SecureDocs will present a complimentary webinar designed for professionals who are interested in understanding, identifying, and mitigating potential data breach disasters before they occur.

The webinar will be Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 11 a.m. PST.

Featured speaker John P. Lucich, president at High Tech Crime Network, will present an analysis of the current cyberattack landscape and give detailed instructions on what businesses can do to prevent both internal data leaks, and external attacks.

During this 60-minute webinar, Lucich will introduce and examine critical topics regarding corporate data security, including:

-The common reasons why network intrusions occur
-The direct and indirect impact of a security incident on a business
-The challenges and misconceptions regarding network defense that lead to a false sense of security amongst organizations
-Likely sources of security breaches and what businesses can do to protect against them

Register for the webinar.

From a SecureDocs release:

About SecureDocs Virtual Data Room:
SecureDocs Virtual Data Room is the flagship product of SecureDocs, Inc. The data room is designed for businesses raising funds, going through M&A, licensing Intellectual Property, and those who recognize the importance of safeguarding their most critical business documentation. All SecureDocs, Inc. suite products are easy-to-use solutions that keep businesses organized and ready for opportunity, without breaking the bank. Created by the engineers and team who helped develop GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, AppFolio, and Rightscale, the team is dedicated to building software solutions that are highly secure, easily adopted, and affordable for any type or size of business. For more information about the company visit http://www.securedocs.com or http://www.contractworks.com.

About John P. Lucich:
John P. Lucich is a seventeen year veteran of law enforcement and spent more than eight years with the New Jersey General’s Office Organized Crime Racketeering and Corruption Bureau, seizing and analyzing computers in support of a variety of criminal offenses. Mr. Lucich is a nationally recognized expert, lecturer and author on a variety of high tech crime investigations and computer forensics. He has been a regular guest on the Nancy Grace Show, Fox News, Headline News and many other shows, sharing his expertise. Mr. Lucich testified as an expert witness before the United States Congress in 1993 and delivered a keynote speech along with Bill Gates and General Colin Powell at CAWorld96.

Paul Matecki has joined Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C. in St. Louis as of counsel and a member of the firm’s Securities & Financial Services industry group.

Matecki has more than three decades of experience counseling financial services firms, according to a release from the firm. He most recently served as general counsel for Raymond James Financial Inc., leading all legal and corporate governance functions for the public bank holding company.

The firm’s release continues:

“We are thrilled to welcome Paul to Greensfelder to add to our already deep bench of experienced attorneys with diverse knowledge and background in business, accounting and the securities industry,” said Christopher A. Pickett, an Officer and leader of the firm’s Securities & Financial Services industry group. “Paul brings unique business and legal insights, with a particular focus on compliance and regulatory issues, that will be great assets to our growing group of clients including financial institutions and wealth management groups, broker-dealers and investment advisors.”

Mr. Matecki said, “I am grateful for the opportunity to join Greensfelder and its team of experienced securities and financial services attorneys. I also look forward to helping the firm continue to grow and enhance its already robust service offerings for its financial industry clients in the region and throughout the nation.”

Mr. Matecki has worked extensively on securities litigation and regulatory matters, as well as issues of corporate governance. In his 27 years with Raymond James Financial Inc., Mr. Matecki was heavily involved in resolving regulatory actions by the SEC, FINRA and all 50 states to significant advantage for the firm, as well as trying and managing litigation matters to successful resolution. He also worked to establish a culture of compliance and risk reduction while strengthening the firm’s legal and business infrastructure and closed multiple M&A transactions, helping the firm expand to become one of the industry’s largest.

A former member of the General Counsel Committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), Mr. Matecki has been a frequent presenter at conferences hosted by SIFMA. He also has been an active member and speaker for the Association of Corporate Counsel and previously served on the FINRA National Arbitration and Mediation Committee, NYSE Supervisors’ Continuing Education Training Committee, and SIFMA Arbitration and State Regulation and Legislation Committees.

Mr. Matecki earned his law degree from Saint Louis University School of Law and also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Grinnell College.

The New York City Bar will host a special reception for in-house counsel on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 6-7:30 p.m. The event will be at 42 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036.

The event will be an opportunity for counsel to network with other in-house counsel and members of the City Bar’s Executive Committee.

“If you’re already a member, please bring an in-house colleague that is not a member to help share the benefits of membership,” the City Bar says on its website. “Enjoy drinks and hors d’oeuvres while networking with your peers in our landmark building.”

