Author: TSA Press

Is my argument as strong as it can be? Are there better cases out there? And did I find every weakness in my opponent’s argument?

These types of questions can slow you down, but they don’t have to. Watch this webinar to get a first-hand look at the most advanced AI-based project Thomson Reuters has ever tackled: Westlaw Edge Quick Check. Quick Check goes beyond traditional research methods to uncover relevant authority that
may have been missed. Hear from one of the creators of Quick Check how this feature is helping researchers practice with a new level of confidence in their own work, gain a strategic advantage against their opponents, and  ultimately deliver superior client value.

Legal research will never be the same.

Watch the On-Demand Webinar.

At this time of the year we spend a lot of digital ink at Above the Law waxing on about how much money lawyers at Biglaw firms are making. Associate year end bonuses are an important part of the Biglaw ecosystem, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t also talk about the money lawyers are giving out this season.

It’s generally a tradition for lawyers at Biglaw to give gifts — usually cash — to the support staff that make their job smoother. But how much you should give to that essential paralegal is not always clear. Our network of tipsters has reported a wide spectrum of support staff gifts, from a measly $20 on the cheap end to an impressive $1000 on the generous side.

We know there are a variety of norms at different firms. For example, some places pool attorney cash contributions that scale based on seniority and hand those out to the whole support team while others have a laissez-faire attitude towards attorney generosity and associates are left without a benchmark for what they should give.

So we are taking the question to you, dear readers. Let’s delve into how much you’re giving to the paralegal/admin/support staffer in your professional life.

For the purpose of this first question, assume you’re a midlevel associate (and that amounts would scale up slightly as a senior or down as someone pretty junior). So how much are you giving to a support staffer that is absolutely essential to your ability to get your job done?

Now lets see how much you give to support staff that’s on your team, but not part of your day-to-day workflow (think floater secretary that covers your group or a paralegal you only work with occasionally).

---

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Recently one of the younger colleagues at our firm became distressed when reading an adversary’s brief in support of a motion to dismiss. It seemed that the adversary had cited to cases that looked a lot like ours where judges in the same district court in which we were proceeding had dismissed similar claims. One case after another seemingly like ours resulted in dismissal.

I urged the lawyer to breathe and then do as any lawyer should — read the authority — and then come back to me. The lawyer did and, of course, while the quotes from the authority seemed bad for us and, indeed, the referenced authority resulted in claims like ours being dismissed, there were two very big differences. First, the nuanced facts were different, as they often are, and more than enough to distinguish the authority from our cases. Second, and kind of sneaky, the referenced cases all regarded decisions on motions for summary judgment — where evidence was developed and the standard is very different than on a motion to dismiss.

It is often so. My younger colleague was, I acknowledge, probably a little starstruck, as young lawyers can be, by the Biglaw/Am Law 100 adversary we had, and, I think, didn’t believe that such lawyers could be so tricky. But many lawyers are, and young lawyers should be careful.

More to the point, the facts in those cases were what really mattered, not the broad legal principles those cases apparently stood for (and, in fact, anyway did not in the motion to dismiss context). We were able, easily, to show how those cases were different in our opposition brief by focusing on the facts.

It is hardly just in the motion context where this principle — the focus on facts is what helps you win — matters. This is the case for prosecutors and defense lawyers when arguing bail. The bail standards may be what they are, but the facts determine which way the judge will go. It is the case in dealing with applications for temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions. We can all recite the standards of irreparable harm, balancing of equities and all that, but emphasizing the facts is what will help you win for your client. It certainly is the case in a trial or evidentiary hearing where the judge or arbitrator or jury will have the chance to get all the facts. And, of course, those fact finders are supposed to apply the law as they understand it.  But you must present to them the facts that show why your side should prevail.

We are lawyers.  Rules, standards, and principles — the law — all matter. But to win for your clients make sure you don’t just act like a lawyer, but like a human being, where narrative determines so often what we decide. Focus on the facts.

