Crane on Law by James Crane

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I always enjoy when a judge provides entertainment in his opinion, either in the way of comedy, emotion, or just plain wit.  In a recent case in the U.S. District Court of Washington, Judge Ronald Leighton granted a Motion for a More Definite Statement in a complaint alleging racketeering against GMAC Mortgage. 

Judge Leighton was not impressed with the 465

I have bragged about the high quality professionals that are members of the National Federation of Paralegal Associations in this blog before.  I am happy to report that I will be presenting a program at this year's Tech Show in Denver later this month.   

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Most attorneys have at least casually followed the Milberg Weiss scandal that has been playing out for the last couple of years.  The felony settlement by one of the class-action leaders included some troubling details that many people suspected, but hoped were not true.  The partners at Milberg, Bill Lerach and Melvyn Weiss, admitted to felonies and settled for $75 million. 

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 The "Committee of Five" (John Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman) worked together for three weeks to draft the United States Declaration of Independence.  Two hundred and thirty-two years ago today, the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress and sent off for publication.  It was subsequently signed on August 2, 1776.

If you only read it

Corporate counsel is always dealing with the challenges of controlling costs and providing their corporate client with the most defensible position.  One question that always comes up is "why shouldn't we just collect our own data?"  It's a good question.  Many corporations have an IT department staffed with talented and available personnel. 

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Aristotle thought that earthquakes were caused by subterranean winds.  OK, so he was a little off, according the USGS - tectonic plate movement simply fell outside his realm of experience.  Like Aristotle, though, many attorneys think their methods are as good as it gets.  What we attorneys have to learn is that there is always room for improvement.  This is especially true with legal technology tools.  Advances in scanning and optical character recognition, and new efficiencies in capturing and organizing digital data allow the technologically astute practitioner to nimbly navigate through a tangled jungle of documents.  This saves the client money and ensures more accurate discovery. 

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Whether the subprime mortgage situation is a crisis is the subject of debate. What we are able to do to help stem the increase in foreclosures is worth examining. What is clear, is that states are taking the problem very seriously and are aggressively going after lenders associated with subprime loans. On June 3 rd, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley joined in the subprime fray, filing a 59 page Complaint against Option One Mortgage Corp. and its parent H&R Block. You can see a copy of the complaint here.

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The June issue of the ABA Journal featured an article about how divorces are as ugly as ever despite the legal profession’s efforts to provide nuanced and sophisticated solutions like the “collaborative approach.” Because my practice focus is the defense of corporations, I was reminded how easily a company and its electronic data can get dragged into disputes despite no wrongdoing on its part. With so many company employees using portable technology belonging to the corporation, it only stands to reason that those devices and the data stored on them will be the routine subject of inquiry in a divorce. In my discussions with my friends who practice family law, they confirmed that attorneys are quick to go after the devices to try to uncover any embarrassing or damning information that may be stored within. The devices also have an activity log that can shed light on what spouses were doing, who they were communicating with, and when the communications took place. Many companies have Acceptable Use policies in place to govern how company devices are to be used. That’s a good start, but there must still be effective education and enforcement of the policy. As part of our corporate consulting services, we offer training programs and seminars to address the dangers of misuse of company devices and careless email communications.

Corporate legal departments dedicate anywhere from 5 – 50% of their legal department assets to the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

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Proofpoint has released results from a March 2008 survey of 301 US companies with more than 20,000 employees regarding email and data loss. The highlights from the responses include:

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