We’re back with another Top 10 in Law Blogs–Lexblog’s picks for the best blog posts from the legal community this week. The theme of this week appears to be growth and innovation. Kirk Hartley reports on Aurora, a new supercomputer that will apply AI technologies to advancing cancer research, climate modeling, and veterans’ health treatments. Elevate founder, Liam Brown, explains the company’s recent acquisition of five companies in less than three months to build a “stable, diverse, scale business with global reach and staying power.” Staurt Kaplow shares the significance of RELi 2.0, a new rating system in building construction that will help identify and reduce the risk of damage in the event of natural disasters, economic disruptions, and other crises. Happy reading and have a great weekend, LexBloggers.
Cancer Research, a Holy Grail, and The Most Powerful Supercomputer in the World Is Coming to the Chicago Area–By Kirk Hartley: Massive, cheap computer power – often combined with AI – has facilitated much of the recent progress in understanding and working against cancer. Accordingly, it’s good to see that research against cancer will be one of the uses for the world’s most powerful supercomputer, which is headed for the federal government’s Argonne Labs in Chicago’s…View Full Post
Explaining Elevate’s Recent Acquisitions (088)–By Liam Brown: Elevate’s recent acquisitions belie a long-game strategy. Elevate founder, Liam Brown, explains. Elevate recently acquired five companies in less than three months. I’ve been asked: why those companies in particular, and why so many in such a short space of time? To answer those questions, I should first answer the deeper question of what…View Full Post
Rocket Matter Update Brings Business Intelligence Module, Configurable Dashboards, and More–By Bob Ambrogi: Updates released today to the cloud-based practice management platform Rocket Matter add two notable features not previously available in the platform: a business intelligence module and customizable dashboards. Other enhancements include an improved contacts page and the ability to view documents stored in the application. Rocket Matter labels its releases using names from Game of Thrones…View Full Post
How Changes in Immigration Policy Impact Pro Bono Work–By William C. Silverman and Adam Snyder: U.S. immigration policy has changed quickly and substantially in the past two years. While a handful of policies have received the majority of media attention—such as the separation of families at the border—the Department of Homeland Security has implemented numerous, far less visible changes that have dramatically impacted the ability to seek immigration relief in…View Full Post
Venezuela Challenge to U.S. Sanctions Escalates at WTO–By Jillian Norton and Brian Egan: Next week, the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) will consider Venezuela’s request for the establishment of a panel to decide whether U.S. sanctions affecting Venezuela violate international trade law. In December, Venezuela filed its second ever complaint at the World Trade Organization challenging U.S. sanctions. Specifically, Venezuela claimed that the U.S. imposed “coercive trade-restrictive measures” in…View Full Post
China Introduces Mobile Application Security Certification Scheme–By Yan Luo, Zhijing Yu and Ting Xiang: On March 15, 2019, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) jointly issued the Announcement on the Implementation of App Security Certification (the “Announcement”), creating a voluntary (but state-sanctioned) security certification scheme for mobile applications (“Security Certification Scheme”). Operators of mobile applications are encouraged to obtain this certification to…View Full Post
YouTube disallows ads on anti-vax content; privacy bills aim to extend children’s protections from Internet harm, secure users’ control over data–By Julie O’Neill: New York is now one of the 43 states where “revenge porn,” the posting of explicit photographs or videos to the Internet without the subject’s consent, is punishable by law. See how far the states have come – find out how many had criminalized revenge porn as of 2014, when Socially Aware first covered the…View Full Post
‘Case Status,’ App that Automates Client Communications, Receives Venture Funding–By Bob Ambrogi: Case Status, a company whose product aims to improve the client experience by automating lawyer-client communications and case updates, has received venture capital funding from the Alabama Futures Fund. The amount of funding was not disclosed. Case Status allows lawyers to provide clients with real-time visibility into the status of their matter from their mobile…View Full Post
Connecticut green bank monetizes solar renewable energy certificates in a rated securitization–By J. Paul Forrester:In what we believe to the first and only transaction of its kind, the Connecticut Green Bank (Green Bank) is monetizing certain solar renewable energy credits (SHRECs) generated under its Solar Home Renewable Energy Program and sold to Connecticut Light and Power (d/b/a Eversource Energy) and United Illuminating (UI) according to a related presale report…View Full Post
Resilience is the Future of Real Estate and USGBC Spells it RELi–By Stuart Kaplow: Last Friday, Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development in the country opened, but what the $25 Billion project may become best known for is that is designed for resilience from its giant “submarine doors” underground that can be closed to keep out storm surges to its own power plant that can keep the…View Full Post