---

John Balestriere is an entrepreneurial trial lawyer who founded his firm after working as a prosecutor and litigator at a small firm. He is a partner at trial and investigations law firm Balestriere Fariello in New York, where he and his colleagues represent domestic and international clients in litigation, arbitration, appeals, and investigations. You can reach him by email at john.g.balestriere@balestrierefariello.com.

“We do not condone personal surveillance on employees as part of our compliance,” Credit Suisse Chairman Urs Rohner said 10 weeks ago. Well, the bank may not condone it, but it sure does seem to do a lot of it. Rohner was apologizing the CS’ former wealth management chief, Iqbal Khan—who was forced out for apparently wanting to cut down some of CEO Tidjane Thiam’s trees, and then tailed for fear that he might take some Credit Suissers with him to UBS—and was either being dishonest or demonstrating his incompetence, because hardly had the doors stopped swinging after Thiam’s right hand/scapegoat stepped through them that a second allegation emerged. And now, a third.

The holiday season is upon us, and yet again, you have no idea what to get for the fickle lawyer or law student in your life. We’re here to help.

We’ve got an eclectic selection of fantastic legally themed holiday gifts for you to choose from, so settle in by that stack of documents yet to be reviewed and dig in.

We have so many offerings this year that we’ve categorized everything so you can either peruse the whole post or click on the link below to jump directly to the category that you think best suits your shopping mission:

Books
Apparel & Accessories
Games
Food & Drink
Desk Toys & Office Decor
Movies & Television
Luggage

(Disclosure: When available, we have used affiliate links.)

Books

Do you have a reader on your hands? Of course you do, you’re buying for an attorney! Grab a nice book to curl up with this holiday season — or to read on their next flight to some far-flung deposition.

Former Acting SG and current Hogan Lovells litigator Neal Katyal (with Sam Koppelman) just released Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump, a straightforward account of the mounting evidence against the president. You can check out an ATL interview with Katyal about the book here.

My Mom, The Lawyer is a children’s book from Michelle Browning Coughlin, founder of MothersEsquire, a nonprofit organization devoted to gender equity in the legal profession. All proceeds benefit MothersEsquire in its mission.

With the movie set to be released this month, this is a good time to check out Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson’s 2015 account of the Walter McMillian case. I’m not sure “spoilers” applies to non-fiction, but if you’re buying for the type that wants to see the movie cold, just get the book and they can read it later. Speaking of movies, Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo is already out, and you can read all about that legal battle against DuPont in Exposure.

You’d think a lawyer wouldn’t need a book like this, but then you hear the positions the SG’s office is willing to take these days and realize everyone could use a refresher, like How To Read The Constitution and Why by CBS Legal Analyst Kim Wehle. Eric Foner also has a historical look at The Second Founding charting the effort to remake the Republic.

Finally, two entries charting the epic failures of the system and the delinquent efforts to right the ship. Rachel Denhollander’s What Is A Girl Worth? discusses her role in breaking the silence surrounding USA Gymnastics and its years of covering for Larry Nassar. Ronan Farrow covers some of the same ground in Catch & Kill: Lies, Spies, and the Conspiracy To Protect Predators

apparel & accessories

RBG has gotten the Goddess Coin treatment over at Awe Inspired. Dissent Pins also sells a line of pins and necklaces in honor of the justice and Etsy offers some cute Supreme Court pins as well.

ESK Esq. has a whole line of apparel for the lawyer out there including a stylized view of glorious Blackacre of Property Law fame and an International Shoe logo for Civ Pro nerds. If you’re buying for a law student this season, consider this Lawyer-Loading shirt or this shirt featuring the refrain of law students everywhere.

Here’s a shirt for every good Sunny fan who knows the benefit of a solid education in Bird Law. Here’s a Nelson & Murdock shirt for the comic book set — I’m still searching for a Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway shirt for the fan that wants to be really obscure.

