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Cybercrime is Getting Worse – 5 Reasons
August 29, 2014
On the heels of the recent report that cybercrime is a $575 billion growth industry, Infoworld pointed out “that amount of crime has persisted for a long time, well before the Internet.” The article included these 5 reasons why cybercrime is worse than ever: 1. Internet criminals almost never get caught. The world is full of malicious individuals who have no problem skirting rules and laws, as well as taking property that belongs to other people. Bad people exist — and the Internet is a very...
August 29, 2014
On the heels of the recent report that cybercrime is a $575 billion growth industry, Infoworld pointed out “that amount of crime has persisted for a long time, well before the Internet.” The article included these 5 reasons why cybercrime is worse than ever: 1. Internet criminals almost never get caught. The world is full of malicious individuals who have no problem skirting rules and laws, as well as taking property that belongs to other people. Bad people exist — and the Internet is a very...
Binding the United States to Arbitrate?
August 29, 2014
False Claims Act suits come in two flavors – those brought by “relators” on behalf of the United States to recover for harm caused by false or fraudulent submission of claims to the government and retaliation suits seeking damages as the result of adverse employment actions resulting from plaintiff’s whistleblowing activity. 31 U.S.C. § 3730(h)(1). Of course, relators are typically, although not always, employees of the defendant since such persons are usually best positioned to know...
August 29, 2014
False Claims Act suits come in two flavors – those brought by “relators” on behalf of the United States to recover for harm caused by false or fraudulent submission of claims to the government and retaliation suits seeking damages as the result of adverse employment actions resulting from plaintiff’s whistleblowing activity. 31 U.S.C. § 3730(h)(1). Of course, relators are typically, although not always, employees of the defendant since such persons are usually best positioned to know...
Are High LSAT Scorers Coming Back To Law School?
August 29, 2014
Statistically speaking, people who are currently in law school scored more poorly on the LSAT than the classes that came before. That doesn’t mean they are dumber — and I doubt any law school professor has the stones to do a study on whether or not the students are dumber now than they were before the recession. But it might mean that the current crop of law students were less prepared to enter law school than earlier classes. We’ve documented the “brain drain” from the law school applicant...
August 29, 2014
Statistically speaking, people who are currently in law school scored more poorly on the LSAT than the classes that came before. That doesn’t mean they are dumber — and I doubt any law school professor has the stones to do a study on whether or not the students are dumber now than they were before the recession. But it might mean that the current crop of law students were less prepared to enter law school than earlier classes. We’ve documented the “brain drain” from the law school applicant...
Best Majors for PreLaw Students (?)
August 28, 2014
Pofessor Derek Muller has correlated majors with LSAT scores. The students majoring in Classics had the highest LSATs. The next four, in order, were Policy Studies, International Relations, Art History, and Math. At the bottom were Social Work and Criminal Justice.
August 28, 2014
Pofessor Derek Muller has correlated majors with LSAT scores. The students majoring in Classics had the highest LSATs. The next four, in order, were Policy Studies, International Relations, Art History, and Math. At the bottom were Social Work and Criminal Justice.
Primer on European Union’s Right To Be Forgotten
August 28, 2014
The “right to be forgotten” (RTBF) is a weird term. We cannot make people “forget” things, but we can require database operators to “forget” content by deleting it or making it more obscure. Europe has done exactly that. In Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, Mario Costeja González, Case No. C-131/12 (2014), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) reached four important conclusions. 1) Privacy Directive Applies. First, the ECJ concluded that “the...
August 28, 2014
The “right to be forgotten” (RTBF) is a weird term. We cannot make people “forget” things, but we can require database operators to “forget” content by deleting it or making it more obscure. Europe has done exactly that. In Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, Mario Costeja González, Case No. C-131/12 (2014), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) reached four important conclusions. 1) Privacy Directive Applies. First, the ECJ concluded that “the...
