http://BrownFloridaAttorney.com/

Richard L. Brown Florida Attorney, 4445 Florida A1A STE 130, Vero Beach, FL (2026)

10/31/2020

Business Development Professionals Study Shows Widening Gender Pay Gap, Lack of Clarity on Promotional Paths.
The Revenue Enabler Compensation Study, last conducted in 2018 and which looks at the compensation and financial data related to marketing, business development and communication professionals in law firms, shows the pay gap between males and females widening, marketing budgets stagnating and that more than 75% of those surveyed felt they didn’t have a clear promotional path within their roles.

10/31/2020

Two Florida Firms Hit With Cyberattacks.
Two South Florida law firms confirmed Friday they encountered attempted data attacks, the latest in a string of cyber incidents, including some ransomware attacks, to roil the legal industry.

10/30/2020

Ex-Business Partner of Lev Parnas Pleads Guilty in Case Over Foreign Cash Funneled to US Campaigns.
David Correia, a business partner of former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy and making false statements, after striking a deal with Manhattan federal prosecutors in a criminal case accusing him of helping to funnel foreign money into U.S. elections.

10/30/2020

More Law Schools Nix Classes on Election Day.
Hundreds of law students won’t be heading to campus Nov. 3 or logging into classes via Zoom.

10/30/2020

Judge Shuts Down Last-Ditch Effort to Block Trump's Alleged Voter Intimidation Actions.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday effectively killed a lawsuit alleging actions by President Donald Trump and other top officials constituted voter intimidation ahead of next week’s presidential election.

10/29/2020

At least 18 former ABA presidents sign call to safeguard election process.
At least 18 former ABA presidents are among more than 100 civic leaders who signed a statement calling for officials to safeguard the election process and for Americans to “exercise patience, civility and restraint.”

The statement notes that some jurisdictions “may experience procedural difficulties in voting and vote tabulation,” giving rise to litigation and public demonstrations.

“We urge those in leadership positions to encourage peaceful participation in the election process and to condemn any threats or acts of violence,” the statement says. “We also urge all Americans to exercise patience, civility and restraint, so that the results of the elections can be determined in accordance with the rule of law and peacefully accepted by the American people.”

The statement calls on leaders to “take all necessary measures to safeguard the election process,” so Americans can have confidence in the outcome. Specifically, the statement calls on public officials to ensure that:

• All who are entitled to vote are able to do so safely and securely, without interference of intimidation.

• All ballots are counted in a lawful, accountable, efficient and well-organized process.

• Authorized election observers have adequate access to polling places.

• Election disputes are resolved in a fair, open and orderly way, in accordance with the law.

The joint appeal was organized by the World Justice Project. The signatures are being updated on a rolling basis. The American Bar Foundation is among the groups that signed the statement.

The former ABA presidents who signed, as of Oct. 28, are Dennis W. Archer, Hilarie Bass, Laurel G. Bellows, Paulette Brown, Bob Carlson, N. Lee Cooper, Michael S. Greco, Robert Grey Jr., William C. Hubbard, R. William Ide, Linda Klein, Carolyn Lamm, Karen J. Mathis, William H. Neukom, Roberta Cooper Ramo, James R. Silkenat, H. Thomas Wells Jr., and Stephen N. Zack.

Others who signed the statement are former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Department of State legal adviser John Bellinger III, New York State Bar Association President Scott Karson, former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith, and former FBI and CIA Director William Webster.

10/29/2020

ABA urges Congress to prioritize judicial security amid recent attacks on judge and court officer.
The ABA asked Congress on Tuesday to quickly take action to protect federal judges and their families in the wake of a July attack at the home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas of New Jersey.

In letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, ABA President Patricia Lee Refo urged Congress to focus on supplement funding to update essential security equipment and reexamine federal laws to make sure that they protect judges amid the rise of physical threats on social media.

Refo also encouraged legislation that would improve threat monitoring and require the U.S. Marshals Service and Administrative Office of the United States Courts to consult and update Congress “on a regular and continuing basis” on the judiciary’s security needs.

Refo says in an interview the ABA had been talking about the need to improve judicial security for about 15 years.

“As we continue to experience tragedies, we continue to speak out on something that we’ve talked about for a very long time,” Refo says. “There are a convergence of forces right now focused on this issue. So it’s appropriate for the nation’s lawyers to speak out in support of adequate security for our federal court employees.”