There’s even a shirt for the office holiday party.

Here’s a Legal Pad Bow Tie. Is the lawyer in your life a nerd or a complete nerd? Because if it’s the latter, then you absolutely have to buy this legal pad bow tie, the perfect sartorial statement against the kids and their damn computer note-taking.

What better stocking stuffer than… stockings.

Games

Looking for a diversion from billable hours?

The LAWSUIT! board game makes a fantastic holiday gift for clients, lawyers, friends, and family. The game’s setting is the day-to-day operation of a law firm where players bring fictitious lawsuits with whimsical premises, and can elect to settle or appeal cases.

Makers of the official chess set of the Supreme Court Historical Society! Approach the Bench makes great gifts for attorneys, law students, or anyone in the legal profession. They offer courtroom-themed chess sets, Judge, Blind Justice, and Attorney bottle stoppers, ornaments, and lawyer, Judge, and Blind Justice chocolate bars!

FOOD & DRINK

This wine bottle holder is so delightfully weird that it comes all the way back around into awesome. There’s some serious detail work on this thing.

Or for the more honest out there, we have this World’s Okayest Lawyer Mug.

What better way to get into the holiday spirit than to enjoy some holiday spirits? Caskers, founded by Harvard Law grads, curates all varieties of the best craft spirits from around the world and offers discounts of up to 40% of retail prices.

Teak & Twine offers gift boxes for all people and occasions. While everything is customizable, here are a few suggestions for curated boxes that the folks there suggested:

• For the attorney who has everything, The Tuxedo: Sophisticated and classic, this gift features elevated edibles.
• For your top clients, The Foodie – The most mouth-watering of our gifts and our top corporate seller.
• For the hardworking law student, The Dream Job – A fine notebook and coffee: law school essentials!

Do we have puns? Sure! And another one. Even this stretch of one.

Chocolate Text lets you send chocolate messages to anyone you desire. Personally, I’d go for “You’ve Been Served.” You can also order a “Selfie Tin.” Simply upload a picture and Chocolate Text places it on a tin of your choice of sweet treats. The perfect place for that photo of your favorite lawyer shaking hands with a Supreme Court justice or walking up to get their degree.

Is a lawyer having a good day or a bad day? This wine glass will let everyone know. Meanwhile this wine glass explains why the lawyer is drinking today.

Finally, a Zazzle user has a take on the ubiquitous “Keep Calm” motif, with these “Keep Calm and Call A Lawyer” candy jars.

Desk Toys & Office Decor

Lawyers spend most of their lives behind their desks, so why not spice them up a little? Sure they might appreciate a framed picture of their loved ones, but these thoughtful trinkets might make for better conversation pieces.

This is a cute business card holder of a female lawyer sitting at her desk — making it very meta. This glass card holder can be personalized.

And then there are Funko Pops. You know, those big head toys that seem to be everywhere these days. They even make Golden Girls Funko Pops now, which seems like the border of market saturation. But there are some legal Pops out there like this one of Matt Murdock or this lawyer She-Hulk one. There’s a Citadel-dwelling Lawyer Morty from Rick and Morty. And, obviously, there’s Saul Goodman and Jimmy McGill. For that matter, Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer.

It’s not exactly meant for the desk, but this is a nice decorative touch for the office. It’s a framed copy of the patent artwork for the gavel. Specifically, U.S. Patent 2,755,833 — also known as the Hollow-Headed Gavel With Telescopic Handle Section.

Someone at CafePress has a billable hours clock available to mix decor with some wit.

movies & Television

Lawyers may not have a lot of free time, but when they have a chance to catch up with the world, they can thank you for providing them something fantastic for their viewing pleasure.

Like the complete series of Law & Order. If you wanted to know what twenty season bundle of disks looks like, well there you go.

