ABA Journal

It’s Google, but is it art? Museums mull opening their galleries to digitization

Google’s mission to digitize artwork from around the world is testing the bounds of copyright protection and the fairness of licensing contracts. Launched in February 2011, the Google Art Project provides access to more than 30,000 high-resolution images of paintings, sculptures and photographs from more than 180 museums and institutions…

Feb 23, 2013 1:36 AM CST

Coyote Ugly retaliation claims can go forward; keeping client meetings under control

Technology & Marketing Law Blog and the Delaware Employment Law Blog took note of a couple of retaliation claims against defendant Coyote Ugly (“that’s right—the one from the movie, where hot bartenders dance on the bar,” Delaware employment lawyer Molly DiBianca writes) that survived summary judgment. The underlying suit is…

Feb 22, 2013 3:05 PM CST

Law at the movies challenge: Take a title and make it less interesting

In honor of the 85th annual Academy Awards on Sunday, we’re presenting a bit of a movie challenge: Take any lawyer movie and change the title to make it less interesting. For example: Single Indemnity, My Neighbor Vinny, To Catch a Mockingbird. To refresh your memory about some of the…

Feb 20, 2013 7:26 PM CST

Muslim women lawyers aim to reconcile traditional beliefs with secular society

On a sweltering day in mid-July, Azizah al-Hibri, founder and chair of Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, presided over the graduation ceremony for the group’s 2012 Law and Leadership Summer Program. It was a festive occasion, held in the elegant drawing room of Karamah’s offices in Washington, D.C.,…

Feb 15, 2013 10:27 PM CST

Should bar regulators use tech tools to search for ethics violations on law firm websites?

Red-light cameras (so to speak) for lawyer websites? At My Shingle, Washington, D.C., solo Carolyn Elefant took note of a new tool by legal document start-up Docracy that tracks updates to websites’ terms of service agreements at more than 900 social media sites. The tool got her thinking. “Docracy’s TOS…

Feb 15, 2013 4:06 PM CST

Do you judge co-workers by how clean or messy their workspaces are? How tidy are you?

This week, the ABA asked followers of its Facebook page what we’d like to ask you: Do you judge co-workers by how clean or messy their workspaces are? Also, let us know how tidy you keep your own desk. Do you think that how clean your workspace happens to be…

Feb 13, 2013 8:30 PM CST

What if Crim Law was taught by cartoons?

It's not meant to be a replacement to law school, says Burney, but his book The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law is just the first in a planned series to cover all the courses of a 1L. He discusses how the project developed with ABA Journal podcast editor Lee Rawles.

Feb 11, 2013 2:30 PM CST

It’s a golden age for Texas’ oil and gas transactional lawyers

“Mud lawyers,” that’s what they called them—oil and gas attorneys, viewed for decades as second-class citizens in the world of corporate transactional law. They dealt in wet, smelly products pulled from the ground, relegated to practicing in Dallas and Houston, earning subpar rates compared to their brethren in the white-shoe…

Feb 8, 2013 10:30 PM CST

‘A kind of Apple Store for legal stuff’ opens; Richard III’s legal legacy

Concierge legal services Right across from the Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., is the retail location LegalForce, which DirectLaw founder Richard Granat describes as “a kind of Apple Store for legal stuff and other stuff (self-help law books, non-Apple tablets, tablet accessories, etc)” at eLawyering Blog. Granat (who discloses…

Feb 8, 2013 2:29 PM CST

Now is the time to go to law school, at least in this state, dean says

Updated: While critics continue to disparage the state of legal education, at least some of its top figures continue to balance calls for change with assurances to prospective students of law school’s current value. And one law dean is citing the regional hiring preferences of law firms and positive local…

Feb 7, 2013 3:54 PM CST

How grueling is your work week? If you have a flexible schedule, share your secret

This week, Lady Gaga testified in a deposition that her employees work no more than eight hours daily, though the time is spaced out throughout the day. “You don’t get a schedule that is like you punch in and you can play f—ing Tetris at your desk for four hours…

Feb 6, 2013 8:30 PM CST

How can you deal with pro se litigants and keep your cool? (Podcast with transcript)

Corrected: Podcast Transcript Stephanie Francis Ward: Lawyers often make other lawyers’ lives difficult, but the tribulations are nothing compared to what pro se litigants might bring. Evan Loeffler: She had to be allowed to lie on an air mattress in the middle of the courtroom to do her cross examination.…

Feb 4, 2013 3:00 PM CST

Women partners shelve work-life balance talk, say money and power needed for real change

Sullivan Hill managing partner Madeline Cahill-Boley doesn’t want to talk about work-life balance. Neither does Lisa Borsook, executive partner of Canadian law firm WeirFoulds. Nor does Patricia Gillette, a rainmaking partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, whose book of business ranges from $5 million to $10 million. Although greater acceptance…

Feb 4, 2013 2:55 PM CST

Working for free: Lawyers incorporating pro bono into their lives talk about its rewards, challenges

Over the years, and especially during the last several decades, pro bono legal service has taken many forms. A lawyer files an insurance claim for a neighbor after a fire. Two attorneys help a group of Vietnam veterans get recognized as a nonprofit by the IRS. The general counsel of…

Feb 2, 2013 12:30 AM CST

Around the Blawgosphere: Pool of trained associates will eventually dry up, blogger warns

The pool is drying up To an extent, in-house law departments and “New Normal” law firms are benefiting from the investment that “old normal” law firms make in training new associates. “My recollection of the stat is that after five years only two out of ten new associates will still…

Feb 1, 2013 2:45 PM CST