Legal Industry News

Australian Band Ordered to Pay 5% of Royalties for Copying ‘Kookaburra’ in 1980s Hit

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Source: ABA Journal Top Stories An Australian judge has ordered the band Men at Work to pay royalties to a music publisher for copying ''Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” in a hit song from the 1980s. Larrikin Music had sought 60 percent of the royalties from the song "Down Under," but was awarded only 5 percent, the Associated Press reports. Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson wrote that Larrikin’s royalty request was “excessive, overreaching and unrealistic.” Jacobson had ruled in February that the flute melody in the Men at Work song “replicates in material form a substantial part” of the Kookaburra song, a campfire… Read the rest of the...

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Law Departments Hiring More Contract Lawyers, and the Pickings Are Good

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Source: ABA Journal Top Stories An increasing number of corporate law departments are hiring contract lawyers and sending them more projects, according to two principals with Pennsylvania legal staffing firms. James LaRosa, an owner of JuriStaff in Philadelphia, told the Legal Intelligencer that legal departments are hiring contract lawyers for stints of six months to a year to handle specific projects, and they typically are paying between $75 and $150 an hour. More specialized lawyers may command even higher pay. LaRosa said employers benefit because so many good lawyers were laid off and available for contract work. "The pool of contract attorneys right now is… Read the rest of the...

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June Was a Bad Month for Law Firm Employees, Labor Stats Show

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Source: ABA Journal Top Stories Things appeared to be looking up for law firm employees in May, when initial reports indicated an increase of 300 jobs in the legal sector. But now the news is gloomier. In June, the legal sector lost 3,900 jobs, the American Lawyer says, relying on the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the stats for May weren’t as rosy an initially portrayed. New adjusted numbers show an actual loss of 600 jobs that month. Overall the legal sector has lost 22,200 jobs since the same time a year ago, the story says. Read the rest of the...

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U.S. Supreme Court Rules that Contract Formation Issues Are for Court Determination and Provides Guidance for Litigation Against International Union

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Source: Federal Employment Law Articles The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a pro-employer decision that addresses two key issues concerning arbitration and the enforceability of labor contracts. The Court's decision in Granite Rock Company v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters et al., No. 08-1214, stemmed from a lawsuit brought by the employer against a local union and an international union because of a 2004 labor strike that, as alleged, violated the terms of a no-strike clause in the employer's valid and enforceable collective bargaining agreement with the local union. Littler represented Granite Rock in the litigation and before the Supreme Court.

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Beware the Meal Period Time-Bomb

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Source: Federal Employment Law Articles An increasing number of federal Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits and U.S. Labor Department investigations include claims based upon the employer's deducting meal periods from non-exempt employees' recorded worktimes. Typically, the employees did not clock out-and-in to reflect the mealtime they took. Instead, the employers automatically deducted the full, scheduled meal period from each employee's total daily hours on the assumption that the person took a full meal break each workday. An employee who worked during a meal could avoid the deduction by using an exception feature of the timekeeping system, but the usual allegation is that employees did so inconsistently or infrequently, if ever.

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Equal Opportunity Harasser’s use of female-specific slurs and remarks can support claim of hostile work environment.

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Source: Federal Employment Law Articles The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that an alleged harasser who makes gender-specific slurs and comments can create a hostile work environment for a female employee, even though the harasser is an “Equal Opportunity Harasser” who makes sexually offensive remarks to “anybody, any time.” EEOC v. Fairbrook Medical Clinic, P.A., 4th Circ., No. 09-1610, June 18, 2010.

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China Soccer As China Business Metaphor?

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Source: China Law Blog

Excellent piece by Modern Lei Feng, entitled, "Whither Chinese Soccer?" on why China is unable to field a world class soccer team. MLF attributes China's soccer shortcomings to six things, including the following two:

• The Education System.  "The dog eat dog nature of the Chinese education system is unbelievable. From a young age, kids must go from the “right” elementary school to the “right” junior high to the “right” high school if they have a prayer of getting into the “right” college. The concept of “playtime” doesn’t exist for most kids, they get out of school (later than in most places in the world) and then go home to study or to an after school program. They don’t have time to kick a ball around and their parents would be unhappy if they caught them using their time in such a frivolous manner. There are no grass roots weekend youth soccer programs like you find in the US, but even in the few that do exist, expat kids are in the majority. Among some in the middle/upper class in China, who’ve been educated and/or spent a lot of time abroad, there is...

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Chinese Soccer As China Business Metaphor?

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Source: China Law Blog

Excellent piece by Modern Lei Feng, entitled, "Whither Chinese Soccer?" on why China is unable to field a world class soccer team. MLF attributes China's soccer shortcomings to six things, including the following two:

• The Education System.  "The dog eat dog nature of the Chinese education system is unbelievable. From a young age, kids must go from the “right” elementary school to the “right” junior high to the “right” high school if they have a prayer of getting into the “right” college. The concept of “playtime” doesn’t exist for most kids, they get out of school (later than in most places in the world) and then go home to study or to an after school program. They don’t have time to kick a ball around and their parents would be unhappy if they caught them using their time in such a frivolous manner. There are no grass roots weekend youth soccer programs like you find in the US, but even in the few that do exist, expat kids are in the majority. Among some in the middle/upper class in China, who’ve been educated and/or spent a lot of time abroad, there is...

  Read More »