Speaking of series, the complete runs of Perry Mason, Matlock, and Ally McBeal are all available. Personally, I’d take the various seasons of Harvey Bridman or Better Call Saul though.

There was a stellar RBG documentary last year that you can pick up. We reviewed the film here.

Classical movie buffs might appreciate this 50th Anniversary Edition of 12 Angry Men or an opportunity to revisit Atticus Finch before he became a racist in Go Set A Watchman. On the ridiculous side, perhaps they’d enjoy Al Pacino’s turn as Satan in Devil’s Advocate. Then there’s the greatest courtroom film of all time, My Cousin Vinny.

Luggage

The essential gift for a traveling lawyer! The ScanFast Briefcase from Mobile Edge is a TSA-compliant laptop bag that allows the traveler to keep their laptop inside their bag while passing through TSA security checkpoints. This makes traveling with your laptop simple while keeping your laptop secure.

For a less standard design, check out this option (which also comes in three other color combinations). The bag is still TSA-compliant and boasts rich pink suede and brown faux-leather exterior highlighted by a bright color-accented satin lining. A matching shoulder strap, separate zippered workstation for files, and a trolley strap for rolling luggage included. Carries a Lifetime Warranty!

Seriously, peruse all of the MobileEdge offerings while shopping.

If you come across any more cool holiday gift ideas for attorneys, send them our way! We’re always looking to add more to the annual guide.

---

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

The findings of the Blickstein Group’s 2019 Law Department Operations Survey reveal a majority of legal teams are successfully improving how they operate. But much work remains to be done as they strive to overcome a variety of challenges for law department transformation. In addition, with 33 percent of the legal operations professionals being new to their roles within the last one to three years, this suggests considerable opportunity and room for maturity evolution.

Survey participants reported business process improvement, cost containment and savings, and management of the budget as top challenges, followed closely by concerns over the management and retention of department resources, staying abreast of technology, and managing outside counsel. I would say technology is one of the commonalities across all these issues.

Effective Use of Technology Rises but Contract and Document Management Trail Behind 

Survey participants reported improvements across the board in the effective use of technology, as compared with 2018 survey results. Notably electronic signatures and e-billing were both ranked as 8s on a 10-point scale for the first time in the 12-year history of the survey.

But contract management and document management, despite some improvements, continued to trail behind all other technologies for effective use. 

It’s not that they are less useful, but rather that they are not being utilized to the fullest. 

There can be any number of reasons to explain less than peak effective use, for example insufficient training or poor implementation (such as when a platform might be shoehorned into department processes). Process analysis and well-designed workflows are often critical to utilization success.

Technology can be underutilized too. For example, an e-billing system could be used simply to process invoices. But a more effective use would include spend analysis of the data to identify potential opportunities for process improvements or to determine whether additional in-house resources may be justified. Even small improvements can add up to significant departmental savings.

In fact, this seems to be what law departments are doing. 67 percent of survey participants reported tracking accruals or budgets in e-billing, up from 55 percent in 2018. That’s effective use!

Survey participants also overwhelmingly gave a thumbs up regarding their perception of the effective use of information that metrics can provide, an increase from about 45 percent in 2018 to nearly 72% in 2019 who had a positive view about the value of these metrics. 

Law departments seem to recognize that other technologies need to be equally well utilized. 

Nearly half of all survey participants said they are now planning on or actively developing a strategy to address how they integrate, evolve and replace existing systems in support of their legal department needs and processes. 

If we look at contract management specifically, half of departments report an intent to update, evaluate, or implement new systems over the next 12 months. Analyzing the data in these systems can be a great way to help determine the best course of action.

It will also be crucial to gain an understanding of how processes really work, and especially from the perspective of the people who will be using the technology, which can be a nice way to acknowledge the importance of the work they do. 

Overall the survey findings show that the trend for law department transformation is not transient. Legal teams are strongly committed to changing how law works and, where there is disagreement among legal operations professionals, it is usually about the degree of change.

