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Expert Analysis

• Ethics Tips For Attorneys Telecommuting Across State Lines

  

  Attorneys working remotely from jurisdictions in which they are not admitted should take precautionary steps to avoid engaging in unauthorized practice of law, say John Schmidt and Michael Seaman at Phillips Lytle.

• 6 Ways Legal Employers Can Help Pandemic-Weary Parents

  

  Parenting during the pandemic has introduced a series of competing personal and professional obligations for attorneys and professional staff, and even organizations that are supportive of their parent employees can take steps to do better, says Meredith Kahan at Saul Ewing.

• Controversial Md. Digital Ad Tax Leaves Sourcing Undefined

  

  Sending shockwaves through the industry and prompting a lawsuit, Maryland's recently enacted, first-of-its-kind digital advertising gross revenues tax also contains a significant ambiguity as to how revenue from digital ad services should be sourced, say Stefi George and David Blum at Akerman.

• Remote Working Tips For Lawyer Trainees And Their Firms

  

  The prospect of joining a law firm during the pandemic can cause added pressure, but with a few good practices — and a little help from their firms and supervising attorneys — lawyer trainees can get ahead of the curve while working remotely, say William Morris and Ted Landray at King & Spalding.

• 9th Circ. Ruling Could Limit Copyright Statutory Damages

  

  After the recent Desire v. Manna Textiles decision tossing a statutory damages verdict in the Ninth Circuit, copyright plaintiffs there may no longer be able to multiply the number of available statutory damage awards per work based on the number of downstream infringers, says Matthew Gershman at Greenberg Traurig.

• Too Wealthy To Bail: Navigating Pretrial Release Strategy

  

  Recent noteworthy bail decisions, including a New York federal court's denial of Ghislaine Maxwell's $28.5 million bail package offer, reveal that high-net-worth defendants should demonstrate significant ties to the U.S. and provide comprehensive financial disclosures to mitigate flight-risk objections, say Sean Buckley and Amanda Tuminelli at Kobre & Kim.

• What Biden's Ethics Pledge Means For Gov't Revolving Door

  

  Attorneys at Nossaman look at how President Joe Biden’s ethics pledge goes beyond those of his predecessors by imposing post-employment shadow lobbying and golden parachute restrictions on his administration’s appointees — and how a House bill proposing expansion of federal ethics law could affect enforcement.

• Opinion

  USPTO Should Rethink Its Resistance To Political Slogan TMs

  

  Considering the registrability of the Jan. 6 rallying cry "Stop the Steal" as a trademark, John Halski at Perkins Coie finds that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should adopt an approach that more clearly acknowledges that political slogans may function as trademarks in certain situations and that clearly identifies reasons for refusal.

• Opinion

  Punishing Bar Exam Policies On Menstrual Products Must Go

  

  Law graduates across the states are sitting for the grueling two-day bar exam this week despite menstruation-related barriers, such as inadequate menstrual product and bathroom access, which could be eradicated with simple policy tweaks, say law professors Elizabeth Cooper, Margaret Johnson and Marcy Karin.

• It's Time For Law Firms To Start Loving And Leveraging Data

  

  The volume and diversity of data managed by law firms today — from client files to internal financial records — may seem daunting, but when properly organized, good data can help practitioners stay competitive by providing sharper insight into firm resources and cost of work, say Jaron Luttich and Barry Wiggins at Element Standard.

• Keys To Protecting Clients During Law Firm Dissolution

  

  Whether a law firm dissolution is amicable or adversarial, departing attorneys should take steps to maintain their legal and ethical responsibilities toward clients, and beware client confidentiality pitfalls when joining new firms, say John Schmidt and Colin Fitzgerald at Phillips Lytle.

• What A New Virginia Privacy Law Could Mean For Businesses

  

  As Virginia moves to become the second state to pass a comprehensive data privacy law, businesses that have been building compliance programs for California's new laws will be well positioned to comply with the Virginia law, as long as they note some key differences, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

• Pandemic Restriction Challenges Face Uphill Battle In Calif.

  

  A California appellate court's recent decision in Midway Venture v. San Diego illustrates the steep and narrow path to challenging the state's pandemic-related public health restrictions, even when those restrictions infringe on activities protected by the First Amendment, say Christopher Wheeler and Brookes Degen at Farella Braun.

• How Case Management Orders Can Support New Attorneys

  

  Courts are leading the way in ensuring oral argument opportunities for newer attorneys by incorporating innovative language in a variety of orders, and private parties can and should follow suit by incorporating similar language into case management orders, say Megan Jones and Halli Spraggins at Hausfeld.

• Courts, FTC May Differ On Sponsored Product Reviews

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Ariix v. NutriSearch found that a sponsored product review that didn't adequately disclose the reviewer's relationship with the sponsor violated the law — but the Federal Trade Commission would likely have flagged even more problems, says Jeffrey Greenbaum at Frankfurt Kurnit.