This is part one of a three-piece series on substance abuse in the legal profession. Stay tuned to Legal Current in the coming weeks for posts two and three. The legal community has been harboring an open secret for decades: substance abuse among practicing lawyers is rampant. In 2016 the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and …
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The Internet of Tomatoes on the Blockchain
While much of the legal industry has been overwhelmed by the hype surrounding blockchain, a lot of the attention has focused on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs). But at Thomson Reuters innovation lab in Boston last week, a farmer and the co-creator of a local food partnership spoke about how the Internet of Things …
Antitrust Under Trump
Developments this week in two mega-mergers are raising questions about the Trump administration’s approach to corporate mergers. T-Mobile and Sprint announced plans to merge after similar plans were benched in 2014 over concerns the Obama administration would oppose the merger. And closing arguments were held in the Justice Department’s antitrust trial seeking to block the …
USTR’s 2018 Special 301 Report: Combating International Trade in Fakes
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued the 2018 “Special 301 Report” on April 27, which identified 36 countries whose intellectual property (IP) systems present the greatest challenges to U.S. interests and deserve a higher degree of bilateral engagement. The report further identified 19 countries that must take steps to improve their customs agencies’ IP enforcement …
#CLOC2018: A Conversation with Cisco Systems’ Mark Chandler
The 2018 Annual CLOC Institute recently concluded and there were many takeaways and conversations over the course of four days. I was fortunate to co-moderate, along with Susan Lambreth, principal at Law Vision, an engaging conversation with Mark Chandler, general counsel for Cisco Systems. The session opened with CLOC Board Member Jeff Franke detailing the …
#CLOC2018: Building a Mature Legal Operations Function
The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) states that legal operations is a multi-disciplinary function that optimizes legal services delivery to a business or government entity by focusing on core competencies, which are broken into three levels: foundational, advanced and mature. Regardless of where your legal department stands in relation to these competencies, the session titled …
CLOC 2018: Leveraging Data and Insights to Drive High Performance
The Corporate Legal Operations Consortium, maybe better known as CLOC, has developed a list of Legal Operations Core Competencies. At the 2018 Annual Corporate Legal Operations Institute, a workshop focused on three of those core competencies: financial management; vendor management; and data analytics. The workshop, Legal Ops Dashboard Workshop: Leveraging Data and Insights to Drive …
The Internet of Things and Children’s Privacy
Advances in technology have created all kinds of internet-connected toys for children that hold the promise of machine learning, interaction, and access to personal data for both kids and parents. But with these devices also risk the exposure of children’s voices, images, and data to anyone. At the recent ABA Antitrust Spring meeting, Phyllis Marcus …
CLOC 2018: Legal Operations Key to the Modern Law Department
The role of the modern legal department has changed dramatically. Corporate law departments are no longer being viewed as a cost center that reacts to legal needs and requests from the organization, but are pro-active in working to support business goals and add value to the organization leading to substantial changes in the role of …
Thomson Reuters Recognizes Springfield Police Department with Everyday Heroes Award
Every single day, law enforcement and government investigative professionals, and their counterparts in the private sector protect all of us from people who might do harm to our persons or property. They do so quietly, and without regard to fame or fortune. We’re proud to support this work with investigative tools, including CLEAR and Westlaw …
