Legal Current

After a prolonged absence due to holidays, vacations and two feet of snow in the Washington, D.C. area, the guys are back!!

The show starts out with the show recounting the story of two Virgina Tech college students (male and female) who were involved in the disappearance of a teenage girl.  The guy discuss how the use of the app "Kik" was used by the perpetrators of this crime to ultimately lure the young girl to her death.  This then leads to a discussion about mobile apps and the dangers that they pose to teens and young children and potentially adults as well.  

Moving on deeper into the show, the discussion transitions into a discussion surrounding inappropriate photos and text messages sent via cell phone or other mobile devices.

What do you think about the topic in this episode? Do you love us? Hate us? Got some great ideas? Please send your thoughts, feedback and show ideas to our NEW email address: [email protected] (or [email protected]). Also, you can reach the team on Twitter: Matt Angelicola (@MattAngelicola), Joe Harris (@Jwh37), Rob Russell (@batogato) and Jason Thomas (@jasonthomas). We’re also on iTunes – just enter “Legal Current” in the search box.

What impact did Justice Antonin Scalia have on the Supreme Court? And what lies ahead for the Court? 

Legal Current explores these questions with Prof. Ronald D. Rotunda, The Doy & Dee Henley Chair and Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at Chapman University, and co-author of Nowak and Rotunda's Treatise on Constitutional Law: Substance and Procedure.

Last summer, in the case of HM Electronics Inc.v. R.F. Technologies Inc., a federal judge ordered severe sanctions because of e-discovery failures. How do new rules on proportionality and spoliation impact how e-discovery is handled? Robert Brownstone with Fenwick & West discusses.

As more states move towards legalized marijuana, business entities such as medical marijuana dispensaries or other marijuana-related businesses are starting to bump up against patent and trademark issues that may prevent them from enjoying many of the intellectual property protections that other businesses use.  

Doug Sorocco of Dunlap Codding looks at some of the "grassroot" IP obstacles facing businesses in the cannabis trade.

Law firms invest significant effort and finances developing savvy marketing campaigns that drive traffic to their websites or phone calls to their law firms, only to drop the ball when it comes time to turn that prospective client into a paying one.

It all comes down to intake – the processes a law firm uses to collect and manage leads, with the goal of converting them into clients. Intake is an essential function of any successful legal business, and one that is often mismanaged or underdeveloped. What’s worse, our research shows that most attorneys think they’re actually doing a good job at intake. The sad truth is that their perceptions simply don’t match the reality.

FindLaw’s white paper, “Failing At The Finish Line: How Law Firms Lose Prospective Clients At The Front Door” examines how firms can improve their intake practices.

 James W. Jones, senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, discusses the "2016 State of the Legal Market" report by the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center and Thomson Reuters Peer Monitor

Are you sporting a new FitBit or an Apple Watch with a fitness monitor app? If it’s part of your employer’s wellness program, who owns and has access to your data?

Tyler Newby , litigation partner at Fenwick & West looks at the wearable fitness monitor craze and some of the data privacy implications they bring.

Michael Hawes of Baker Botts discusses patent law cases coming up before the U.S. Supreme Court

It wasn’t that long ago that every Presidential campaign had its own theme song. Even George Washington had one. Thomas Jefferson. Abraham Lincoln. Even Jimmy Carter.

But in recent decades, the music stopped. Or at least went Top 40. Presidential campaigns switched from original campaign themes to using hit pop songs, which has sparked a flurry of lawsuits from artists.

Whatever happened to the original campaign theme song?

Folk music historian Oscar Brand has recorded many historical Presidential campaign theme songs with a record for Smithsonian Folkways

William Hochberg of Greenberg Glusker discusses the long history of President campaign theme songs from the days of Washington to modern era of artist lawsuits.

The 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect on December 1, 2015.

Some of the amendments apply even to cases that were filed prior to that date.

The authors of the Federal Civil Rules Handbook, 2016 edition, William M. Janssen and Steven Baicker-McKee discuss the treatise and the new 2015 amendments.

William Janssen also has a series of articles on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on the Legal Solutions Blog.