Justices allow RICO lawsuit in Illinois case
June 13, 2008
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed businessmen to use a powerful law enforcement tool in a lawsuit alleging fraud in tax sales in Cook County, Ill.The unanimous decision came in a case involving the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
The court ruled in favor of two firms alleging that manipulation by competitors had resulted in a disproportionate share of tens of thousands of tax liens going to the competitors.
Tax sales in Cook County enable the collection of unpaid property taxes, giving buyers of tax liens an opportunity to take over property if the owners don’t pay up.
The issue for Phoenix Bond & Indemnity Co. and BCS Services Inc. was whether they could sue even though they had not relied on allegedly fraudulent statements the defendants submitted to Cook County. The statements said that each tax buyer was truly independent from other tax buyers in the competitive bidding.
Writing for the court, Justice Clarence Thomas said that nothing in the RICO law required Phoenix and BCS to show that they relied on alleged misrepresentations by a defendant.
Cook County requires that each buyer submit bids only in its name and not through any related entity.
Phoenix and BCS alleged that a number of related entities “packed the room” in tax sales by having relatives in two families bid for the same properties.
The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies
March 3, 2008
The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, the new book from Between Lawyers' own Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell is now now available for preorder at the ABA Web Store. There's a 15% discount if you preorder now.
The "official" launch of the book will be at the ABA TECHSHOW 2008, where Tom and Dennis will be speaking on the topic of collaboration tools, and will be happy to sign your copy of the book.
The book reflects the idea of collaboration that underlies the Between Lawyers blog.
Here's the book description from the ABA Web Store:
This first-of-its-kind guide for the legal profession shows you how to use standard technology you already have and the latest "Web 2.0" resources and other tech tools, like Google Docs, Microsoft Office and SharePoint, and Adobe Acrobat, to work more effectively on projects with colleagues, clients, co-counsel and even opposing counsel. In The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, well-known legal technology authorities Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell provide a wealth of information useful to lawyers who are just beginning to try these tools, as well as tips and techniques for those lawyers with intermediate and advanced collaboration experience.Collaboration technologies and tools are the most important current developments in legal technology and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Explained with minimal technical jargon, the book focuses on highly practical and usable ideas that you can put to work straight away.
With practical advice on how to use specific tools and concrete action steps to take, lawyers and law firms at all levels will benefit from working together better.
You'll learn:
+ The basics of collaboration and collaboration tools
+ How to select and implement tools and strategies
+ The best ways to collaborate on documents, cases, transactions, and projects
+ How to collaborate inside and outside the office
+ How to collaborate using tools you already have or own
Technology now makes it easier than ever to work with others -- this is the first guide dedicated to the special requirements of the legal world with the practical steps it takes to do it right.
I encourage you to preorder now and take advantage of the 15% discount or to consider ordering the book here if you are reading this at a later date.
Calling All Legal Tech MacGyvers - A Mini-contest
September 18, 2007
I'm planning to write an article about what I'm calling "MacGyver" technology tricks. I'm assuming that you are familiar with the MacGyver concept (or you can wikipedia it).
As an example, consider using a digital camera or cameraphone as a document scanner in a pinch (or sending a document as a fax to a nearby fax machine when you aren't able to print it any other way).
I'm looking for some good examples and wanted to get a little help from the readers of this blog.
Remember, the idea is not something like using the top of your laptop as a cutting board, but ways to use software and hardware in unexpected, but logical and useful ways, in a pinch when you don't have the normal tools available. Another example: using a video iPod to run your PowerPoint presentation when your laptop won't work with the projector. I'm also looking for something that the average lawyer would be able to do with gadgets, hardware and software (or Internet apps) readily at hand for most lawyers.
However, I'm not looking for examples like this one, because it requires that you have a specific device available.
You get the idea.
Let me know your best ideas by leaving a comment to this post or joining the Between Lawyers Facebook Group and leaving your recommendations as a response to the discussion thread there.
On an unrelated note, be sure to take a look at a great roundtable article on legal podcasts and lawyer podcasting in the latest issue of the ABA's Law Practice Today webzine, with Denis Howell, Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy among the participants.
