Welcome back to another Top 10 in Law Blogs, Lexbloggers. This week, Stephen Embry reflected on this year’s LegalWeek show and what it revealed about the future of Legal tech, E-Discovery, and Big Law. The U.S. Indictments against Huawei–the Chinese tech and telecommunications giant–should be considered part of a global campaign against how Chinese companies do business, according to Steve Dickinson. Jean O’Grady discusses the significant launch of Precedent Analytics from Thomson Reuters to Challenge Lexis Context. Happy reading!
Artificial Emotional Intelligence Predicts Election Results–By Ronda Muir: Research long ago revealed that the portion of the brain that lights up when politics are being discussed is the emotional area–the limbic/amygdala area of the brain–not the rational prefrontal cortex. In short, politics is not a topic about which we are rational–a conclusion that these days may be particularly apparent. Gauging emotional reactions–how people feel–is…View Full Post
Number Of Federal Website Accessibility Lawsuits Nearly Triple, Exceeding 2250 In 2018–By Minh N. Vu, Kristina M. Launey and Susan Ryan: As we had predicted, the number of website accessibility lawsuits (i.e. lawsuits alleging that plaintiffs with a disability could not use websites because they were not coded to work with assistive technologies like screen readers, or otherwise accessible to them) filed in federal court under Title III of the ADA exploded in 2018 to at…View Full Post
LegalWeek Musings on a Cold Day in New York–By Stephen Embry: LegalWeek in one of the preeminent legal tech shows. For years it primarily was directed to the ediscovery community; while there is still a heavy emphasis on ediscovery, the Show has branched out significantly in recent years. Put on by the legal media Goglith, ALM, it occupies 4 full days of programming, mammoth exhibit…View Full Post
House Democrats Unveil the New Select Committee on the Climate Crisis–By Marisa Harrilchak: One of the first orders of business for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was to reinstate the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis to aid Congress’s mission to respond to climate change….View Full Post
Leveraging Women in Legal – What’s Your Scorecard?–By Lindsay Griffiths: I’m bringing you a treat today, Zen readers! A post from the ILN’s own Jenn Smuts – and it’s a good one. Prepare to get uncomfortable and start asking yourself the hard questions. Last week Lindsay asked the Zen audience about whether they were still feeling inspired with the arrival of the new year…View Full Post
Law Firms Must Heed This GC Warning: “If you want our business, diversify!”–By Gerry Riskin: An open letter to law firms penned by 170 general counsel and corporate legal officers from companies across the U.S. warns law firms whose record of partnership promotions fails to reflect the diversity of the general population that they may face dire consequences from a number of leading corporations. While applauding those firms that do…View Full Post
The Huawei Indictments are the New Normal–By Steve Dickinson: The re-opening of the U.S. government has brought with it a renewed assault on Chinese telecoms manufacturer Huawei and its U.S. subsidiary. On January 28, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed two indictments against Huawei. The first indictment concerns ongoing claims against Huawei and its CFO, Meng Wanzhou, for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against Iran….View Full Post
U.S. Sanctions Venezuelan Oil Industry–By Paul Marquardt and Nathanael Kurcab: On January 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.; effective immediately PdVSA is on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List and all of its assets within U.S. jurisdiction are blocked. Simultaneously, OFAC issued a number of general licenses intended to mitigate the…View Full Post
New Gender Identity Law to Support New Jersey’s Transgender Community Effective Next Month–By Jennifer Millner: In an environment of uncertainty for transgender individuals, New Jersey is on the forefront of creating laws which are aimed to support New Jersey’s transgender community. In July of 2018, Governor Phil Murphy signed a package of bills into law which make important changes to records of vital statistics which are effective February 1, 2019….View Full Post
Thomson Reuters Launches Precedent Analytics to Challenge Lexis Context (formerly Ravel Law)–By Jean O’Grady: Last week I attended a private press preview of Thomson Reuters latest enhancement to Westlaw Edge: Precedent Analytics. Although Thomson Reuters was the first legal publisher to launch a legal analytics product aimed at librarians and marketers (The Thomson Reuters Intelligence Center); they were a very late to the “analytics for lawyers” party. For several…View Full Post