Welcome back to another Top 10 in Law Blogs! The results are in for Dewey B Strategic’s “Hits and Misses Survey”, and the majority of consumers regarded 2018 as “a miss” for legal information. Jean O’Grady unpacks the deals that negatively impacted responders. Amira Hanem Ibrahim and Konstantin von Werder discuss Germany’s new Trade Secrets Act and its impact on scope of protections for journalists, whistleblowers, and employees. Gerry Riskin reports on the application of CaseLines’ cloud-based platform in Africa courts and how technology is the great equalizer in the legal system.
Happy reading and have a great weekend, LexBloggers.
Terminal Outrage: Results of the 2018-19 Dewey B Strategic “Hits and Misses Survey” Bloomberg BNA Realignment Voted “Biggest Miss”–By Jean O’Grady: The major takeaway from the 2018-19 Dewey B Strategic Hits and Misses Survey is that consumers of legal information regard 2018 as “a miss.” The problem wasn’t so much the products—although products play an important role in triggering the discontent. The major problem is the behavior of legal publishers. Legal publishing is a mature market…View Full Post
Germany Introduces New Trade Secrets Act Which Imposes Extensive Preventive Measures on Companies–By Amira Hanem Ibrahim and Konstantin von Werder: After several months of delay and heated political discussion among all German parties about the scope of protection regarding journalists, whistleblowers and employees, the German parliament adopted the Federal Government’s draft Trade Secrets Act on 21 March 2019. This act implements Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament on the protection of undisclosed know-how and…View Full Post
By Dramatically Reducing the Need for Paper, Technology Becomes the Great Global Equalizer–By Gerry Riskin: In a recent post on The Artificial Lawyer, Jon McNerney, CEO at CaseLines, reports on a partnership his company has established with the Court of Justice for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), as well as initiatives the company has undertaken with Kenya’s court of appeal and South Africa’s civil courts. CaseLines offers a cloud-based…View Full Post
Implications of the Designation of Iran’s IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization–By Peter Jeydel: Yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced his intent to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), noting that this is the first time the US government has designated part of another government as an FTO. The announcement explains: “This action underscores that the Iranian regime’s use of terrorism…View Full Post
LexisNexis Announces Interaction—Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel Integration–By Stephen Embry: LexisNexis yesterday announced that its subsidiary client relationship management (CRM) product, Interaction would now work seamlessly with Microsoft® Outlook, Excel and Word-three applications that many lawyers typically use. InterAction® for Office 365® is available for both desktop and subscription versions of Office, including those running on Mac and IOS. It allows you to access your firm’s client relationship…View Full Post
Federal Judge Threatens to Imprison Carnival Executives for Continued Environmental Crimes–By Jim Walker: Calling Carnival Corporation a “criminal defendant,” United States Federal District Judge Patricia Seitz threatened to send the “members of Carnival’s executive committee” to a “detention center for a couple of days” for violation of the terms of its probation for environmental crimes, according to the Miami Herald. The newspaper also reported that the Court at…View Full Post
China Aims to Boost Investment in Clean Energy–By Latham & Watkins: The Green Industry Guidance Catalogue attempts to provide consistent nationwide guidelines for green industries and projects. By Paul A. Davies and R. Andrew Westgate Background On 6 March 2019, seven Chinese regulatory agencies issued the Green Industry Guidance Catalogue (the Catalogue) listing “green industries” that are eligible for funding with green bonds. The seven agencies…View Full Post
End of an Era: Tom Bruce, Trailblazing Director of LII, to Retire after 27 Years–By Bob Ambrogi: It is possible that no one was more influential in shaping the universe of online access to legal information than Tom Bruce. Way back in 1992 — a year before the launch of the World Wide Web and when only scraps of legal information could be found on the Internet — Tom and colleague Peter…View Full Post
Over 50 VA Nursing Homes Found to Have Caused “Actual Harm” to Veterans–By Denise M. Mariani and Sherri Warfel: Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs released inspection reports of 99 VA nursing homes across the country, and the results are staggering. Out of the 99 VA nursing homes inspected, 52 were cited for deficiencies that caused “actual harm” to veterans. Inspectors the nursing homes from April through December 2018. Eight facilities were found to…View Full Post
New York passes sweeping legislation impacting student loan servicers–By Sarah E. Pruett: On April 1, 2019, New York enacted Article 14-A, governing servicers of student loans owed by New York residents, in connection with New York’s fiscal year 2020 budget. Though sweeping legislation has been anticipated for some time, awareness of the extensive provisions of the new legislation are critical for student loan servicers nationwide. The legislation…View Full Post