There are currently several proposals on judicial security pending in Congress, including bills in the House of Representatives and Senate. The federal judiciary is also pushing for funding for security enhancements to better protect judges.

The offices of Pelosi and McConnell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Over the summer, Salas’ 20-year-old son Daniel Anderl, was killed after a gunman approached her home dressed in a FedEx uniform and opened fire. The primary suspect is Roy Den Hollander, a misogynistic lawyer who was found dead in his car from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, about 140 miles north of Salas’ home.

In May, federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, 53, was shot and killed during the George Floyd protests in Oakland, California. In September, a court security officer was shot outside a courthouse in Phoenix, a facility that Refo said she visits frequently. The officer was wearing a protective vest, and the shooting was not fatal.

“Each of these events represents an egregious attack on the rule of law and on our democracy, which holds the independence of the judiciary to be the essential safeguard of a free society,” Refo wrote in the letters. “Steps need to be taken now to preserve [the] ability of our judges to decide matters that come before them without fear of reprisal or physical harm to themselves or their family.”

The bills H.R. 8591 in the House and S. 4711 in the Senate seek funding for enhanced security for judges and recommend measures that would prevent the publication of judges’ personally identifiable information.

In September, the federal judiciary asked the House and Senate appropriations committees to fund three security upgrades. That includes $7.2 million to install security systems at judges’ homes and $2 million per year to make sure that the systems are updated. The judiciary wants 1,000 new deputy U.S. marshals and $267 million in funding to upgrade security cameras at 650 courthouses and federal buildings.

From 2014 to 2018, the U.S. Marshals Service recorded an increase in threats to federal judges and other members of the federal judiciary, according to an analysis of the data.

In 2014, 768 threats or “inappropriate communications” were made. In 2019, there were 4,449, a 479% increase, the ABA Journal reported in October. The U.S. Marshals Service said the “increase in threats and inappropriate communications represents the improved effectiveness in data collection and reporting of potential threats.”

10/29/2020

Lawyer says he was stopped for jogging while Black; public defender held in contempt.
Lawyer says he was racially profiled while jogging

A Black lawyer says he was racially profiled during a late-night jog in his new gated community in Parkland, Florida. Lawyer Josiah Graham, 31, says a security SUV—driven by a Black guard—did a U-turn and began to follow him. Graham has written to the security company and is thinking of getting involved with the homeowners association. (Local 10 News)

Public defender held in contempt for trial no-show

A public defender in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has been found in contempt of court for refusing to appear in court for a client’s assault trial. Adam Steigerwald appeared virtually but not in person because of COVID-19 fears. Cases are rising in El Paso County, Colorado, and at least eight jail inmates have recently contracted the virus. (The Gazette)

Lawyer agrees to disbarment after guilty plea in fraud scheme

New Jersey lawyer Gregg Evan Jaclin has consented to disbarment after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice in a scheme that involved the creation of shell corporations. The companies were intended to be sold in market manipulation schemes, prosecutors said.

10/28/2020

Judge acknowledges his disparaging reference to governor was 'idiotic'.
In an April order that is just now gaining exposure, a judge in Mobile, Alabama, referred to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey as "Gov. MeMaw."

Judge James Patterson’s reference to Ivey was in an order informing the parties that a hearing was canceled because of the governor’s stay-at-home order, WPMI reports in a story noted by AL.com.

In the order, Patterson said he wouldn’t even host Zoom hearings “because that may require someone (staff person/IT person/lawyer who doesn’t have access to the technology?) to leave home and violate Gov. MeMaw’s order.”

Patterson apologized 12 days later, telling Ivey that he had “no earthly idea” the order would “go anywhere except to the lawyers in the case,” according to WPMI. Patterson said his actions were “idiotic” and a “poor attempt at humor.”

Patterson also sent his letter to the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and to leaders of the Alabama Circuit Judges Association and the Alabama District Judges Association.

Patterson isn’t the first person to use “Gov. MeMaw” to describe Ivey. According to a July opinion column in AL.com, people who disagree with the governor use the term when referring to her, but no one appears to call male politicians of about the same age “President PaPaw” or “Senator PaPaw.”

The term “Gov. MeMaw” is sexist and ageist, the columnist concluded.

