LEGAL

Two King Soopers workers file unfair labor charge against union after getting fined for crossing the picket line

Two King Soopers employees who crossed the picket lines as union grocery employees went on strike in January for better wages — and were then fined by the union — filed an unfair labor charge against the union on Monday.

According to the complaint, the union fined Nick Hall $812 and Marcelo Ruybal $3,799. In a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board, attorneys representing the two workers called the union’s fines unfair and illegal.

Officials with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7’s officials did not respond to requests for comment.

“What this case is about are two workers who did decide to work despite what the UFCW officials wanted, and they resigned their union membership so they could do so,” said Patrick Semmens, vice president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which is representing the two workers. “The fact that the union doesn’t have the legal authority to issue such fines doesn’t always stop them from attempting to do so. Unfortunately, the incentives are basically there for them to try and fine everyone they can under the sun and then later figure out whether those fines are actually legal under federal labor

Read the rest

‘Tennessee Justice Bus’ to bring legal advice to rural communities

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Tennessee Supreme Court has a new program to bring legal help to rural and disadvantaged communities through the Tennessee Justice Bus.

The bus is filled with computers, a printer, internet access, video displays, and other office supplies.

Lawyers and volunteers will be able to provide on-the-spot access to legal help and meet Tennesseans where they are to address the technology gap many rural and disadvantaged citizens face.

Access to Justice has been one of the Tennessee Supreme Court’s top priorities.

They said contrary to popular belief, people are not guaranteed access to an attorney when they encounter civil legal issues.

People who can’t afford an attorney are left to handle a variety of legal issues on their own like evictions, child custody, debt and credit issues, and unfair labor practices.

The bus will help fill the gap.

The Tennessee Justice Bus will officially launch Monday morning in downtown Nashville.

The Tennessee Justice Bus will travel the state to provide pop-up legal services where needed. These legal clinics and community events are commonly held in conjunction with legal aid providers, churches, nonprofit organizations and public service providers

appId : '1627742844167003',

xfbml … Read the rest

Change Is On the Way. Law Firms Are Getting Ready

Faced with inflation, a looming recession and increased global regulation, law firms are looking at a lot of uncertainty. Even those still enjoying high demand for their services and basking in the increased profits and revenue they’ve experienced in the past year, know that change is likely on its way. So they are getting ready, taking steps they hope will insulate them from whatever is to come.

There are many ways to prepare for the big changes ahead but perhaps the most dramatic step a law firm has recently made took place last week in Australia. There, the fast-growing firm Wotten + Kearney, which specializes in insurance law, announced it is selling a 30% stake in the firm to a private equity company.

The law firm, which has 57 partners and more than 300 lawyers, wants to raise money to expand geographically—both in Australia and in Asia. It also wants to attract top talent, capture new market opportunities and invest in legal tech. It could have raised money by listing on a stock exchange—a move taken by other firms, both in the U.K. and in Australia. Or it could have pursued traditional financing. But instead, Wotten + Kearney did what

Read the rest

How are law firms and in-house legal departments collaborating to deliver results?

“I think legal departments now are really focused on how do they narrow the funnel of work as much as possible to their own department, and that is through self-service or bots,” said Brenda Hansen, senior legal operations consultant at UpLevel Ops, an advisory firm for in-house legal departments. Through her lens, Hansen noted that legal departments are increasingly using technology to give their internal clients the best information they can before letting them go off on their own, and also outsourcing to alternative legal service providers.

Colin Miller, managing director at FTI Consulting added that teams are collecting and organizing data differently.

“The question has become ‘what do I do with this new form of data, and how do I transform it, and how do I enrich it in a way that allows me to do the things I used to do to make those legal decisions?’ so it has become more advisory in that regard,” said Miller. The change in data is forcing people to innovate very quickly, Miller added.

Collaboration is critical when it comes to cybersecurity so the team at Fasken have developed a collaborative privacy protection program for their clients.

“The Fasken Edge site helps

Read the rest

Mary Mancusi wins 2022 Smith-Doheny Legal Ethics Writing Competition | News | The Law School

Marilynmancusi

Notre Dame Law School’s Program on Ethics, Compliance & Inclusion has announced that rising third-year student Marilyn “Mary” Mancusi is the winner of the 2022 Smith-Doheny Legal Ethics Writing Competition.

Mancusi’s paper, “Attorneys, E-Discovery, and the Case for 37(g),” addresses the concern that federal courts do not have a reliable and uniform system that allows them to impose sanctions on attorneys who violate e-discovery obligations.

Addressing the fact that much more evidence and information is now found through various electronic forms, and that attorneys play such a major role in the discovery process, Mancusi’s paper proposes a new rule be added to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The rule defines a uniform, reliable system for federal courts to impose sanctions on attorneys who participate in e-discovery misconduct. 

Her paper also discusses the rise of e-discovery as digital technology became more prevalent, the ethical and common-law expectations that attorneys currently have in e-discovery, and the ways that federal courts have previously sanctioned attorneys for their role in e-discovery abuse.

Professor Veronica Root Martinez, director of the Law School’s Program on Ethics, Compliance & Inclusion, said, “Mary’s submission stood out for its timely topic, analytical rigor, and reasoned proposal. I am

Read the rest