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Jan
2015

Features

    • Pick Your Winner: 2015 Smartphone Lineup
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    • The field of smartphones is so full of thoroughbreds and budget-friendly dark horses alike, it’s hard to know where to put your money. The author describes several safe bets and offers a side-by-side comparison of features that you’ll want track-side when making your next purchase.
    • Using Preliminary Breath Test Results in Trials? Don’t Hold Your Breath
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    • Even with the improvement of breath-test technology, concerns remain about the reliability of preliminary breath test (PBT) results. Thus, the Wisconsin Legislature and Supreme Court have erected barriers to using the results at trial as evidence of defendants’ intoxication. Recent court decisions provide guidance when litigating these matters.
    • Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Changes May Affect Wisconsin Practice
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    • Proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, if approved by the U.S. Supreme Court, will take effect in December 2015. The Wisconsin and federal rules are different, but a trend to conform Wisconsin procedural rules to their federal counterparts may herald significant change in how state judges and lawyers proceed in civil matters.
Feb
2015

Features

    • Profit is Not a Four-letter Word: Lawyering in the New Age
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    • Changes in technology and business models have caused increased competition for lawyers, from both other attorneys and nonlawyer legal services providers. Lawyers who evolve and adapt to the new paradigms are creating success and profits; those who don’t may be squandering opportunities.
Mar
2015

Features

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    • 'Good Time': Earning Early Release from Prison
    • Reinstituting programs that allow prison inmates to be released early for good behavior is a cost-effective and safe way to reduce prison populations and decrease the likelihood that former inmates will commit more crimes once released, says Marquette University Law Professor Michael O'Hear.
Apr
2015

Features

    • Bringing Up Baby: How Lawyer-moms Make It Work
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    • Several women lawyers discuss some of the things that make it possible for them to succeed as professionals and as parents: governmental and workplace family-leave policies, supportive spouses, parents, and colleagues, technology, and the willingness to set priorities at those inevitable times when they can’t have and do it all.
May
2015

Features

    • An Introduction: American Indian Tribes and Law in Wisconsin
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    • Whether your practice overlaps with tribal law, this general orientation will help Wisconsin lawyers understand the history and current status of American Indians and their tribes’ self-governance and law in the United States. The authors provide contact information for Wisconsin’s 11 tribes for lawyers interested in gaining admission to practice in tribal courts.
    • Marital Waste: Within the Eye of the Beholding Court
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    • Wisconsin’s family law statutes presume that a couple’s property will be equally divided at separation or divorce. Marital waste is one factor that may allow a deviation from this presumption, but different courts treat marital waste in various ways. Here are some strategies for effectively representing divorcing clients who may have wasted marital assets, or who believe their spouse wasted assets and are seeking compensation in support or the division of marital assets and debts.
    • Out of Sight, Not out of Mind: Deposition Ethics and Best Practices
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    • Recent cases have led attorneys and courts to focus on obstreperous conduct during the discovery process. This article identifies the intersection between the discovery rules and the rules of professional responsibility and then focuses specifically on how professional responsibility applies to the deposition process – from noticing the deposition, to preparing the witness, to taking and defending the deposition, to post-deposition practices.

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    • Innovate to Get Clients, Close the Justice Gap
    • May 6, 2015 – New innovations allow attorneys to reach people “who we traditionally have not been able to provide services for because of the … expansion of technology,” says William Hubbard, president of the American Bar Association.
Jun
2015

Features

    • Walter H. White Jr.
      Growing Up Amid Injustices
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    • As a successful international business and finance lawyer and a dedicated human rights advocate, Walter White Jr. did not grow up respecting the rule of law. Rather, he grew up respecting the lawyers who changed the law to make it more just. His experiences growing up amid myriad injustices informed his advocacy for human rights and encouraging diversity within the legal profession.
    • Protecting Corporate Directors: Wisconsin’s Business Judgment Rule
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    • The business judgment rule – that directors are not liable for an honest mistake of business judgment – is both a rule of substantive law and often the source of procedural burdens that shareholders challenging a board of directors’ decision must overcome. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently reinforced the doctrine, making clear that shareholder-plaintiffs must be ready from the moment they file to present plausible evidence of their right to relief.
    • As I See It
      It’s Time to Raise America’s ‘Salaried Minimum Wage’
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    • Employers must pay an overtime rate to employees for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. However, some employees are exempt because of their work duties and salary amount. This poses a problem for many low-paid managers in the retail and food-service industries who are classified as exempt but whose yearly income is close to the poverty level.
Jul
2015

Features

    • Groundwater: Diminishing Resource, Increasing Conflict
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    • America’s Dairyland also prizes its lakes and rivers. But as high-capacity wells proliferate in Wisconsin, agriculture and other groundwater users are posing risks to the amount and health of the water, bringing to the legal forefront disagreements about access to the waters that lie beneath.
    • Trust and Estate Matters: Identifying the Client
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    • In Wisconsin, the question is unsettled as to whether a lawyer retained to administer a probate estate or a trust represents the fiduciary or the estate. Similarly, the law is unsettled as to the duties the lawyer owes to the beneficiaries. These are important concerns. Here’s why.
    • Wait! Is That My Land? More On Adverse Possession
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    • Adverse possession recurrently affects property owners, who might find themselves in disputes with neighbors over seemingly inconsequential strips of land. Three recent Wisconsin cases have involved subjective intent, hunting land, the definition of “substantial enclosure,” and acquiescence. These cases will likely affect almost any adverse possession dispute.