Making remarks will be:

• Darryl Gibbs, Lead Director & Associate General Counsel at AXA US: Chair, In-House Counsel Committee, New York City Bar Association
• Mei Lin Kwan – Gett , Deputy General Counsel & Global Head of Litigation, Citigroup
• Bret Parker, Executive Director, New York City Bar Association

Get more information and register.

The executive director of the Federal Bank of Atlanta’s Center for Financial Innovation and Stability released a paper on smart contracts and their potential to change traditional legal proceedings, finding: “In many circumstances, smart contracts may eventually be a more efficient way of contracting than traditional paper contracts.”

The Cointelegraph reports that Larry Wall, in his paper titled “Smart Contracts in a Complex World,” explored the inefficiency of paper contracts in legal proceedings, which is primarily caused by ambiguity in the language of the law.

“The majority of contracts that are formed between two parties to ensure the fulfilment of the established agreements are often incomplete, because of the difficulty in stating every possible situation where the contract can be utilized,” according to the Cointelegraph article.

“Wall believes smart contracts demonstrate a series of major advantages of paper contracts,” it continues.

Read the article.

Image by Intropin

Mylan NV has announced it will pay $465 million to settle questions of whether it underpaid U.S. government healthcare programs by misclassifying its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment, Reuters is reporting. The announcement comes as the company is under intense scrutiny after a series of drastic price increases.

“Mylan has been lambasted by consumers and lawmakers for raising prices on the lifesaving EpiPen sixfold to over $600 for a package of two in less than a decade, making the devices unaffordable for a growing number of families,” writes Deena Beasley.

At issue is whether Mylan made more money on EpiPen than warranted from state Medicaid programs by having it classified as a generic product. That classification yielded much smaller rebates to the government health plans. Beasley explains that the Medicaid rebate for a generic prescription drug is 13 percent, compared with a minimum 23.1 percent for a branded drug.

Read the article.

In what it described as a case of first impression, the Northern District of California ruled that a professional liability policy that excluded the insured’s “assumption of liability obligations in a contract or agreement” did not extend to breach of warranty or false advertising claims arising out of a genetic data testing company’s marketing and sale of a personal genome service, reports Mary McCutcheon of Farella Braun + Martel LLP.

She writes in the article on the firm’s website that Ironshore Specialty Ins. Co. v. 23andMe, Inc. is noteworthy by the fact that the insurer challenged coverage on this ground.

“While this issue apparently has never been decided in the context of a professional liability policy, both case law and custom and practice recognize that the same phrase used in a general liability policy applies only to liabilities ‘assumed,’ i.e. created by, a contractual indemnity agreement,” according to McCutcheon.

Read the article.

New York State has proposed a new regulation that requires insurance companies, banks, and other financial services institutions regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program designed to protect consumers and ensure the safety and soundness of New York State’s financial services industry, reports Jason O. Balogh, a partner with Hickey Smith LLP.

If enacted, this change would bring the first statewide regulation mandating that insurance companies, banks, and other financial institutions create such a program. The regulation would set forth fairly general minimum standards, Balogh explains in the article published on the firm’s website.

“Among other requirements, under the proposed regulation, insurance companies, banks, and other financial institutions would be required to set out detailed plans for handling data breaches, increase their monitoring of how third-party vendors handle and secure data, and appoint a chief information security officer. While many insurance companies, banks, and other financial institutions will find that elements of the proposed regulation are similar to those found in existing regulatory and technical guidance, they have not previously been required as a matter of law,” Balogh writes.

Read the article.

Attorneys can now take a “walk down the hall” anytime to obtain legal know-how from experts who are part of Practical Law’s team of over 200 attorney editors. Thomson Reuters Practical Law today launched a new podcast called “Down the Hall with Practical Law.”

The podcast is hosted by Renee Karibi-Whyte, marketing director of Practical Law.

“The value that Practical Law brings to our customers really starts with the expertise and experience of our people, and we want to make our people more accessible, placing them just ‘down the hall’ to share timely views on significant legal trends and topics,” said Karibi-Whyte. “’Down the Hall with Practical Law’ offers another convenient vehicle through which attorneys can obtain the most up-to-date legal know-how that can save them time and increase their efficiency. We are looking forward to extending our mission of sharing valuable resources to make attorneys’ lives easier through our new podcast.”

