4ALL Statewide Service Day, scheduled for March 1, gives North Carolinians the opportunity to ask law-related questions of NCBA volunteers at no cost. The event is sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Foundation. Click here to register to volunteer.
The first Friday in March is blocked on my calendar. I am a 4ALL volunteer. Across the state, hundreds of attorney volunteers like me staff seven call centers where they will to respond to about 10,000 callers. It’s a full day!
My day starts when I walk into the WRAL studios, to be there when the phones start ringing at 7a.m., and I stay until the phones stop at 7 p.m. As 7 a.m. rolls around, the station broadcasts our call-in number, and the first phone rings. I have before me my trusty notebook (did they cover this in law school?), my reliance that my coffee(s) has kicked in, and my hope that I have not forgotten everything from my former private practice life. (I haven’t always been an Associate Raleigh City Attorney.)
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As the calendar turns to 2019, it feels as though everyone is in the mood to talk hemp, or its well-known derivative, cannabidiol, more commonly known as “CBD.” The uptick in hemp talk is no coincidence. Several recent updates to federal and North Carolina statutes and regulations have opened up the possibility of a vast new market in this area. Comments that refer to the legalization of hemp are likely too simplistic to be useful to entrepreneurs, small businesses, or investors looking to get into the industry, as there are still important regulations that control the cultivation and distribution of the plant, with more clarification and regulation certain to follow from Washington, D.C. and Raleigh.
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Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recognized that “the way we work in America is changing. The relationships between companies and their workers are more fluid and varied than in decades past.” Acosta v. Off Duty Police Services, Inc., Nos. 17-5995/6071 (6th Cir. Feb. 12, 2019). Many companies now seek to classify their employees as independent contractors in order to avoid providing them overtime, health insurance, workers’ compensation protections, unemployment benefits, and even minimum wage and social security contributions. In 2017, the Trump Administration reversed Obama-era rules combatting this trend, signaling that the current Department of Labor would throttle back on investigation and enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act when it came to misclassified employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act is the federal law that requires employers to pay their employees minimum wage and overtime.
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If you’re reading this column, it’s a safe bet that you have a smartphone within reach. Depending on whose numbers you believe, upwards of 77 percent of Americans own a smartphone. And for Americans in the Millennial Generation, that number tops 90 percent. Our smartphones have become indispensable tools in many facets of life.
Although I am tethered to my smartphone like so many others, until recently, I had not thought much about how it could help me become a better legal writer (and a better legal writing teacher). But lately, I’ve been hearing and reading about some of the legal writing resources at my fingertips, so to speak. So I thought I would share some of those resources with you.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00NCBARBLOGhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBARBLOG2019-02-20 00:00:002019-02-25 12:59:41Tweets, Blawgs and Apps: Use Your Phone To Become a Better Legal Writer
Over the past year, the imposition of tariffs on foreign goods and potential trade wars have caused prices for various construction materials to increase dramatically. Current tariffs affecting the construction industry include tariffs on steel, aluminum, Canadian lumber and a plethora of Chinese imports, while the threat of a trade war and potential sanctions have wreaked havoc on materials such as asphalt, copper, quartz and other building materials. In fact, absent a deal between the United States and China before March 1, 2019, a large number of US tariffs on Chinese imports could increase to 25%. This begs the question: Who in the contracting chain bears the risk of these price increases? Is it the owner, the general contractor, subcontractors or material suppliers? The answers to these questions usually are determined by contractual terms between the parties and the stage of contract formation on a particular project at the time of the price increase. For example, after the parties have signed a binding fixed-price contract, it may be more difficult to obtain additional compensation for price escalations than before a contract is signed. A contracting party, however, may mitigate its risks associated with price escalations at any stage in the construction project.
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The Litigation Section has honored Ted Fillette as the 11th recipient of The Advocate’s Award. Presented as merited, the award recognizes “superstars” of the section and the legal profession.
Ted Fillette, right, accepts The Advocate’s Award from Rick Conner.
Rick Conner, section secretary, presented the award during a Litigation Section networking event in Charlotte on Wednesday, Feb. 13.
Fillette retired last year following 45 years of service to the legal aid community in Mecklenburg County and the surrounding region.
Following graduation from Duke University in 1968, he spent two years working for VISTA. He then entered Boston University Law School and undertook an internship in the summer of 1971 in the Charlotte office of attorney George Daly.
Fillette returned to Charlotte in 1973 after graduating from law school. He joined Legal Aid Society of Mecklenburg County, which later expanded into a five-county program known as Legal Services of Southern Piedmont. Twenty-nine years later the organization split and Fillette joined the newly incorporated Legal Aid of North Carolina, where he served as assistant director of the statewide office and senior managing attorney of the Charlotte office.
Previous recipients of The Advocate’s Award are (2006) Charles L. Becton, (2007) J. Donald Cowan Jr., (2009) H. Grady Barnhill Jr., (2010) James T. Williams Jr., (2011) Alan W. Duncan, (2012) Charlie Blanchard, (2013) A. Ward McKeithen, (2015) James E. Ferguson II, (2016) Bill Womble Jr. and (2017) Janet Ward Black.
A longtime member of the North Carolina Bar Association, Fillette was featured in North Carolina Lawyer last year in conjunction with his retirement. The article follows here in its entirety:
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Law firms have adopted many “cloud” or SaaS (software as a Service) products for practice and case management, document storage, online backup, their office suite and more. NC State Bar Council 2011 Formal Opinion 6 outlines considerations law firms should make when evaluating cloud products. While the opinion does not set forth specific security requirements, it does recommend that lawyers who use SaaS products consider how they can retrieve data stored by the cloud provider, whether the firm discontinues the service, the service is inoperable or becomes insolvent. So, how do you backup the cloud?
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Like you, when I graduated from law school, I found a job with a midsize law firm making a base salary of $80,000 the first year, plus bonuses. The second year, I made $85,000, plus bonuses. The firm gave me a low-interest mortgage so I could buy a home, and two country club memberships. And best of all, a new BMW. I picked the color, of course.
Oh, that didn’t happen for you? Well, it didn’t happen for me, either. In fact, the only person I know that this actually happened to was Mitchell Y. McDeere, and he’s not real. He’s John Grisham’s famous character from “The Firm.”
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00NCBA YLDhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBA YLD2019-02-18 09:23:182019-02-18 09:23:18A Young Lawyer's Guide To Building a Client Base
Legal LINK is a committee of the Young Lawyers Division. Legal LINK stands for Leadership, Information, Networking, and Knowledge. This program is designed to increase interest in legal careers among high school students who are underrepresented in the legal profession. Legal LINK consists of one-hour sessions focused on each of the LINK building blocks and includes a field trip to a local law school or courthouse. We are looking for speakers for our upcoming sessions at Southern High School and Person High School.
We are currently planning our sessions on Leadership, Information, Networking, and Knowledge and we would like to invite you to participate if you are available. Unless otherwise noted, all sessions are held on Fridays from noon to 1 p.m.
Most attorneys advising new breweries remember to ensure no other brewery exists with the same name the client has selected. The work relating to that brewery’s trademarks does not, however, end upon successful naming of the brewery itself. Unless a brewery sticks to generic names for its beers (e.g., IPA, pale ale), it may run into trouble in days or years from opening unless the same analysis is conducted for each individual beer name.
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