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Collaborating in business with SharePoint can be very convenient. It can also be a dumping ground for electronic documents. On this edition of Litigation Support Reivew, host Mary Pat Poteet, an eDiscovery/Litigation Support expert with almost 20 years experience, welcomes Larry Briggi, Director of the Electronic and Evidence Consulting group of FTI Consultings Technology practice base in New York to discuss the challenges of forensic data recovery with SharePoint and a helpful list of dos and donts.

A Boston medical student and accused Craigslist killer, Philip Markoff commits suicide in jail awaiting trial for first degree murder, prompting reactions ranging from frustration to relief. On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams welcome Douglas Berman, Law Professor at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, who first prompts the question on his blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, about how we react to this turn of events in the legal process, along with special guests Elie Mystal, Editor at Above the Law, and Leslie Walker, Executive Director of Prisoners Legal Services in Boston for a discussion about justice denied.

The conventional wisdom has long been that your website, or perhaps your blog, should be at the core of your web presence. Today, your Internet presence is likely to consist of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts, and a variety of other places people can find you. Is this expansion of “presence” changing the common wisdom and bringing us to what’s been called the “Siteless Web”? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the changing Internet environment, whether a website really matters anymore, and how to manage your multi-faceted presence on the Internet. After you listen, be sure to check out Tom & Dennis co-blog and book by the same name, The Lawyers Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies.

On this edition of Ringler Radio, host Larry Cohen welcomes colleague, Tom Murray, an associate in the New York City and Fairfield County, Connecticut offices and Attorney Henri A. Demers, partner with the firm Ahmuty, Demers & McManus, to look at the importance of having a broker present at the settlement table from a defense attorneys perspective. They discuss the brokers role in mediation or at the settlement conference, when to bring a broker into the settlement process and what kinds of cases are best suited for a structured settlement from a defense attorneys standpoint.

With a vote of 63-37, the Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court justice making her the 112th justice, and the fourth woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court. Attorney and co-host, Bob Ambrogi welcomes Professor Joel Grossman, a professor of political science, and a constitutional law scholar from Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland School of Law and Tony Mauro, Supreme Court correspondent for The National Law Journal and for ALM Media, to discuss the latest on the confirmation of Elena Kagan. They look at her background, some of the controversy over her confirmation and what kind of impact she will ultimately have on the Supreme Court.

Barbara Fullerton is our guide to effectively engaging in an activity which has assumed increased importance in the face of the grim economy - searching for positions with a specific company, business or educational facility on the Internet. She details how webmasters have designed ways for prospective employees to sign-up on job-finding websites and create personal alerts concerning their job needs. In many cases, the job hunter can post a resume online, which can be utilized by prospective headhunters and company human resources personnel. Many of these job boards have added value to their websites with information including relocation surveys, job search tips, moving companies, salary comparisons, city data, Fortune 500 information, real estate companies, and assessment resources.

In a landmark decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker in San Francisco struck down the controversial and highly-debated, Proposition 8 in California, which was approved by the state’s voters in November 2008 and overturned a state supreme court ruling that resulted in the legalization of same sex marriage. Attorney and co-host, Bob Ambrogi welcomes Adam Winkler from UCLA Law School, Professor Nelson Tebbe from Brooklyn Law School and Attorney Thomas J. Barbar, the Mass Bar Association’s Family Law Chair and principal with Deutsch Williams, Brooks, DeRensis & Holland PC., to sort through all the twists and turns. They look at reaction to the ruling, the legal issues surrounding gay marriage and the likelihood of this issue reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lockstep compensation systems may be on the way out, at least at several leading Boston law firms, according to an article in the Boston Globe. “Major law firms have traditionally hired junior lawyers at six-figure salaries and awarded annual increases based on the number of years at the firm, a system known as ‘lockstep.’” In the future, however, associates’ salaries and bonuses will be based on the partners’ assessment of their performance. “Law firms across the country are turning to [performance-based] bonus systems to control spiraling payrolls and satisfy clients who … have become increasingly unwilling to pay fees of several hundred dollars an hour to cover salaries of inexperienced lawyers.” It is hard to speculate about whether a performance-based appraisal system might increase or decrease salaries or whether it would affect the number of associate positions at a firm. Another open question is whether a performance-review process could be administered fairly in the law firm setting. The practice of law is becoming like other fields where steady pay increases are not guaranteed. In addition to the pressure felt to make partner, there will now be additional pressure to earn annual salary increases. Will this be a good thing or a bad thing for the legal profession? Read the rest of this entry »

On this edition of Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay chats with George Socha, Founder of Socha Consulting LLC and Tom Gelbmann, Founder of Gelbmann & Associates about their 2010 Socha/Gelbmann E-Discovery Survey. Will small cases be the new “big” in 2011? Why are some e-discovery attorneys jobless and others being poached? And what do lawyers really want from vendors? Tune in!

The Washington Post today carries the most in-depth article on Judge Vaughn R. Walker’s decision on California’s Proposition 8. In the Northern District of California Federal Court, the case of Perry, et al., v. Schwarzenegger, et al. (C 09-2292) has been decided for the plaintiffs, ruling that equal protection and due process under the federal Constitution require Judge Walker to find Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The Post provides the full text of the decision, (136 pages) which interestingly includes a discussion of Judge Walker’s probing questions at oral argument. The reader can sense the judge’s frustration with the proponent counsel’s (those supporting Proposition arguments, which is interesting. While the attorneys for the plaintiffs built a rich record with eight lay witnesses and nine expert witnesses, and using complex arguments based on civil rights cases of the past, such as Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia. Proponents presented only two expert witnesses, though they carefully cross-examined all plaintiff witnesses. The difference in presentation seemed to frustrate the judge, who was nominated by President Reagan and confirmed under the first President Bush. The judge ruled that Proposition 8, which in 2008 passed to amend the state constitution by 52% of the popular vote, Read the rest of this entry »