10/28/2020

How to make better decisions with litigation analytics software.
If you’re a litigator, you know that knowledge is power. The more you know about the court, opposing counsel, expert witnesses, the parties and the judge, the better. This is because more information allows you to make sound, informed decisions to help you achieve a successful end result for your client.

It used to be that personal experience and word-of-mouth were the primary vehicles through which you obtained information about the players in a given case. For local cases, those reference points were often sufficient. But the further removed a case was from your local jurisdiction, the more difficult it often was to obtain actionable data points to make litigation decisions.

And even when litigation and court-related information eventually became accessible online through PACER, obtaining and reviewing court filings one by one was a time-consuming and tedious process. Certainly, there was the potential for court data and filings to provide a wealth of information about judges and their rulings, as well as litigants, attorneys, expert witnesses and others involved.

But in the absence of software that could quickly sift through the vast amounts of data, the significant upfront investment of time needed to make sense of the information simply didn’t pay off in the long run due to information overload.

At least, that’s the way it used to be. Today, it’s a different world. With the maturation of artificial intelligence software, advanced data analytics and sophisticated language processing are now possible on scales never before seen. As a result, litigation analytics software that uses artificial intelligence is readily available and are increasingly gaining in popularity.

According to the 2020 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, 45% of all responding lawyers reported that their firms had used legal analytics in the past year. Larger firms with over 100 attorneys were most likely to do so (68%), followed by firms with 10 to 49 lawyers (50%), firms of two to nine attorneys (40%) and coming in last were solo attorneys (31%). The top types of legal analytics used were to conduct legal research (29%), develop case or matter strategy (19%), understand judges (15%) and business development (14%).

The reason lawyers are using this type of software more often is because it solves the information overload problem. Using these tools, massive amounts of litigation data can be sifted through, organized and analyzed in mere seconds. After accessing relevant data sets, this software provides litigation attorneys with the information they need to make informed decisions.

It’s not surprising that in 2020, lawyers have many options when it comes to data analytics tools, and there are a number of different types of analytics software programs available that provide a host of insights into different aspects and players in the litigation process. For example, judicial analytics tools offer insight into the rulings and decision-making processes of judges and often provide insight into whether a particular type of motion will be successful if brought before a given judge.

Similarly, law firm analytics provide an analysis of data relating to a given firm’s prior litigation history, including case outcomes, clients represented and the lawyers assigned to given cases.

Company analytics include data regarding a company’s litigation history, such as lawsuits, outcomes and the law firms that handled the litigation. Expert witness analytics typically cover data about expert witnesses’ involvement in past litigation, including their CVs, which parties they testified for and whether their testimonies (or parts of it) were excluded.

There is also case analytics that focus on specific types of cases and include data on the number of cases filed, the length of the time that the case was pending in court and appearances in the cases.

Products and results may vary
Now that you have an understanding of the types of data covered, how the data is analyzed and how many lawyers are already using this software, let’s dive into the software. Here are a number of options to consider if your law firm is in the market for litigation analytics software.

When researching this type of software, it’s important to understand that each product only includes the analysis of certain types of data. Many cover federal district courts and some include federal appeals courts. In most cases, coverage at the state level is spotty at best, if it’s even included. Unless otherwise indicated, the pricing information for these products is not available on their websites.

Also of note is that results will vary greatly from one product to the next, as shown by the results of a recent study. Even so, many lawyers will find these products to be useful. So, without further ado, here’s a quick rundown of some of your options.

First, there are two products offered by LexisNexis: Lex Machina and LexisNexis Context. Lex Machina, which was acquired by LexisNexis a number of years ago, was one of the first litigation analytics products released. Its AI-based software analyzes court dockets and provides data on all aspects of litigation, including trends gleaned from data relating to judges and courts, law firms and attorneys, the parties and other strategic information, such as case damages for certain types of matters.

In comparison, Context relies on case law data that is analyzed using natural language processing. It provides insight into patterns gleaned from a judge’s rulings on a particular issue, the testimony across different cases by a specific expert witness, court analytics and a company’s litigation history. One new feature recently added to company analytics is the inclusion of additional information related to a specific inquiry, including news coverage and financial data. Context is available to subscribers of Lexis Advance.

Next, let’s take a look at Westlaw’s legal analytics products, Westlaw Edge and Thomson Reuters’ Monitor Suite. Westlaw Edge is Thomson Reuters’ advanced legal research product and it includes litigation analytics regarding judges, courts, attorneys, law firms and case types. It includes comparison tools for judges along with a newer feature, Precedent Analytics, which provides insight into trends obtained from a particular judge’s decisions.