If It’s All About Respect, Why Do They Look So Foolish?
August 25, 2007
So — what should Nixon Peabody have done when its embarrassing firm non-theme song made its inevitable way onto the Web? (And into the atmosphere of countless homes and offices, as its hapless victims hum and mutter it against their will and better judgment?)
If they'd have asked me (or perhaps 95% of the over 1,000 people who have voted in the Volokh Conspiracy poll), I'd have told them the last thing they should be doing is invoking the DMCA. Instead I'd have recommended:
- applying an appropriately liberal Creative Commons license,
- holding a mashup contest, and
- showcasing the winner and the top 9 runners up on the firm's home page.
Would make for more congenial search results and Wikipedia copy, at any rate. (But then again, at least the firm has a Wikipedia entry.)
Facebook for Lawyers?
August 19, 2007
Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy have posted a new episode of their podcast, The Kennedy-Mighell Report (RSS feed here).
In this episode, Dennis and Tom discuss the use (or potential use) of Facebook by lawyers, giving some potential benefits and risks, practical tips, and observations about their experiments in using Facebook. They also talk about how they use the Google Reader for RSS feeds and Google Docs and Spreadsheets for simple collaborations. They also talk about the other podcasts they listen to and how they listen to them.
It's a good introduction for lawyers and other legal professionals to these topics.
You'll find the podcast episode here and there's an archive of earlier podcasts.
It's also a good time to remind you to check out Denise Howell's podcast - This Week in Law - on which you'll find some of the authors of the Between Lawyers blog appearing from time to time.
And, for Facebook members, we invite you to join the Between Lawyers Facebook group.
BlawgWorld 2007: An Introduction to the World of Blawgs
July 30, 2007
TechnoLawyer's new free eBook, BlawgWorld 2007, features a selected post from 77 different law-related blogs. It's a good introduction to the current state of blogging for everyone, no matter what your familiarity, or lack of familiarity, with blawgs. You'll even find a choice post from the Between Lawyers blog.
Copyright thought balloon: YouTube vs. RSS
July 26, 2007
Consider and discuss the technical, legal, and/or policy differences, if any, between this and this.
Legal Issues Of Law And Commerce
July 26, 2007
I'll be on a panel at BlogHer this weekend called Professional Blogging: Art and Commerce —
The other side of the professional blogging coin is looking at the business ramification of making money with your blogging. This session will cover the things to consider and that you may regret if you wait to long to address: copyright protection, tax ramifications, managing personal vs. paid-for blogging, your site policies, and blogging ethics.
Here are my top ten legal issues pertinent to this discussion; what are yours?
1. Communications policies (your own, or someone else's which may apply)
2. Intellectual property (your own and third parties')
3. Indirect liability for third party acts
4. Civility
5. Ethics
6. Privacy
7. E-commerce
8. Data ownership, responsibilities
9. Minors
10. Special considerations for regulated businesses/industries
Announcing the New Between Lawyers Facebook Group
July 18, 2007
The untold story of this blog is that the Between Lawyers authors spend more time gabbing with each other via email than posting to the blog. During one of our recent quite extended email conversations, we decided experiment with and open up those discussions in a Facebook group so that friends/readers can also play along.
Without further adieu, you can now check out the Between Lawyers Facebook group.
George Lenard On Facebooking Employment Candidates
July 13, 2007
Here are George Lenard's posts on the subject:
Employers Using Facebook for Background Checking: Is It Legal?
More on using facebook et al. in recruiting and hiring (Part II)
Employers Using Facebook for Background Checking, Part III
This might be better suited to Overlawyered than Between Lawyers, but I'm posting it here anyway because it's a great series of posts. One thing I don't see addressed: one of the most powerful features of Facebook (and a host of other social networking sites) is the fine-grained privacy control users have over the visibility their data. Often, only "friends" have access to the kinds of details George discusses. But, lots of people do make their data more generally visible. It's ironic that employment laws are such that though "the public" may be invited to view such information, lucrative damages awards or settlements could be associated with doing so in the context of employment or potential employment.
