Articles

Lewinski: Challenged to “Locke” into a property rights resolution

In the curriculum for business ethics that I teach to students at Butler University’s Lacy School of Business, we cover John Locke and his notion of private property rights – natural rights that existed for each individual in the state of nature. Locke contended that men left that state of nature, in part, because the challenge of enforcing those rights led to a state of war. In more than 30 years of real estate litigation practice, I have seen what often looks like that state of war play out between litigants.

Read More

Living Fit: A few helpful hints for breaking and making habits

Some habits are great. Many that we in the legal profession have created are harmful. Once habits are formed, they are difficult to break because they are second nature — we forget we are doing them. The process is set in motion before you realize, “I’m doing it again.”

Read More

Stafford: 29 lawyers and a judge walk into a brewpub …

Sorry, there’s no punchline. That’s just what we’re looking forward to on Wednesday, May 8, when we will celebrate Indiana Lawyer’s 2019 Leadership in Law honorees and past award recipients at a special recognition event at TwoDEEP Brewing in Indianapolis. We hope to see you there!

Read More

Parrish: Commencement calls for review of annual milestones

This weekend is a time of celebration in Bloomington, as we welcome friends and family of the Class of 2019 for our annual commencement ceremony. It’s an important milestone in our students’ lives. Commencement is also a time for looking back. The past year saw several significant milestones for the IU Maurer School of Law. I’d like to touch on just a few of them.

Read More

Wilson & Oxyer: With CBD legal, is THC in the workplace A-OK?

As the legality of hemp, CBD oil, marijuana and other substances containing THC continues to change, questions arise relating to an employer’s options when THC is detected on a drug screen and whether an employer must accommodate the use of legal THC-containing substances.

Read More

Cole: Congress to the rescue in race to save software patents

When it often takes three to five years to secure a patent, you don’t want to empty your patent application pipeline if you think the law will change in the near term. And now it is looking increasingly likely that Congress will step in and bring order to the current chaos.

Read More

Roach & Hiler: Top 10 technology licensing pitfalls

While license agreements are often complex, we have seen many common pitfalls in licenses for patents and know-how (trademark and copyright licenses present similar issues, but are beyond the scope of this article). A “top 10” is a somewhat arbitrary list, but here goes:

Read More

Quick: Taking the time to tweak and update your law firm brand

Wouldn’t it be great if your law firm brand became synonymous with your practice areas? Let’s assume you already have what you consider a strong brand. We talked to several lawyers who possess strong brands and other experts who agree that even if you have a strong brand, it still must evolve.

Read More

Law: Zany Zillow ‘Zestimates’ zing homeowners

While the 7th Circuit’s decision in Patel v. Zillow likely reinforces what many homeowners and potential homebuyers likely believed about the accuracy of Zillow’s Zestimates or the comparable estimate tools provided by websites such as Trulia and Realtor.com, what it shows about the changing technological market for information on residential homes is equally telling.

Read More

Doell & Sen: Are opportunity zones really creating opportunities?

Since the Opportunity Zones program became law more than one year ago, curiosity has grown among investors. Yet, a press release from Preqin, a company providing data, solutions and insights for alternative asset professionals, suggests that curiosity concerning Opportunity Zones isn’t necessarily translating into sizeable dollar figures.

Read More

Trimble: Do alternative legal communities challenge traditional bars?

Almost every day I have to remind myself that I have the implicit biases and attitudes of a sixty-something white guy. In our rapidly changing legal profession, there is no shortage of change that is heading-spinning for most senior lawyers. If we don’t open our minds and embrace change, our profession will pass us by. The rise of so-called alternative legal communities is one such example.

Read More

Austin: Employer handbook guidance after Boeing decision

For most of the 2000s, the National Labor Relations Board(NLRB) reviewed facially neutral work rules under an employee-friendly standard, leaving companies worried that employees could construe neutral rules to interfere with protected activities under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). However, in December 2017, the NLRB overruled the employee-friendly standard and established a new balancing test in The Boeing Company, 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017), and created three categories of work rules.

Read More