Highlights

Features

- Feature
- Boosting Creative Competition: America Invents Act
- Significant reforms to U.S. patent laws move from a "first-to-invent" to a "first-inventor-to-file" system, create new proceedings for challenging patents, and implement litigation reforms, with the goal of creating millions of jobs and securing the United States' position as an innovative-technology leader.
- Feature
- E-Discovery: Who Pays?
- Wisconsin courts have not expressly addressed cost shifting involving discovery of electronically stored information. Recent rule amendments provide an ad hoc balancing test, which should be supported by common-sense efforts to reach agreements with opposing counsel in these situations.
- Feature
- Determining Reasonable Attorney Fees
- Many Wisconsin statutes make it possible for prevailing parties to recover attorney fees from the opposing side. Recent changes, however, presumptively cap reasonable attorney fees at not more than three times the damages awarded and list factors a courtmust assess when making the award. Here is a look at how courts may interpret and apply the law.

- WebXtra Video: How should attorneys deal with cost-shifting disputes?
- Discovery of electronically stored information can be expensive and time-consuming. Author Tim Edwards has some advice for attorneys facing these costs.
- WebXtra Video: Moving to a "first-inventor-to-file" system
- Our apologies. This video is unavailable. Shane Brunner explains significant reforms to U.S. patent laws in, "Boosting Creative Competition: America Invents Act."

Inside the Bar Start Pushing Member input helps push the Bar toward solutions for challenges facing lawyers and the public.	President's Message Education at Every Turn The State Bar's mission to help educate members goes beyond its nationally recognized continuing legal education offerings to include other programs such as Practice411 and WisLAP, and by providing members with opportunities to share knowledge through pa
Ethics Opinion EF-12-01 Prevent Disclosure of Metadata On June 15, 2012, the State Bar Professional Ethics Committee issued Formal Opinion EF-12-01, discussing lawyers' responsibility to avoid disclosing confidential information contained in metadata in electronic documents.	Ethics Can I Represent a Relative against Another Relative? Although ethics rules do not explicitly bar lawyers from representing their relatives in matters opposing other family members, lawyers must exercise extreme caution to ensure they can provide effective advocacy in such situations.
Managing Risk Top OLR Complaints: Grievances on the Rise Grievances filed with the Office of Lawyer Regulation are rising. Knowing the practice areas and types of errors most often complained about can alert you to vulnerabilities in your practice so you can prevent mistakes and problems.