Some of the initial topics to be covered on “Down the Hall with Practical Law” include: understanding the legal landscape of privacy and data security, featuring Mel Gates, senior legal editor, Privacy and Data Security at Practical Law; avoiding frequent mistakes startups make, featuring Joe Green, senior legal editor and principal member of the Practical Law Startup Resource Group; and employment handbook hot topics, featuring Kate Bally, director of Practical Law’s Labor & Employment Service. Special guests from outside of Practical Law will also be featured in upcoming episodes.

Podcast episodes will be released monthly. The podcast can also be found on iTunes.

Listen to the podcast.

The Expert Institute has opened its 2016 Best Legal Blog Contest and is accepting votes.

Over the past month, the Institute has received thousands of nominations for the contest and has narrowed the field to more than 500 blogs, listed by category.

“We’ve broken our nominees into nine different categories – ranging from criminal law to legal technology – pitting them against each other in a head-to-head contest judged by the authority that matters most: their readers,” the Institute says on its website.

Blogs will be ranked within their category by the number of votes they receive. The three blogs that receive the most votes overall will win prizes as well as a permanent spot on the Institute’s Best Legal Blogs page. Readers can submit one vote per blog, but can vote for as many blogs as they like across every category.

The polls will be open until Nov. 14, at 12 a.m. EST.

See nominees and cast votes.

Dykema, a national law firm, announced the addition of Craig Woods to its Commercial Litigation Practice Group and Dental Service Organizations Industry Group as a member in the firm’s Dallas office. Prior to joining Dykema, Woods practiced at the Dallas office of Greenberg Traurig LLP.

In a release, the firm said Woods has a national practice that focuses on serving clients on a broad range of matters, including contractual disputes, breach of fiduciary duty, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, covenants not to compete, injunctive actions, fraud and deceptive trade practices, products liability litigation, medical device litigation, financial services litigation and complex business litigation. In addition to handling individual claims, he also has experience litigating disputes in the context of class action lawsuits.

The firm’s release continues:

Woods also has considerable experience advising Dental Service Organizations (DSOs), Medical Service Organizations (MSOs), large practice groups, dentists and other health care providers in various corporate and regulatory matters, including the preparation of regulatory compliant business agreements between DSOs and their affiliated practices and dentists. He also has substantial experience in complex commercial, business and health care law where he has advised and represented Fortune 500 and industry-leading dental, medical and health care companies.

“We are extremely excited to welcome Craig to our DSO team and commercial litigation practice,” said Chris Kratovil, Office Managing Member of the Firm’s Dallas office and Assistant Leader of Dykema’s Commercial Litigation Practice Group. “Craig’s extensive background litigating cases for a wide variety of clients enhances our bench strength in Dallas, and his experience will be a great benefit to the firm’s ever-expanding DSO Industry Group, as well as its clients.”

Woods, who has been recognized in Texas Super Lawyers as a Rising Star each year since 2010, received a J.D., cum laude, from the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, as well an M.S. in Finance, and a B.B.A., cum laude, in Financial Management and Information Systems from Texas A&M University.

Patty Crawford, the Baylor University Title IX coordinator who recently resigned from the university, says Baylor set her up to fail from the beginning. Crawford appeared on “CBS This Morning” with her attorney Rogge Dunn of Dallas’ Clouse Dunn LLP to discuss her decision to leave.

On its website, Androvett Legal Media & Marketing reported on the interview:

“Ms. Crawford wants to make sure her story is told so the public knows what is really going on at Baylor and women there can receive the protection they deserve,” says Dunn.

Crawford claims Baylor didn’t allow her to fulfill her responsibilities as Title IX coordinator then retaliated against her for fighting discrimination.

“I continued to work very hard, and the harder I worked the more resistance I received from senior leadership,” Crawford told CBS.

Baylor University hired Crawford in November 2014 to handle Title IX directives and the university’s sexual discrimination policies, including sexual assault complaints. The university faced multiple lawsuits and accusations of ignoring sexual assault claims. Baylor’s Board of Regents hired Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton to conduct an investigation that led to a scathing report blasting the university for failing to adequately respond to the complaints. In response to the report, university president Ken Starr and head football coach Art Briles were removed, and athletic director Ian McCaw resigned. Pepper Hamilton gave the university more than 100 recommended improvements to its Title IX policies, which the university has adopted as mandates.

“Patty is justifiably proud of what she was able to accomplish, but also profoundly troubled by what she views as Baylor’s efforts to impede her ability to fully perform her Title IX responsibilities,” says Dunn.

