This is … obvious … and … awful. Shouldn’t we want to know what law firms and lawyers are really like? No gloss. I think oughta be a law that doesn’t allow those in the legal profession to use these types of services.
Not really. But not not really.
Author: Wally
Phrasing
The Verge with a headline “Fortnite keeps stealing dances – and no ones knows if it’s illegal.” If no one knows, is that stealing? Seems like the sentence is missing a modifier. Or perhaps it should say that the publisher believes this is stealing. Or… isn’t this sort of like saying light travels at 299,792,458 m/s – but no one knows what light is. That sentence provides no information. Thanks, Verge.
Too good to not post
Matt Levine is awesome. The first topic of his editorial is just fantastic. If you don’t subscribe to his newsletter oped newspaper thing, you’re very much missing out. You don’t even need to subscribe to Bloomberg to get it for free gratis!
The article does a great job of capturing the job of thinking like a lawyer – and where people go wrong on their thinking.
A modern lawyer’s life
I found this Slate Money podcast fascinating. A lot of this is about the abdication of morals in the process of growing a business – and how business schools and consultancies have helped this along.
I’m sure my enjoyment of this is wrapped up in my belief that in-house lawyers are now the moral core of a company and have a prominent role in manipulating guiding the company into doing the “right” thing.
I’ve definitely found this true in my career, what about you?
Elon gonna Elon
As you’ve seen everywhere – Elon Musk on 60 Minutes: “I do not respect the SEC.”
And to that, I say good luck to their new general counsel. Like really, no sarcasm. Tough row to hoe.
I think someone read this blog…
So this happened – Marriott sued because an alleged security issue still exists (discovered by a plaintiff’s firm in-house forensics team). Pre-emptive litigation at its finest. Again, the lawsuit doesn’t allege there has been a new breach, just that their could be one.
Previously on this blog, in the same vein.
When tech comes to health
Apple Watch’s ECG feature is making the news, as it should.* I’m not tracking it, and don’t plan to, but this should spawn a lot of innovation from the plaintiffs’ bar in the complaints we see against Apple. Wrongful alerts leading to economic and health harms, negligence for not alerting (what constitutes a proper training set? And when is that training a form of negligence? What’s the duty? – so much fun stuff), does it reach to wrongful death?
*Full disclosure, I used to work at Apple but never advised on this feature.
Just an interesting story
This is all over the news now, but the voter fraud story coming out of North Carolina is fascinating. My favorite coverage so far was the 538 podcast. A little dated at this point, but still very enjoyable.
You could see this working in the future (or now)
I find this case (paywall) very enjoyable and creative. But read the actual decision attached – it’s short and delightful!
Plaintiff alleged that the medical provider used software that was not secure and that it did not protect his personal information. But also tacitly admits that, as of yet, no one has taken or used plaintiff’s personal information.
In other words, the poorly secured software had yet to be hacked. But plaintiff was harmed because it could be.
The plaintiff lost. But imagine a world where this was a siren’s call for someone to hack the hospital system. It’s a really interesting market. Regular folks find deficient security on a platform that should probably be more secured. That person hires a lawyer. The lawyer drafts up and files the complaint and… maybe publicizes to interesting channels that are willing to poke around in weak systems.
And ta da! You may have yourself an actual case at that point.
Does this feel to anyone like short sellers who short a company and then say how awful a company is?
Here, let me rewrite that for you
This from Forbes:
Blockchain is the latest innovation to take over vacation planning. It’s expected to disrupt the industry as much as when Expedia, Airbnb, and Priceline took vacation planning online.
A company is attempting to apply blockchain to the travel industry. To be successful it needs to outcompete other entrenched rivals such as Expedia, Airbnb, and Priceline in a historically very low margin business. At the time of this writing, blockchain has not been found to be a competitive advantage in any industry outside of blackmarket transactions.