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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    March 01, 2015

    Briefly

    Got a nugget to share? Send your ideas for interesting facts, trends, tips, or other bits and bytes to wislawmag@wisbar.org, or comment below.

    Tech Tip

    Adobe Acrobat: Typewriter Tool Tip

    Adobe

    Adobe Acrobat is a powerful program that many attorneys use daily. It offers a wide variety of tools to work with and convert digital documents, but one of its most used is its handy typewriter tool. The tool allows users to add text anywhere they want in PDF documents just as a typewriter would allow them to write anywhere on a paper document. 

    Attorneys that recently upgraded to Acrobat XI, however, may wonder where this tool went. Don’t despair, this feature now is under the Comments panel (top right of screen). Just click on Comments, select the Add Text Comment tool (looks like a plain “T”), click on the area of the document you want to add text to, and type away.

    After entering your text, you can then select the text to make further edits as well as make style changes in the Add Text Comment toolbar. You’ll see your new text listed as a comment or annotation in the Comment sidebar.

    Source: Tison Rhine, practice management advisor of Practice411TM, the State Bar of Wisconsin Law Office Management Assistance Program.

    By the Numbers

    42.8%

    – The percentage of all cases filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2014 that alleged retaliation. The EEOC enforces federal laws against employment discrimination.

    Complainants filed nearly 88,000 charges last year, and 37,955 charges related to retaliation against applicants or employees who complained of discrimination.

    Wisconsin employees or job applicants filed almost 970 EEOC complaints. About 38 percent alleged race discrimination. About 31 percent alleged retaliation, and almost 29 percent alleged disability discrimination.

    Source: USEEOC, Enforcement and Litigation Statistics

    Hat tip: Enochs Law Firm’s Wisconsin Employment & Labor Law Blog

    Out There

    Dude, Where’s My Pen?

    An attorney in Omaha who lost his $500 pen at a local courthouse asked the county to find it or replace it.

    The lawyer said he lost his Montblanc Meisterstück ballpoint pen after he left his belongings at a security kiosk. He reviewed video footage to identify the guard who last touched the pen.

    The county board will consider the $500 claim, according to the Omaha World Herald. It’s just a good thing the lawyer wasn’t carrying a Montegrappa Dragon Bruce Lee 18k Gold Pen with White Diamonds, which costs $98,550.

    Good Idea

    What Would You Do if You Won the Lottery?

    beachA Toronto lawyer and her husband recently won a $35 million lottery jackpot. Unlike the United States, Canada does not impose a tax on lump sum payouts. That’s $35 million tax free. The lucky lawyer has taken a sabbatical from her law firm job.

    What would you do if someone handed you $35 million tax free tomorrow? Tell us at wislawmag@wisbar.org.

    Source: Above the Law

    Quotable

    “I felt nothing was going to stop me.”

    Vel Phillips– Vel Phillips, attorney, civil rights leader, and former Wisconsin Secretary of State. A newly released documentary film produced by Wisconsin Public Television chronicles her life, career, and activism.

    Phillips, the first African-American woman to graduate from U.W. Law School in 1951, also was the first African-American and first woman elected to Milwaukee’s common council, in 1956.

    Phillips helped lead a fight for fair housing during a tumultuous period in Milwaukee’s history, and went on to break additional racial and gender barriers in roles as a judge and Secretary of State. She’s now 91.

    To view “Vel Phillips: Dream Big Dreams,” visit http://wptschedule.org/vel.

    On the Radar

    Minnesota Law Schools Merge: A Bold Move?

    puzzle houseTwo Minnesota law schools, Hamline and William Mitchell, are merging. The new Mitchell Hamline School of Law will be located mainly on the William Mitchell Law School campus in St. Paul. The merger comes amid a 30 percent decline in first-year law school enrollment nationwide, dipping from around 52,000 in 2010, an all-time high, to around 38,000 in 2014.

    “It’s a bold move, that’s for sure,” Richard Kyle, president of the Minnesota State Bar Association, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “The landscape for legal education has changed significantly, and it stands to reason that law schools are looking for innovative ways to adapt.”

    Wisconsin’s law schools are not immune from market changes affecting enrollment. Marquette enrolled 247 first-year students in 2010 and 208 in 2014 (down about 16%). U.W. enrolled 246 first-year students in 2010 and 158 in 2014 (down about 36%).


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