If peeing in public is cool, consider San Francisco to be Miles Davis. The City by the Bay has had a long history battling public urination, and has deployed numerous strategies, from $500 fines to urine-repellant paint, to deter public pissers, with little or no success. But San Francisco may have finally stumbled upon a solution. The city’s (and possibly the nation’s) first open air urinal, located in newly renovated Dolores Park....
Last week, an en banc panel of the Federal Circuit bench-slapped the other party in the e-mail scandal that led to Chief Judge Randall Rader’s retirement. This week, the same court is preparing for a possible new colleague, as there is a nominee to fill Rader’s now-vacant seat. Enter Kara Farnandez Stoll, a partner in the largest firm that practices intellectual property exclusively: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP (or Finnegan for short)....
In a petition for review of the denial of petitioner’s application to the Surface Transportation Board for an order declaring that 49 U.S.C. section 10501(b), a provision of the Interstate Commerce Act preempted all state and local regulations insofar as they affected rail lines and that the Board had exclusive jurisdiction over petitioner’s activities at one of his properties, the petition is granted where the Board failed to explain why, in order for it to have jurisdiction, petitioner must transport his maintenance-of-way equipment by rail using tracks he owned or operated rather than transporting the equipment by truck or as a shipper over track he did not own or operate....
The parents of a 15-year-old girl who was kicked out of summer camp for kissing a boy are suing the camp and its directors for more than $600,000 in damages. The lawsuit filed by “Jane Doe’s” parents claims the teen suffered “severe emotional distress” and humiliation after she kissed the boy (named “Dick” in the lawsuit) and was escorted out of the camp by an armed police officer, reports United Press International....
To be or not to be a weekend warrior; that is a tough question. Yet it’s a question every lawyer must answer sometime in his or her career. The difficult answer too often is “yes” because attorneys don’t always have a choice. Being a weekend warrior is part of the business of law. It is an inescapable burden, like a heavy briefcase chained to your wrist. Some clients actually expect you to be available 24/7, and their problems can weigh on your mind at all hours....
No one ever accused young attorneys of having it easy – especially if you choose to live in one of the worst cities for the job. Most attorneys are strong Type A personalities, and there’s nothing we love more than ranking ourselves against… ourselves. To help in that endeavor, the National Jurist recently determined the best and worst cities for young attorneys to live in. If you work in one of these metro areas, you may have already suspected that things weren’t so great....
We all want to believe in the integrity of sporting contests, and believe that all of the athletes involved are on a level playing field, physically at least. Hence the drive to define performance enhancing drugs, the continuous testing of athletes, and the hysteria over positive tests. And while it’s easy to become apathetic to the latest reports of doped up athletes – it may be harder to find the clean ones these days – some stories are so big they can’t help but shock you....
Uber has fought hard to ensure that its drivers are independent contractors as part of its business model. Usually, the fight takes place in a lawsuit about overtime and employee benefits. The company will pay a premium to settle cases so long as it can keep drivers going as independent contractors and not as employees. However, another, uglier “employee v. independent contractor” battle has been working its way to the center of the ring....
Verizon Communications is reviving its challenge to the new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) net neutrality rules with an appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The circuit court dismissed Verizon’s lawsuit to block the rules in April, finding that Verizon filed prematurely because the FCC had not published the rules in the Federal Register, reports The Tech Journal. The issue is now ripe because the FCC officially published the rule last Friday; the rules are set to take effect on November 20....
Times are still tough, and don’t you doubt it for a moment. Case in point, one Wendy’s restaurant is simply not making enough dough: not for their buns, for their thieves. A Wendy’s in Atlanta is now the focus of complaints from the man who robbed it at gunpoint late in the evening of August 31. The Associated Press reports that the disgruntled robber walked up to the drive-through window last Saturday night and proceeded to rob the cashier....
We’ll cut straight to the chase: last night’s episode of How to Get Away With Murder was a flipping mess – but a fun and illuminating one. Featuring several unsexy slumber parties, the first twenty minutes were very ‘Olson Twins pizza party’ while the end seemed like a lost scene from The Bacchae. So, let’s hop right in to this week’s spoiler-filled lawyer’s guide to How to Get Away With Murder....
Limbo: the miserable time period between when you take the bar exam, and when the results are finally released. Will you pass? Will you fail? Will it even matter if there aren’t any jobs to apply for? Now that you’ve taken the exam, and drank Brass Monkeys to suppress the pain unwind after a stressful summer, guess what? The fun is just beginning. As a delusional bar taker, I was convinced that, if I passed the exam, that jobs would come....
While Dr. Seuss may be famous for teaching children (and adults) valuable life lessons via wonderfully nonsensical rhyming stories, we lawyers can learn quite a few lessons from the Seuss villains. Don’t believe it? Well, in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, we’ve compiled five lessons you may have missed while reading some of his most iconic stories. Perhaps the most valuable lesson for lawyers comes courtesy of Sylvester McMonkey McBean who fleeced all the Sneetches in the classic book The Sneetches....
It’s all relative, but what does that mean for the average guy? It means that most people can’t afford to buy the stock, and it represents the incalculable divide between the rich and the poor. It is also what is wrong with the world, according to two startup investors. Wait, what? Bill Maris, who founded Alphabet’s venture capital arm, and Sam Altman, president of startup accelerator Y Combinator, told a technology conference that big tech companies are too big....
Patent trolls have a bad reputation. Run a search for the term, and you’ll find headlines about misconduct and the death of innovation. But is there another side to trolling? Recently, I was surprised to hear an established intellectual property litigator describe herself as a patent troll, and curious about her side of the debate. She graciously agreed to answer a few questions. To protect her identity – hey, even trolls need job security – we’ll refer to this attorney by her super-secret pseudonym, Sharon Underbridge....
In a battle against toxic waste, some federal judges may feel like the boy who put his finger in a dike to save his country. The little Dutch boy, in the novel by Mary Mapes Dodge, sees a leak and stops it with his finger. It ends well after townspeople see him and make the necessary repairs. But United Solid Waste Activities Group v. Environmental Protection Agency is no fairy tale....
“My supervisor and I have verified that New Mexico is a state.” Not exactly what you expect to hear from a marriage clerk. Perhaps from a middle schooler clowning around in a geography class, but not a civil servant in our nation’s capital. But that’s apparently what Gavin Clarkson was told after a back-and-forth with a D.C. Marriage Bureau clerk last month that included the clerk asking to see Clarkson’s “New Mexico passport....
A Michigan man is facing serious charges after leading police on a bizarre low-speed chase atop a John Deere tractor. Officers with the Cheboygan Department of Public Safety responded to a report of a shirtless man driving a tractor through a residential neighborhood. They found 35-year-old Joshua Viau operating the tractor allegedly while intoxicated, reports the Cheybogan Daily Tribune. But then, what could have just been another notable DUI arrest took a turn for the strange(r)....
The rising tide of eDiscovery will lift the prospects for many job-seekers surfing the web in 2017. According to a new report, eDiscovery will create hundreds of jobs at law firms and companies across the country. The report, Cowen Group’s 2016 Compensation Trends in Legal Technology Report, bases its prediction on a survey of 244 businesses. It says that litigation will create jobs for attorneys, project managers, forensic specialists and other professionals....
While much ado was being made of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision, another case that could be the death knell for Obamacare flew below the radar – that is, until the D.C. Circuit ruled against the Obama administration. Then, everyone was all ears. That’s because the court’s decision – if adopted by other circuits – could mean the end of the Affordable Care Act as we know it. But you didn’t think the Obama administration would stop there, did you?...
