Do you remember when you were in elementary school and the teacher told you to write a 250 word essay? Or when you were supposed to write a two-page story about your summer vacation? Of course, for many of us, this was before the days of computer-assisted word counts and line spacing. As an aside [...]

A recent post by my colleagues, Faith Alejandro and Doug Rucker, raised the difficulty in representing clients where there may be divergent interests.  generally,  a lawyer cannot represent both sides.  This is not remarkable, and makes perfect sense.  But, of course,  legal fees are not cheap and sometimes parties can agree to a resolution and [...]

What is the purpose of trademark law?  To prevent unfair competition by (a) providing assurance that goods/services are of a certain quality/consistency, and, critically,  (b) assisting consumers in making purchasing decisions. For example, if I go to a McDonald’s restaurant in McLean or Richmond,  I am (generally) guaranteed the same type of restaurant service.  Again, [...]

In the latest occurrence of  juror idiocy, a St. Petersburg television station reports that Jacob Jock (real name) sent a FaceBook friend request to a female civil defendant (characterized as both young and attractive) during the course of trial.  The judge was not amused and Jock was dimissed from the jury.  Not content with his dismissal, Jock [...]

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS POST DESCRIBES LEGAL MATTERS HANDLED IN THE PAST BY OUR ATTORNEYS. OF COURSE, THE RESULTS WE HAVE ACHIEVED DEPEND UPON A VARIETY OF FACTORS UNIQUE TO EACH MATTER. BECAUSE EACH MATTER IS DIFFERENT, OUR PAST RESULTS CANNOT PREDICT OR GUARANTEE A SIMILAR RESULT IN THE FUTURE. My colleague, Mikhael Charnoff, [...]

As previously reported, I had the opportunity last night to moderate a discussion at the William & Mary School of Law on “P.R.O.T.E.C.T. IP Act: What Is It? Will It Pass? What Would Be Its Impact?”  The seminar was sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association Intellectual Property and Information Technology Section along with a host [...]

Here, are two recently reported stories highlighting the vagaries of FaceBook and other such social media outlets. First, enter Dana Thornton. Apparently, she was not fond of her ex-boyfriend and decided to create a FaceBook page for him. She is accused of creating a fake profile of her ex-boyfriend, a Parsippany, New Jersey narcotics detective, [...]

From the title of the blog, I should probably amend it to ask whether a lawyer “may” blog as opposed to “can” blog.  I jest because I find that application of the rules governing lawyer advertising seem designed for fifth graders and zombies with a pulse (obligatory Halloween reference). It would be remiss if I did [...]

Looking forward to participating in the Virginia Bar Association’s Fall Career Panel and Intellectual Property CLE Presentation at William & Mary School of Law on November 10, 2011. For the first half, I am a speaker on a Career Panel geared to law students. In the second half, I am moderating a panel on “P.R.O.T.E.C.T. [...]

Given the nationalization (and globalization) of various elements of our society over the past sixty years (e.g., WalMart, network television, interstate highways, Hollywood), the legal profession stands in stark contrast. While, to many, the crossing of a state border is an artificial construct, states have maintained a hold on the practice of lawyers, regulating anyone, [...]