Google’s venture capital arm, Google Ventures, is intent on disrupting the legal market.

First, it invested in LawPivot, a Quora-style Q&A platform for providing legal advice to businesses. LawPivot has now opened its platform to the public, allowing lawyers to answer businesses questions in a venue visible to the public.

This new twist on LawPivot’s business model will build up a valuable and publicly-accessible knowledgebase of legal advice for businesses to leverage. LawPivot will also provide lawyers a high-visibility platform to demonstrate their expertise to prospective clients.

Google Ventures has also recently invested in Rocket Lawyer, . . . [more]

Offered in Beta from the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the United States House of Representatives, this new website offers excellent access to the Code.

The US Code is an official consolidation of Federal US Laws by subject, and highly useful. Its various accessories, such as the indispensable Popular Name Tool make it a first resort of legal researchers. The online version, and various commercial print versions, are not considered official for US courts. However, this particular online version will likely be the most up to date version of the code, given its provenance. . . . [more]

According to the Google Docs Blog today, they’re introducing the ability to control access to documents at the page level:

Using page-level permissions, you can make some pages private for certain users while keeping other pages public for everyone to see. For instance, let’s say you have a Google Site that you’ve shared with your team and your manager. You can allow your team to see one set of pages, let your manager edit another set of pages, and keep yet another set of pages private for only you.

As is usually the case with innovations, they’re not available right . . . [more]

These are notes are from a panel presentation organized by the ABA Section on Labor and Employment Law at the American Bar Association 2011 conference in Toronto on Sunday, August 7, 2011. Panelists included Douglas E. Dexter, Farella Braun & Martell LLP, San Francisco; Roy L. Heenan, Heenan Blaikie LLP, Montreal; Mauricio Paez, Jones Day, New York; and Lauren Schwartzreich, Outten & Golden LLP, New York. The moderator was Cynthia E. Nance, Professor of Law, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas. Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my . . . [more]

First to BC where a committee of the Law Society of British Columbia, under the chairmanship of Gavin Hume, has produced the best and most thoughtful piece on how to practice ethically and effectively using cloud computing. We’ve referred in the past to helpful work done by the Bar Association in North Carolina and the ABA’s 20/20 Commission – see Jack Newton’s posts from May and July, as well as Connie’s and Omar’s take on last week’s ABA discussion.

At the Canadian Lawyer, David Paul has a good tip sheet of practical advice on the intelligent use . . . [more]

Last week I wrote about the growing patent battle between Google and a wide variety of foes, including Apple, Microsoft and Oracle. These companies have a common enemy – Google’s Android – and are willing go to enormous lengths to hamper Android’s growing dominance.

Today, Google announced it has taken out a $12.5B insurance policy against the threat of patent litigation by acquiring Motorola Mobility. While Motorola Mobility has a considerable business in mobile phones (it makes the popular Droid smartphone line), Google’s announcement makes it clear the acquisition was all about the 14,600 granted and 6,700 pending patents . . . [more]

These are notes are from a panel discussion session at the American Bar Association 2011 conference in Toronto on Saturday, August 6, 2011. Panelists included Dr. Paolo Balboni, Director, European Privacy Association, Milan, Italy; the Honorable Julie Brill, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC; Stuart Ingis, Venable LLP, Washington, DC, and Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. The session was moderated by Saira Nayak, Nayak Strategies, Redmond, WA. Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own. I welcome your comments and follow-up thoughts!

Introduction

At practicePRO we’ve seen a huge increase in the amount of fraud attempts against lawyers involving bad cheques. Mainly these are done by email (though sometimes its a phone call, letter, or even a visit in person) and no doubt all lawyers reading this will be familiar by now with the scenarios: an attempt to collect on a collaborative family law settlement, a commercial debt owing, or an employee injury settlement. The aim is always the same: to get a lawyer to run a counterfeit cheque through their trust account.

It sometimes seems like a hopeless task to put a . . . [more]

These are notes from a talk by the Honorable Herbert B. Dixon, Jr. trial judge of the Washington DC Superior Court, followed by a panel discussion at the American Bar Association 2011 conference in Toronto last Saturday. Panelists included Judge Dixon; the Honorable Bernice B. Donald, Western District of Tennessee; Cynthia Gray, Esq. of Chicago, Illinois who counsels judges; Marla N. Greenstein of Anchorage, Alaska, who is involved in judicial conduct regulation; and G. Michael Witte who is Indiana Disciplinary Commission Executive Secretary and a former judge. The session was moderated by the Honorable Annette Scieszinski, Albia, . . . [more]

Apparently some of the British rioters have been communicating using Blackberrys. Which resulted in a suggestion that Blackberry should suspend its instant messaging service until things quiet down.

That kind of reaction never ceases to amaze me. 

As if when that was shut down, the riots and destruction would stop because the malfeasants couldn’t communicate any more. And of course consider the effect on the average Blackberry user who is without service as a result. Attempts to shut the entire internet have not stopped people from doing what they are doing, let alone 1 mode of communication. That’s no different . . . [more]

Does anyone know if there exists a comparison tool regarding the coverage of the major online subscription databases (such as Quicklaw and Westlaw)? I am envisioning a simple tool that would indicate their coverage of various courts over time, so one could know at a glance which database to consult for finding a particular case. I know that each database documents its own scope, but I was wondering if anyone out there has undertaken the project of compiling that information into a quick comparison chart. I realize that it would be a lot of work to keep up-to-date, but I . . . [more]

It sounds like a scary title, and it probably is. It had Lee Berlik saying,

Will this be my last tweet? Attending “the Perils of Social Media”

Dominique Sheldon of Wildman Harrold spoke about behavioral advertising, and the legal risk it can entail. There can often be unintended consequences as the result of business use of social media.

Clients will want to advertise online, irrespective of the potential for backlash. It’s a growing market, and it’s where consumers are spending their time. Zenith predicts an explosive growth of online advertising in the next few years,

…internet advertising continues to