***

Heidi Rudolph is a Managing Director at Morae Global, the full-service, technology-enabled, integrated solution provider for the legal and compliance function around the world.

If your firm expects you to have the most expensive data plan, shouldn’t they be giving you something for the inconvenience? I mean, perhaps it’s not an inconvenience because you’re busy streaming Friends episodes on the subway and forcing yourself to pretend you’re watching something clever. But the firm doesn’t know that you’ve got terrible taste in television.

Practicing law in the 21st century requires more costly tools than it used to. Attorneys need laptops, smartphones, wifi access at the bare minimum, and potentially licenses to a suite of security products. Firms rarely issue all of these products anymore, both out of respect for the choices of individual associates and in recognition that cloud-based solutions make the specific product choice largely irrelevant. But many firms recognize that they’re still making an ask of their attorneys and respond with a little something to ease the burden.

Firms like Simpson and Paul Weiss offer tech stipends. Brown Rudnick even tops those offerings. It’s a nice gesture to cover the cost of equipment that firms absolutely expect an associate to have. For years, we’ve advocated for every firm to follow suit and kick in to cover the cost of the tools of the trade.

But unfortunately some firms are starting to pull back. Womble Bond Dickinson just informed its associates that it will no longer subsidize their data plans:

We all know how much the UK appreciates its counterproductive austerity, and even though the US entity is technically quasi-independent, maybe the Brits are rubbing off on the firm.

Make no mistake, this is a compensation cut. When every associate relied upon this reimbursement, taking it away cuts their take home, after tax, compensation by… what?… a few hundred or so? It’s not a lot, but that’s a student loan payment for these people. Or maybe half a student loan payment.

In any event, this is a troubling sign that firms might be moving toward the nickel and diming  their own associates. So if you’re looking at firms, remember to take some time to check out the perks.

Earlier: Biglaw Firm Blows Competition Out Of The Water With Tech Spending Stipend For Associates
Actually, THIS Tech Stipend Blows The Competition Out Of The Water

---

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

God and some of his earthly representatives may be infallible, but his chosen bankers are not. At least, the Elect have to tell the Justice Department that they’re not (and certainly the Goldman Sachs Compliance Department appears to lack a hotline to the all-seeing one, or if they’ve got it to not have used it in the case of one T. Leissner) to make this whole Malaysian money-laundering/bribery/responsibility for The Wolf of Wall Street thing go away. That and a bigger legal reserve should do it, though.

There may not be a formal memo announcing lockstep bonuses (boo!), but that doesn’t mean the associates at Gibson Dunn have been left out in the cold. As is their usual tradition, the firm gives out individualized bonuses communicated to associates in private review meetings. As is also their usual tradition, the amounts appear to track along the market bonus — with extra cash for particularly high performers.

As one tipster noted:

My understanding is that the firm is generally matching the market, with greater bonuses to high billers. I’m a third year who is receiving the market bonus of a fourth year, for hours billed in excess of 2300. Happy to receive above market bonuses for the extra hours billed!

Congrats to the associates raking in a sweet payday for 2019.

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

And if you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Bonus Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the bonus alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each bonus announcement that we publish.

---

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

According to Eric Goldman’s count (and he would know), this is the 12th ridiculous “blame Twitter for terrorism” lawsuit to be tossed by a federal court. The dubious legal theory — one so dubious it has yet to find any judicial takers — is that Twitter and other social media platforms “allow” terrorists to converse and radicalize and do other terrorist things. What no one has successfully alleged is that Twitter, Facebook, etc. are directly or indirectly responsible for terrorist attacks.

This lawsuit was one of the dumbest. The brain geniuses at Excolo Law convinced a client this would be a winning strategy: claim the shooting of some cops by a shooter in Dallas was Twitter’s fault because possibly the shooter thought terrorist group Hamas was pretty cool. 96 pages of lawsuit and this was the tenuous allegation plaintiffs Jesus Retana and Andrew Moss thought might finally prove social media companies are providing material support to terrorists.