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    • Wait! Is That My Land? Understanding Adverse Possession
    • Good fences make good neighbors; bad ones might lead neighbors into court to battle over mismarked boundaries and “true” ownership of property. Jessica Shrestha overviews adverse possession, and what lawyers should consider.
Sep
2015

Features

    • Conditional Use Permits: Strategies for Local Zoning Proceedings
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    • Whether your goal is to keep a conditional use permit standing or knock it down, learn more about the legal underpinnings of these permits and how to maximize clients’ chances to successfully obtain or defeat the granting of such permits. The author provides legal and political strategies to achieve the desired outcome.
    • Family Feuds: Mediating Estate and Probate Disputes
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    • No matter the number of beneficiaries or the size of the estate, family feuds about inheritances can result in permanent estrangement. Mediation is a cost-effective, efficient mechanism to resolve such disputes and mend and even strengthen formerly broken ties.
    • Exclusive Venues: Litigating on a Corporation’s Home Turf
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    • Defending a corporation and its board in shareholder litigation can be the equivalent of playing one football game on two (or more) different fields. Exclusive-venue provisions help corporations reduce the costs of lawsuits by restricting the number of forums. While such provisions have largely been a Delaware phenomenon, they also may benefit companies incorporated in Wisconsin.

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    • Build Trial Experience Through Mentoring
    • Fewer cases are going to trial and that means young lawyers are no longer getting the experience they need for future litigation. Young lawyers should proactively seek mentoring opportunities and do some self-learning to help build that experience, says Jesse Blocher.
    • Preparing for First Trial: Know Your Evidence to Overcome Nerves
    • A lawyer's first trial can be a nerve-racking experience. Once you get the opportunity to represent a client at trial, what should you do to prepare? Start with finding a good mentor who does trial work, then really get to know your evidence, says Andrew Wier.
Oct
2015

Features

    • Foreclosures in Limbo: Zombie Properties
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    • Real-life vacant houses don’t shelter ghosts or poltergeists, but the problems they cause can be as daunting to vanquish as any fictional apparition. A recent supreme court case illuminates the effect of zombie properties on homeowners, lenders, and surrounding communities. Although the decision offers some resolutions, many questions remain.
    • Managing the Threat of Whistleblower Claims
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    • Laws protecting and rewarding employees or other individuals who report companies’ internal problems present risks of legal, financial, and business reputational costs and damage too large for all entities, even the smallest, to ignore. This article offers suggestions for managing risk based on the hard lessons learned by companies exposed to enforcement action.
    • Changes on the Horizon: Sales and Use Tax in the E-Commerce Era
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    • The Internet marketplaces has changed the retail landscape, and many believe the time has come to update the sales tax treatment of e-commerce transactions crossing state lines. This article presents an overview of sales and use taxation, the current tax treatment of e-commerce transactions across state lines, and potential legislation and judicial action related to e-commerce retailers.

webXtras

    • Build Trial Experience Through Mentoring
    • Fewer cases are going to trial and that means young lawyers are no longer getting the experience they need for future litigation. Young lawyers should proactively seek mentoring opportunities and do some self-learning to help build that experience, says Jesse Blocher.
    • Preparing for First Trial: Know Your Evidence to Overcome Nerves
    • A lawyer's first trial can be a nerve-racking experience. Once you get the opportunity to represent a client at trial, what should you do to prepare? Start with finding a good mentor who does trial work, then really get to know your evidence, says Andrew Wier.
Nov
2015

Features

    • Wisconsin Biotech: A New Frontier for Lawyers
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    • Wisconsin’s bioscience industry is booming, creating opportunity, not just for the scientists that conduct bench research, but for lawyers, too. Read how lawyers serving the biotech arena are making an impact, what they’re doing, and how they got to where they are. There are many entry points to the field, and you don’t have to be a scientist to participate.
    • As I See It
      Reforming the ‘Science’ in Forensic Science
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    • The problem of shaky or flawed forensic science evidence is about much more than wrongful conviction of the innocent. It also means that the system fails to identify the truly guilty. Criminal cases are increasingly science-dependent, and the traditional forensic sciences have played a critical role in the way we dispense justice. To make forensic science evidence more reliable, a wide range of reforms must take place.

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    • Understanding Police Use of Deadly Force
    • "Understanding Police Use of Deadly Force," by U.W. Law School's Black Law Students Association and Latino Law Students Association, produced by WHA Public Television, winner of a State Bar of Wisconsin 2015 Legal Innovator Award.
Dec
2015

Features

    • Holiday Gift Guide: 25 Cool Tech Toys
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    • At this time of year, many lawyers think about buying gifts for others … and themselves. Tech gadgets make great gifts, and those listed in this guide are some of the very best available this holiday season that you need – or some that you just really, really want.
    • Social Media in the Workplace
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    • The ease and efficiency of social media communications make them good business tools but also potential hazards when used inappropriately by employees and employers. To help employers reduce risks associated with social media use, the author provides a sample bring-your-own-device policy.

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