind Research Scholar and Professor of Law at BU Law School, to discuss her new book, Gender Equality: Dimensions of Womens Equal Citizenship. Dan and Professor McClain will explore gender equality, equal citizenship and why gender inequality persists.

Wired.com reported on Dec. 28 that Ray Kurzweil has reinvented the electronic book as a platform that sits on any type of device, from a PC to an I-pod to a cell phone or PDA or one of the newly developed tablet devices. SingularityHub has another story on the same product with some more detail. The Blio is due to debut at International CESweb.org this January 7-10 in Las Vegas, so it has not come out yet, but is due out very soon. Blio preserves text’s lay-out, including color and images, including graphics and images. It includes high quality text to speech capability (Kurzweil has worked closely with the visually disabled community). Read the rest of this entry »

Remedies for Patent Infringement with Prof. Andrew Beckerman-Rodau

Health care reform was heavily debated over the past year and continues to be a huge issue going into the new year. In this edition of Ringler Radio, host Larry Cohen welcomes colleague, Don J. Engels, Jr., associate in the Chicago office and guest, Attorney Philip H. “Flip” Corboy, Jr., partner in the firm of Corboy & Demetrio, to take a look at Health care reform and how it affects lawyers, legislation and the legal community. Larry, Don and Phillip will discuss healthcare costs, medmal caps and the great debate over the public option.