Minnesota Lawyer

Attorney Eric Maassen plans to use a lot fewer paper clips and Post-its in the near future. The page markers once played a large role in distinguishing relevant information found in documents during case discovery, he said. But with the rise of e-discovery and new technology that requires fewer people poring over documents, Maassen, a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP in Milwaukee, soon might be able to give his eyes and office supplies a rest.

After the widespread failures associated with the Bernard Madoff scandal, Congress hastily passed the Dodd-Frank Act and empowered the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue rules enforcing certain provisions, including the whistle-blower bounty provision. In effect, Congress has deputized employees of publicly traded companies to police their employers’ conduct, offering handsome compensation to those who do so effectively.

Almost two years have passed since Congress amended the Americans with Disabilities Act, lowering the criteria to establish disability status in response to cramped judicial interpretations of the ADA.

The 2011 Litigation Trends Survey reveals an interesting and ongoing trend: Companies headquartered in the Midwest continue to be more aggressive in filing lawsuits than companies headquartered anywhere else in the country

A recent consumer protection action by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley against a Boston area pub and restaurant chain victimized by credit card hackers provides a road map for what the liability landscape could look like in future data breach litigation.

Employers — including law firms — need to take a closer look at their social media policies and how they enforce those policies in light of recent actions taken by the National Labor Relations Board.

Publicly traded companies and their subsidiaries and affiliates would be well-advised to start preparing now for the wave of Sarbanes-Oxley whistle-blower claims that is sweeping the nation.

If you are in the process of establishing an online presence for your business, the domain name you choose for your website might seem like the easiest item to check off a to-do list. But in fact the process of choosing and deploying a domain name can be specked with legal risks just the same as any other part of doing business.

Trade secret law, which some say harkens back to Roman times, emerged in the United States in its modern form almost 200 years ago. See Vickery v. Welch, 36 Mass. 523 (1837). On the other hand, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter emerged less than 10 years ago, yet all may drastically change how we view trade secrets.

Changes to workers' compensation laws in Minnesota are rare and slow in coming. In fact, the last significant overhaul of the state's workers' comp laws was almost two decades ago. But that doesn't mean there aren't ongoing workers' comp regulatory issues worth paying attention to for contractors, workers and others.