During this unprecedented time, I have been asked by a number of clients if they should alter their marketing plans. My answer is “Yes, but don’t stop marketing.” Further, attorneys — like many other businesses — while still doing at least partial in-person interaction, should consider increasing certain aspects of contact with customers.
Environmental tort actions fall under the larger rubric of toxic torts and involve personal injury and property damage claims for releases of environmental contamination. But what happens when, as they often do, the regulatory cleanup takes years or even decades?
As the effects of data breaches have come to light over the last few decades, individual states and the federal government have taken action to attempt to bolster data security practices.
Personal and work lives have changed drastically in 2020, and we are only halfway through the year! If nothing else, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how flexible and resilient we need to and can be. It has also reminded us of how “essential” legal services are. What do you do when you are deemed “essential” during a global pandemic? You get creative.
In light of excessive police violence, I call on my fellow barristers, who took the same oath as I, to begin living that oath. “I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless, the oppressed or those who cannot afford adequate legal assistance; so help me God.”
As his judging life comes to a crossroads, Judge John Baker sees similarities between his first days in small claims court and his last days now on the Court of Appeals.
What a stressful year this has been! I think you now deserve to have some fun with your colleagues. That is why I hope you will join us at the DRI Annual Meeting in October.
Mid-March was likely the last time you saw your loved one in a senior living facility face-to-face. The coronavirus pandemic has led most nursing homes to close their doors or, at the very least, require stringent temperature checks and other precautions for urgent visits. As a result, families are fearful and anxious about the care their relatives are receiving and whether they will be exposed to the virus. Here are some tips for families that may help ease their fears.
Movies provide a reminder that helps explain the emotional national outrage after the brutal death of George Floyd.
Here are five key tips that will help improve your work-from-home experience. Even if you are starting to return to the office, these tips will remain helpful when the need to work remotely arises, and some will even come in quite handy in the office.
The incoming dean of Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law says in a letter today that she has a duty and obligation as the school’s first black leader to speak out in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and protests that followed.
Say what you will about Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, he is a man of convictions. But for purposes of this earned polemic, let’s set aside the wrongful convictions that are still being overturned from Hill’s years as Elkhart County prosecutor. Instead, let’s focus on his time as AG and explore Hill’s personal and political convictions.
For my column this edition I have the pleasure of introducing a friend, Cordell Parvin, who is one of America’s premier lawyer career coaches. In late February, just before the pandemic, I sat down with Cordell to get his take on a number of questions that had been simmering in my mind. I share that exchange with you now.
I cannot pretend to completely understand all the challenges new Indiana lawyers will face given the uncertainty of COVID-19. Despite this unprecedented set of circumstances, however, there are many lessons that are applicable not only in times of videoconferencing and home offices, but in future years of practice.
This article looks at the practice of disclosing treating physicians as experts and the law underlying the reasons that treating physicians and their opinions should be disclosed in the course of discovery.
Skeleton crews at the office and the general distraction of the developing COVID-19 situation create windows of opportunity for social engineering tactics such as phishing. Now is a good time to remind your team that they are the first, and in some cases, the only line of defense against social engineering.
There was a great article in the New York Times on May 15 entitled “Movie Theaters Are on the Brink. Can Wine and Cheese Save Them?” The writer, James B. Stewart, pointed out several things that should scare all movie fans.
We return to the scenario presented in a previous article, “Premortem validation could help avert will, estate contests” (Indiana Lawyer, Oct. 16, 2019). Recall that the mother (“mom”) changed her will six months before her death, giving the entire estate to her caregiver-daughter (“daughter”) and leaving nothing for her out-of-town son (“son”). Since Indiana has not yet enacted pre-mortem validation statutes for wills or trusts, daughter and son must argue the validity of the final will in court after mom has passed. This article discusses how the scenario (and a similar one dealing with a revocable trust) might play out under current Indiana law.
Often, attorneys want to hit the ground running right out of law school and acquire as many clients as fast as they can. This sometimes includes getting involved in as many groups as you can fit into your schedule. While these are all good things to start developing immediately, the first and most important thing you want to accomplish is becoming a great lawyer.
This article is part two of a two-part series exploring marital privilege at the Indiana state and federal levels.