Lawyer - News

I recently received a media inquiry regarding Super Bowl Monday which I blogged about last year.  The premise is that there will be a loss of productivity as a result of what I'll call "Super Bowl Flu."  So this year I decided to do a little research and found that there actually was a survey conducted this year and the conclusion of the survey is that "an estimated 1.5 million U.S. adults may call in sick to work the day after the Super Bowl."

To make matters even more interesting, it is estimated that use of technoloy bandwith will surge as employees (well, at least those that actually go to work) look for game related coverage on the web.

So the next study should be this:  Let's calculate all of the people who will talk about the game on Monday, all of those who will surf the net to look for web coverage and those who will call in sick.  Then will add a calculation for lost productivity for discussions, football pools and the like which will take place prior to the game and tally that all up.  Gee, with all this loss of productivity - why don't just make it a Federal Holiday?!

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The increasingly hot market for intellectual property is creating a new kind of player -- IP lawyers who have fled their firms to start brokerages for patents. Lawyers are setting up "IP investment banks" that buy and sell patents, and advise companies on new ways to monetize their IP portfolios. "It's such a unique and really cutting-edge area," said Stephen Knauer, a former in-house attorney who joined Ipotential last year. Observers say the nascent industry has plenty of room for more IP advisory shops. No comments

As employees use laptops, cell phones and handheld devices for personal communications and employers adopt policies to restrict use to business and preserve their right to monitor employee use, legal conflicts arise between employee expectations of privacy and employer control over technology usage. Jenner & Block attorneys Carla Rozycki and Darren Mungerson discuss litigation that demonstrates that an employer's technology-usage policies may be the key to tipping the balance in favor of the employer. No comments

The California Supreme Court offered no happy ending to budding actresses or Hollywood talent managers Monday. In affirming the 2nd District Court of Appeal's decision in , the high court held that state law bars unlicensed talent managers from securing jobs for their clients. But the justices also said that if a talent manager does just that, it's up to the state labor commissioner to determine how much of his or her contract with an artist should be nullified. No comments

Disbarred defense attorney Lynne Stewart's knowledge and intent when she passed messages from an imprisoned client to a terrorist group in Egypt was at the heart of intense arguments Tuesday at the 2nd Circuit. Defense attorney Joshua Dratel, trying to win a reversal of Stewart's conviction for providing material support to a terrorist conspiracy, claimed that Stewart's release of a statement by Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman to his followers in the Islamic Group was protected by the First Amendment. No comments

Clifford Chance plans to strengthen its Middle East presence by opening a new office in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in late April. The new office will be headed by finance partner Richard Ernest, who is currently based in the Magic Circle firm's Dubai outpost. Ernest will initially be supported by three of the firm's Dubai partners. The U.K. giant has been in Dubai, Abu Dhabi's neighboring emirate, since 1975. No comments

Lovells has moved to boost its Chinese banking practice, hiring for its Hong Kong location Fred Chang, who will join as a partner from White & Case's Beijing office on Feb. 7. Chang came to White & Case in 2006 from Chinese practice King & Wood. Notably, he advised on the $1.9 billion initial public offering of Chinese property developer Country Garden on the Hong Kong stock exchange last year. No comments

Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis plans to open an office in Palo Alto, Calif., later this year as firms rush to the Silicon Valley area to grab talent and clients in the U.S. technology company center. "One of the primary reasons that firms open offices in the Silicon Valley is specifically to get access to the lateral talent in that market," says recruiter Chuck Fanning. "By accessing top lateral partner talent in that market, you're also going to be accessing the local client base." No comments

Investigating judges have filed preliminary charges against a trader accused of causing billions of euros in losses at Societe Generale, France's second-largest bank. The Paris prosecutor's office said it was appealing the decision Monday evening to free Jerome Kerviel, who had been held since Saturday. The bank and prosecutors have said Kerviel did not appear to have profited from his unauthorized dealings, and his lawyers described him as a "modest boy" who got in over his head. No comments

A former Hollywood studio attorney and his wife were sentenced Monday for abusive treatment of their Filipino maid in a case federal prosecutors said "amounts to modern-day slavery." James Jackson, the former vice president of legal affairs at Sony Pictures, was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and pay a $5,000 fine. His wife, Elizabeth, was sentenced to three years in prison. "It seems she treated her dog much better than she treated her victim," U.S. District Judge Dale Fisher said. No comments