Board certified commercial litigation attorney Bruce W. Bowman Jr. has been named president and managing shareholder of the Dallas-based trial and appellate law firm Godwin Bowman & Martinez PC, effective Oct. 1, 2016.

“We are pleased that Bruce has agreed to assume the positions of President and Managing Shareholder,” says Godwin Bowman & Martinez Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Donald E. Godwin. “Our firm has always had a reputation for strong leadership, and that reputation has been strengthened in recent years by Bruce’s involvement in our leadership group as Executive Vice President and General Counsel.”

Godwin will continue as chairman and CEO of the firm, while Jenny L. Martinez will remain in the role of executive vice president, while maintaining her duties as secretary/treasurer of the firm. In addition to his responsibilities as president and managing shareholder, Bowman will continue to serve as general counsel of Godwin Bowman & Martinez as well as co-chair of the firm’s Commercial Litigation Section.

The firm’s release continues:

Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, Mr. Bowman is a highly respected litigator who has successfully handled litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants for many years, primarily in business disputes. His work has included the recovery of assets from trusts in prolonged trust and bankruptcy litigation and defending against trade secret allegations involving oil field technology in state and federal courts. He also has successfully defended directors, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, and other professionals in many areas of business. In addition to trying hundreds of cases to verdict, he has handled numerous arbitrations, mediations and appeals before the Texas Supreme Court, federal appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Reflecting the excellence of his practice, Mr. Bowman is an 11-time recipient of Texas Super Lawyers honors from Thomson Reuters, and he has been rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer rating for legal skills and ethics. He also has achieved a 10.0 rating from AVVO, the company’s highest attorney rating.

Carl Ferrer, chief executive of advertising website Backpage.com, was arrested on Thursday on criminal charges including pimping, as authorities investigate the company which has been accused of facilitating sex trafficking of minors, according to a Reuters report.

“Backpage, the second-largest U.S. online classified ad service after Craigslist, has faced scrutiny from the U.S. Senate as well as civil lawsuits over allegations that the site facilitates sex trafficking, especially of children,” reports Dan Levine for Reuters.

The California AG’s office also announced a criminal charge against the controlling shareholders of Backpage.com, Michael Lacey and James Larkin. Ford said warrants have been issued for Lacey and Larkin but they are not in custody. Ferrer was custody in Houston on a California warrant.

Read the article.

A Dallas Morning News profile of Dallas Cowboys general counsel Jason Cohen tells how the New Jersey native thought his job interview with team owner Jerry Jones was going pretty well until Jones asked him if he was a Cowboys fan. He confessed to being a Giants fan.

“Mr. Jones, if I am selected to be your general counsel, I’m going to need to be in a position where I tell you the truth and tell you things you don’t want to hear and not sugar-coat anything,” Cohen replied, according to the profile by Mark Curriden of The Texas Lawbook. Jones brought him onto the legal team.

In his three years with the Cowboys, Cohen has handled big deals for the Cowboys and the Jones family, including negotiating with AT&T over naming rights for the team’s stadium, advising the Jones family on the development of its new practice facility and headquarters, working on contracts for players and coaches, and negotiating media and sponsorship deals.

Read the article.

Apple Inc. won an appeals court ruling that reinstates a patent-infringement verdict it won against Samsung Electronics Co., including for its slide-to-unlock feature for smartphones and tablets, reports Bloomberg.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overruled a three-judge panel, saying the lower court was wrong to throw out the $119.6 million verdict in February. The 8-3 ruling sent the case back to the trial judge to consider whether the judgment should be increased based on any intentional infringement by Samsung, writes Susan Decker.

“The decision Friday comes less than a week before the U.S. Supreme Court considers another case Apple had filed against Samsung. That case, to be argued Tuesday in Washington, focuses on how much Samsung should pay for copying patented designs for Apple’s iPhone,” according to the Bloomberg report.

Read the article.

An article in Norton Rose Fulbright’s Data Protection Report discusses a recent ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that affirmed a decision in Silverpop Systems, Inc. v. Leading Market Technologies, Inc., finding that all damages flowing from a vendor’s data breach were barred by a standard provision in IT service contracts, disclaiming all liability for consequential damages.

Matthew Spohn and David Navetta explain that the court’s analysis could apply to almost any breach of data provided to a vendor under an IT service contract, and highlights the need to carefully scrutinize a proposed waiver of consequential damages when confidential or sensitive data is involved in the contract.