Court Grants Search Warrant to Entire Apple eMail Account for [REDACTED]@mac.com
August 28, 2014
A Judge ruled it was unreasonable to ask Apple “to execute a search warrant” which “could pose problems, as non-government...
August 28, 2014
A Judge ruled it was unreasonable to ask Apple “to execute a search warrant” which “could pose problems, as non-government...
Fancy Footwork in Sidestepping Arbitration
August 28, 2014
A new piece by Jonathan R. Harkavy, Class Action Waivers in Title VII Cases after Italian Colors: Sidestepping the Individual Arbitration Mandate, recently posted on SSRN: The Supreme Court ruled in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, 570 U.S. -- 186 L. Ed. 2d 417, 133 S. Ct. 2403 (2013), that class action waivers ordinarily must be enforced under the Federal Arbitration Act even when the cost of an arbitration exceeds a claimant's potential recovery. This essay suggests, however,...
August 28, 2014
A new piece by Jonathan R. Harkavy, Class Action Waivers in Title VII Cases after Italian Colors: Sidestepping the Individual Arbitration Mandate, recently posted on SSRN: The Supreme Court ruled in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, 570 U.S. -- 186 L. Ed. 2d 417, 133 S. Ct. 2403 (2013), that class action waivers ordinarily must be enforced under the Federal Arbitration Act even when the cost of an arbitration exceeds a claimant's potential recovery. This essay suggests, however,...
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Weighs In On The Length Of Law School Debate
August 28, 2014
If you just needed the skills to pass the bar, two years would be enough. But if you think of law as a learned profession, then a third year is an opportunity for, on the one hand, public service and practice experience, but on the other, also to take courses that round out the law that you didn’t have time to do. Two years—it does reduce the respect, the notion that law is a learned profession. You should know a little about legal history, you should know about jurisprudence. [Two years] makes...
August 28, 2014
If you just needed the skills to pass the bar, two years would be enough. But if you think of law as a learned profession, then a third year is an opportunity for, on the one hand, public service and practice experience, but on the other, also to take courses that round out the law that you didn’t have time to do. Two years—it does reduce the respect, the notion that law is a learned profession. You should know a little about legal history, you should know about jurisprudence. [Two years] makes...
Why Lawyers Need Not Fear Disruptive Innovation
August 27, 2014
Disruption Happens Disruptive innovation is real. It happens all the time. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen pioneered the theory in his book, The Innovator's Dilemma. However, pundits who predict doom and gloom for lawyers don't understand disruption theory. For example, they often equate disruption with going out of business. Christensen recently noted that disruption "is not a theory about survivability." Christensen cites the example of U.S. Steel. So-called mini...
August 27, 2014
Disruption Happens Disruptive innovation is real. It happens all the time. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen pioneered the theory in his book, The Innovator's Dilemma. However, pundits who predict doom and gloom for lawyers don't understand disruption theory. For example, they often equate disruption with going out of business. Christensen recently noted that disruption "is not a theory about survivability." Christensen cites the example of U.S. Steel. So-called mini...
BYOD Ruling Requires Employers to Reimburse for Work-Related Calls
August 27, 2014
How will BYOD other than cell phones be impacted by a California court ruling that “when employees must use their personal cell phones for work-related calls, Labor Code section 2802 requires the employer to reimburse them”? On August 12, 2014 in the case of Colin Cochran vs. Schwan’s Home Service, Inc. the California Court of Appeals reversed a Superior Court in Los Angeles County Court. The Order discussed the purpose of the California Statute was to “‘to prevent employers from passing...
August 27, 2014
How will BYOD other than cell phones be impacted by a California court ruling that “when employees must use their personal cell phones for work-related calls, Labor Code section 2802 requires the employer to reimburse them”? On August 12, 2014 in the case of Colin Cochran vs. Schwan’s Home Service, Inc. the California Court of Appeals reversed a Superior Court in Los Angeles County Court. The Order discussed the purpose of the California Statute was to “‘to prevent employers from passing...