Micah Johnson was radicalized by HAMAS’ use of social media. This was the stated goal of HAMAS. Johnson then carried out the deadly attacks in Dallas. Conducting terrorist acts in the United States via radicalized individuals is a stated goal of HAMAS.

Not only did the lawsuit fail to include anything linking Twitter to the killing of Dallas police officers, it failed to include anything linking the shooter to Hamas. That didn’t stop Excolo Law from claiming that the only thing propelling the shooter to start killing Dallas police officers was Hamas’ social media presence, aided and abetted by Twitter.

As Goldman points out, the court “expressly does not reach the Section 230 defense.” That’s not because it’s not a good defense. It’s because the lawsuit — and the law firm shoveling as many of these into federal courts as possible — is so awful.

The court opens its dismissal [PDF] by noting the string of courtroom failures Excolo Law (and 1-800-LAW-FIRM) doesn’t seem to be interested in discussing when pursuing another lost cause in a federal court.

This case is the latest in a string of lawsuits that Plaintiffs’ lawyers have brought in an attempt to hold social media platforms responsible for tragic shootings and attacks across this country—by alleging that the platforms enabled international terrorist organizations to radicalize the attacks’ perpetrators. In fact, Plaintiffs’ lawyers brought a suit in the Northern District of California, Pennie v. Twitter, Inc., 281 F. Supp. 3d 874 (N.D. Cal. 2017), concerning the same Dallas shooting this Court is confronted with here, albeit with different plaintiffs. The court in that case dismissed the claims with prejudice, finding that there was no connection between the shooting and Hamas, the terrorist organization at issue. Id. at 892. Yet, Plaintiffs’ counsel made no mention of that case in their briefing; counsel discussed the case only after the Court questioned about it at oral argument.

The court then notes it can do its own research if the law firm isn’t willing to discuss past work that hews super-closely to the case at hand. GTFO, says the Texas federal court.

The Court dismisses this lawsuit with prejudice. Although the complaint here alleges additional facts not found in Pennie, the complaint nonetheless suffers from many of the same deficiencies discussed in Pennie. Plaintiffs here have not and after multiple attempts, clearly cannot connect Hamas to the Dallas shooting.

Need more? No link between the cop killer and Hamas:

Simply put, the SAC does not allege any facts that show that Hamas radicalized Johnson to commit the Dallas attack, not to mention by using Defendants’ websites. Plaintiffs’ injuries,therefore, were not “by reason of” Hamas, or Defendants’ alleged support of Hamas.

No link between the claimed violation of the ATA (Anti-Terrorism Act) and the Dallas shooting, either:

Plaintiffs’ secondary liability claims fail for an additional, yet similar, reason: Plaintiffs do not allege that the Dallas shooting was an act of international terrorism.

[…]

[T]he SAC is devoid of allegations connecting Hamas to the shooting, even after it occurred. There is no transnational component to Johnson’s planning and execution of the shooting. Instead, this tragic shooting appears to be an act of domestic terrorism.

The case is dismissed with prejudice, continuing Excolo Law’s losing streak. This obviously won’t keep the firm from trying again, not as long as it can convince victims of violence they have a shot at extracting a large settlement from social media companies. Sure, it hasn’t worked yet. But that can only mean Excolo, et al are due for a win! Right?

Losing Streak Continues For Litigants Suing Social Media Companies Over Violence Committed By Terrorists

More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt:

Yup, Strike 3 Is Going The Prenda Route By Filing ‘Pure Discovery’ Suits In FL State Court
NC, Or Not NC: Why Suing The Sons Of Confederate Veterans In N.D.Cal For Violating The DMCA Makes Sense
Abbott Laboratories Sends Heavy-Handed Copyright Threat To Shut Down Diabetes Community Tool For Accessing Blood-Sugar Data