“In contracting for IT services, it is important for purchasers to thoughtfully consider the risks of harm presented by the services, and then negotiate terms that appropriately allocate those risks between the parties.  This requires both parties to reconsider the standard vendor-friendly term waiving all consequential damages,” the authors write.

Read the article.

In what may be a trend, several courts around the country this year have embraced strict interpretations of non-compete agreements, refusing to blue pencil or equitably reform overbroad or unreasonable clauses in non-compete agreements, according to an article by Christopher Lindstrom and Emily Fox in Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP’s Non-Compete Law blog.

The explain that courts traditionally have exercised the doctrine of equitable reformation to re-write provisions to render them reasonable, or at the very least, strike unreasonable provisions to save those that are reasonable.

They discuss cases from Nevada, North Carolina and New York that illustrate their point.

Read the article.

The enactment of new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations governing unmanned aircraft systems – or “drones” – has companies and consumers alike dreaming of the stuff of science fiction, but if the new regulations are any indication, the FAA is in no rush to see those dreams become reality, write Sarah L. Bruno, Anthony V. Lupo and Daniel B. Jasnow of Arent Fox LLP.

The new regulations permit use of drones for some commercial purposes, but the FAA declined to clear the way for package delivery by drone, according to the article on the firm’s Behind the Scenes blog.

“Although not a blank check for commercial interests, the FAA’s new rule on commercial drone use likely signals just the beginning of a long regulatory debate over the commercial use of unmanned aircraft, as well as the potential safety and privacy concerns that should, or should not, influence such a debate,” the authors write.

Read the article.

The value of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions is primarily based on their ability to standardize the contract authoring process through clause and contract templates and self-service wizards, and guide new contracts through a standard workflow through to signature and execution, according to an article published by Seal Software on its website.

Many CLM solutions have performed these process-oriented tasks, but some other critical functional requirements needed to meet everyday challenges in contract management still remain unaddressed.

“The challenge is that many organizations have tens of thousands of active (legacy) contracts that existed prior to a CLM implementation and likely reside across any number of file share drives, document management systems, personal computers and other types of “make-shift” repositories.” the article says. “This is sometimes due to nature of contracting, where the Procurement team has its requirements and solutions for contracting, the Sales team has theirs, Facilities has theirs, and the Legal team uses their own processes for managing various types of legal agreements. Add some M&A into the mix, where thousands of new contacts may be coming into an organization and the problem is magnified. Each legacy contract likely contains more exposed risk due to the typical ad hoc creation and negotiation process than any new contract being created through a new CLM system.”

Read the article.

Thompson & Knight LLP announced that Robert W. Ray has joined the firm’s New York office as a partner in the Trial Practice Group. He has previously served as a federal prosecutor and independent counsel for the Whitewater investigation.

“Bob is a prominent, respected litigator who brings to the Firm a wealth of  expertise in white collar criminal defense,” said Greg W. Curry, Thompson & Knight’s Trial Practice Leader and a Trial Partner in the Firm’s Dallas office. “He will be a great addition to our white collar team.”

Ray’s practice focuses on white collar criminal defense matters; corporate; governance and compliance issues; internal investigations; and general litigation, including civil RICO and commercial fraud. He has first-chaired more than 25 federal jury trials to verdict in matters ranging from fraud, extortion, bribery, real property, and healthcare law to white collar criminal defense, including sophisticated prosecutions – as both a prosecutor and as a defense attorney – involving RICO, terrorism, violent crime, and public corruption offenses as well as securities fraud.

From 1989 through 1995, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. In 1995, Ray joined the Independent Counsel’s office in Washington, D.C., where he supervised, conducted, and participated in complex, long-term, and multi-defendant federal prosecutions involving public corruption at all levels and stages in federal court. He succeeded Kenneth Starr as Independent Counsel and was responsible for the In re Madison Guaranty investigations, which concluded with published final reports on matters involving FBI files, the White House Travel Office, Whitewater, and Monica Lewinsky.

Ray has provided commentary on relevant criminal and legal matters on “Good Morning America,” “The O’Reilly Factor,” “FOX News Sunday,” “CNN Late Edition/Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” “NBC Nightly News,” and other television news programs. He is also an op-ed contributor to The New York Times. Ray serves on the advisory council for the History Department at Princeton University. He received an Executive Education Certificate for a program in Mastering Negotiation from the Harvard Kennedy School in April 2016; a J.D., cum laude, from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 1985; and an A.B., magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1982.

Immediately prior to joining Thompson & Knight, Ray was a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP in New York.