Welcome to the final October 2018 edition of the Top 10 in Law Blogs. This week, the as-of-yet-unwon Mega Millions jackpot has been prominent in the news, so Lawrence H. Heller wrote about what you should do if you’re one of the lucky ones. In big legal tech news, Jean O’Grady reported on Fastcase’s midweek acquisition of LawStreet Media, a legal news reporting platform. Lastly, Gregg E. Clifton wrote about a potential change to a controversial NBA rule.
Recent GDPR Developments in Italy – By Giulia Varallo: Recent GDPR Developments in Italy Can we say that Italy took the new privacy rules set out in GDPR seriously? Italian businesses have carried out many preparatory activities in view of 25 May 2018, the date of full applicability of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation No. 679/2016 (“GDPR”): a large number of privacy policies have been amended and updated, Data Protection Officers have been appointed and mailing lists have been reviewed and updated to comply with the new provisions. View Full Post
I Won the Lottery! What Do I Do Now? – By Lawrence H. Heller: Greenberg Traurig’s private client/high net worth team has the experience to advise mega-lottery winners. Our attorneys have worked with individuals who have won some of the biggest lottery awards in the United States. Our approach to advising lottery winner clients is based on three basic principles: 1) Family privacy, security, and freedom from publicity 2) Tax and estate planning 3) Financial planning. View Full Post
Domestic Violence Awareness and Understanding Protection from Abuse – By Julie R. Colton: October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence can affect anybody. It knows no race, gender, sexual orientation, or socio-economic class. It is starting to finally be recognized as a public problem instead of private one. Two years ago the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission issued a report on a Staff Study of the Protection From Abuse Orders in Pennsylvania, which highlighted the weaknesses of the current Protection From Abuse (“PFA”) system. View Full Post
Today Fastcase Will Be Announcing Acquisition of Law Street Media — Increased Strategic Focus on News and Analytics – By Jean O’Grady: Today legal publisher Fastcase is announcing the acquisition of Law Street Media legal news platform. Fastcase plans to work with founder John A. Jenkins, the former President and Publisher of CQ Press, and a team of reporters to evolve the online news platform into an enhanced daily news and analytics hub. When the site is relaunched in 2019, the retooled platform will highlight national and state docket litigation, regulatory developments, state bar news, and offer analytics and insights powered by Fastcase’s growing suite of legal information products, such as Docket Alarm and Fastcase 7. View Full Post
3 Tips to Raise the Level of Your Business Writing – By Lindsay Griffiths: We’re continuing our series on soft skills that lawyers require in order to achieve success. We’ve looked at some suggestions for improving networking and presentation skills, and the next item in our series is raising the level of our business writing. You may feel that this is something that you’re already pretty adept at, since you do a lot of writing – but my guess is that it’s primarily focused on legalese. View Full Post
President Trump’s Stamp of Disapproval on International Postal Treaty – By Kathleen Cusack: On October 17, President Trump announced that the United States may withdraw from a 144-year-old international postal agreement. The Universal Postal Union (“UPU”), established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874, is an agency of the United Nations that facilitates postal cooperation between governments and regulates cross-border traffic of international mail. The Trump Administration fears that U.S. businesses are disadvantaged by policies of the UPU that allow Chinese businesses to ship a variety of goods to the United States at “unfairly low prices.” View Full Post
California Enacts New Laws to Combat Human Trafficking – By Kaitlyn L. Lavaroni and Cary G. Palmer: On September 27, 2018, California enacted Senate Bill 970 establishing a minimum threshold for human trafficking awareness training and education in the hospitality industry. Under the law, hotels and motels are required to provide 20 minutes of classroom or other interactive training regarding human trafficking awareness to each employee likely to interact or come into contact with victims of human trafficking. View Full Post
Knocking on Pay Equity’s Door: Commercial Real Estate Women Network Seeks Answers to Gender Wage Gap – By Amanda E. Steinke: The Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network recently evaluated the pay gap by gender in the commercial real estate industry and published a white paper entitled “Achieving Pay Parity in Commercial Real Estate” (Linked here). The white paper reports that the gender pay gap “persists and is strongest for [women] earning less than $100,000 and above $250,000.” The greatest gap was found with commercial real estate brokers, with a pay differential of 33.8% between women and men. View Full Post
‘One and Done’ May Soon Be DONE! – By Gregg E. Clifton: The controversial NBA rule that keeps basketball players from beginning their professional careers until they’ve completed one year of college play may soon be history. The NBA has formally announced that “elite” 18-year-old basketball players will be able to move forward with their professional careers beginning with the 2019-20 season, skipping the current mandate that they play one year of college basketball before being eligible to be selected in the NBA draft. View Full Post
Remember when lawyers couldn’t advertise? – By Kirk C. Stange: For many lawyers, it is almost unimaginable to think about today. But it was not that long ago that lawyers could not advertise. Believe it or not, there are still lawyers out there who still believe lawyers should not advertise. In the view of some, lawyer advertising is just not professional. If this comes as a shock to you, it was not until 1977, in the case of Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 WS. 350 (1977), that the United States Supreme Court held that bans on lawyer advertising were impermissible. View Full Post