Thomson Reuters’ Monitor Suite is business development software, first and foremost. But it also includes legal analytics tools that make it possible to predict case outcomes, obtain litigation data and trends, analyze IP filings and litigation data and compare and review information on attorneys, companies and law firms.

Next, there’s Premonition’s Legal Analytics. This software provides analytics on lawyers, judges and courts, companies, law firms and expert witnesses and arbitrators. The litigation analytics tools are marketed to a broad customer base that includes law enforcement, insurance claims adjustors and attorneys. One notable feature is that it provides real-time court monitoring and analytics on pending litigation matters, along with data on new cases as they’re filed.

Gavelytics is another contender. When I wrote about litigation analytics software two years ago, Gavelytics only provided judicial analytics. It has since expanded its database and now provides analytics on judges, law firms, lawyers and litigants. It boasts a large database of state litigation documents, which is one way it sets itself apart from other players in the market.

Next there’s Docket Navigator, which provides judge and opposing counsel analytics for patent, copyright, trademark and antitrust matters. For a single user, access to the patent database analytics starts at $79 per month; access to the copyright, trademark and antitrust databases costs an additional $46 for a single user per month for each single database library (e.g. the trademark library).

The monthly price per user decreases via a tiered system as more users are added, capping with an enterprise rate at $1,925 per month for access to the patent database and an additional $998 per month per additional database.

Another option is Docket Alarm, which also includes litigation analytics features. Docket Alarm was acquired by Fastcase in 2018, and in addition to providing docket tracking and case alerts, it also offers analytics that predict the likelihood of success in a given matter based on data regarding the judge, the technology area, the law firms involved and the parties. Flat-fee pricing is $99 per user per month if you’re interested in analytics, although other features such as case or docket alerts can be purchased à la carte.

Finally, legal analytics tools are sometimes included as part of a more comprehensive legal research subscription as well. For example, Bloomberg Law also includes legal analytics in its platform. It provides analytics for a number of different categories, including parties, judges, attorneys and law firms.

So those are some of your options when it comes to litigation analytics software. When it comes down to choosing the right product for your firm’s needs, make sure that you fully understand the jurisdictions included, the type of analytics provided, how the AI works, what type of data it relies on (dockets alone or other types of data such as news coverage, etc.) and how much it will cost your firm on a monthly or annual basis to use the software.

If a trial period is offered, make sure to take advantage of it; that’s the only way to ensure that it truly provides the tools your firm needs and that it does so in an intuitive manner. With that advice in mind, you’re sure to find a tool that will provide your litigation attorneys with the information and insight they need to make informed, actionable decisions and achieve the best outcomes for your firm’s clients.

10/28/2020

Afternoon Briefs: Trump faces suit over r**e denial; Biden opposes SCOTUS term limits.
Trump can be personally sued over r**e denial

A federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday refused to substitute the federal government as the defendant in a defamation suit filed against President Donald Trump by a woman who accused him of r**e. The plaintiff, journalist E. Jean Carroll, had alleged that Trump defamed her when he denied her r**e claim. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York said he couldn’t make the substitution because Trump wasn’t an employee of the government, and his allegedly defamatory statements weren’t in the scope of his employment. If Kaplan had allowed the substitution, the government likely could have ended the case by invoking sovereign immunity. (The Washington Post, the New York Times, Politico, the Oct. 27

10/27/2020

Afternoon Briefs: BigLaw partner in mansion rent dispute; 115 court employees have COVID-19.
BigLaw partner is accused of failing to pay mansion rent

A affidavit filed in housing court alleges that Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner A. Mark Getachew has stiffed his landlord on rent of $11,000 per month for a Connecticut mansion since arriving in June. Getachew and his wife said the pool, hot tub and waterfall weren’t functioning, and there was also a problem with the propane heating system, which all cost them about $45,000 to repair. They filed the suit seeking reimbursement after repair costs eclipsed rent due. The landlord—former Disney CFO Lawrence Rutkowski—claims that Getachew “unjustly fired” his pool repairman, who could have made repairs for no more than $3,000, and instead hired a repairman who charged about $30,000 for pool repairs. (The New York Post, GT Insider)

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