Blogs

A Year of Generative AI News

By Mary Warner posted 12 days ago
When ChatGPT was released on November 30, 2022, it created a year of excitement, controversy, and contemplation. Though some form of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) backed by large language models (LLMs) has been around for decades, the release of ChatGPT and similarly accessible tools brought GAI to the public. It has also shaken the legal world by the lapels, with calls to adapt to the “new” technology or get left behind. But don’t rely on it for case citations in a court filing without double-checking its output, or you may wind up sanctioned for the non-existent cases it hallucinates. (Molly Bohannon, Lawyer Used ChatGPT In Court—And Cited Fake ...

Bankruptcy Bulletin: Eighth Circuit Holds Avoidance Actions Can be Sold as Property of the Bankruptcy Estate

By David Tanabe posted 28 days ago
BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Author: Hong (Sophia) Yao University of Minnesota Law School J.D. Candidate, 2024 Judicial Extern to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kesha Tanabe In In re Simply Essentials, LLC , 78 F.4th 1006 (8th Cir. 2023), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (“Eighth Circuit”) held that Chapter 5 avoidance actions can be sold as property of the bankruptcy estate. In the Chapter 7 case, the trustee determined the bankruptcy estate did not have sufficient funds to pursue avoidance actions it held against a creditor (“Creditor 1”). As a result, the trustee sought bids to compromise and sell the ...

Role Models: To Better Ensure Data Security, Check Your User Permissions

By Mary Warner posted 11-09-2023
This post is courtesy of attorney Jared Correia of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, one of MSBA's Advantage Partners . ***** Every law firm owner is aware that outside actors can breach data and cause a host of problems. Hackers are the bogeyman in this situation. And so much concern is spent over password management , encryption and email scams , including ransomware and phishing. But, to have a truly effective data security program, law firms also need to consider the access that internal staff enjoys . An under - covered segment of most data protection laws is that those laws also require that internal ...

Recap of ClioCon 2023

By Mary Warner posted 10-17-2023
Last week, I attended the 11 th annual ClioCon. At 4,600 in-person and virtual attendees strong, it is one of the largest legal tech conferences in the industry. This was the second successive year the conference was held at the Grand Old Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN. Apparently, Clio, the practice management software company behind the event, hosts its conference two years in a row in the same location in order to work out any bugs encountered during the first year. Navigating the hotel, which has close to 3,000 rooms, multiple shops and restaurants, as well as a gigantic atrium where guests can take a boat ride, was a major challenge the first year. ...

The lawyer as private investigator: Parsing new ABA Model Rule 1.16(a)

By William Wernz posted 10-13-2023
Below is a portion of my article from the October 2023 edition of Bench & Bar that discusses August 2023 amendments to ABA Model Rule 1.16(a). The MSBA Professional Rules Committee discussed whether to make a recommendation to the MSBA regarding adoption in Minnesota of the amendment to ABA Model Rule 1.16. The Committee did not make any recommendation. It is unknown whether the Lawyers Board or the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility will make any recommendation regarding Rule 1.16 to the Minnesota Supreme Court. *** The lawyer as private investigator: Parsing new ABA Model Rule 1.16(a)—Inquiring Into and Assessing Representations In August ...

It’s a Goal! Developing Revenue Projections for Your Law Firm

By Mary Warner posted 09-25-2023
This post is courtesy of attorney Jared Correia of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, one of MSBA's Advantage Partners. ----- Law firms operate between ad hoc dec is ion making and fire-putting-out.  It’s the natural state of the law firm manager. That being said, humans have been improving on the state of nature since there have been humans. So, it’s maybe not the worst thing in the world if this is the year you decide to put together revenue projections for your law firm. If you’ve never done it before, start now.  Don’t wait until January and cram this in, like everything else in your life. The ...

What Is Your Firm’s Net Promoter Score and How Can You Improve It?

By Mary Warner posted 09-19-2023
The following post was written by Jared Correia of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, one of MSBA's Advantage Partners. ---------- Net Loss: Law Firms Have Really Poor Net Promoter Scores Did you know that law firms have a really poor net promoter score? Wait, wait. Let’s backtrack for a second. Do you know what a net promoter score is? Essentially, it’s a KPI (key performance indicator), that attempts to determine how likely your clients are to recommend you . The higher your net promotor score, the more likely your clients are to recommend you. The lower your ...

Referral needed

By Edward Shaw posted 09-18-2023
I have a client who has issues with mold exposure, am looking for a referral to co counsel with someone who handles mold cases, any of you know anyone good in that area. Thanks Ed

Carl Arnold custody evaluator

By Edward Shaw posted 09-14-2023
Have not used Carl before, if anyone has worked with him as an evaluator and has thoughts please contact me off list. Thanks Ed

How to Strip Formatting When Copying and Pasting from Word

By Mary Warner posted 08-29-2023
Most of us who use Microsoft Word have been there. We type up a document, then want to copy and paste it into another platform, like a blog post such as this, and the formatting goes with it. Only, the formatting doesn’t seem to work properly on the new platform and ends up looking wonky. How can you strip the formatting out of a Word document to prevent this from happening? I have been known to manually strip the formatting code in platforms such as WordPress by visiting the HTML screen, but this is teeeeeedious. If you’ve never seen what this looks like, here is the code within the communities’ blogging platform: My preferred method ...

Bankruptcy Bulletin: Eighth Circuit Held Copyright Claims Were Previously Litigated in Bankruptcy Court Proceedings for Sale and Completion of Building

By David Tanabe posted 08-15-2023
BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Author: David M. Tanabe , Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. In Cornice & Rose International, LLC v. Four Keys, LLC , 2023 WL 5157578 (8th Cir. Aug. 11, 2023), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (“Eighth Circuit”) applied the doctrine of res judicata to hold the architect’s copyright claims were precluded because the issues were previously litigated in the bankruptcy proceedings for the sale and completion of the building pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. The Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990 extended copyright protection to “architectural ...

Bankruptcy Bulletin: Eighth Circuit Affirmed Bankruptcy Court’s Factual Finding for Base Rate for Cramdown Under 11 U.S.C. § 1225(a)(5)(B)(ii) Based on Treasury Rate, Not Prime Rate

By David Tanabe posted 08-13-2023
BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Author: David M. Tanabe , Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. In Topp v. Farm Credit Services of America (In re Topp) , 2023 WL 4921241 (8th Cir. Aug. 2, 2023), the United States Circuit Court for the Eighth Circuit (“Eighth Circuit”) affirmed the factual finding for the discount rate for cramdown pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 1225(a)(5)(B)(ii) with a starting point of the treasury rate, not the prime rate. The farmer filed a petition for Chapter 12 bankruptcy relief. The lender filed a $595,000 secured claim arising from five loans of various durations from ten to twenty years, with interest rates ...

IP Law for Non-IP Attorneys

By Thomas James posted 08-06-2023
The course materials for the CLE course I taught is now available as a short book on Amazon.com. The link is: Amazon.com: IP Law for Non-IP Attorneys: 9781946397096: James, Tom: Books

Bankruptcy Bulletin: Judge Tanabe’s Procedural Guidance on Stipulations, Dismissals, and Student Loan Discharge

By Andrew Page posted 08-03-2023
BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Editor: Andrew Page , Maslon LLP In Stewart v. U.S. Department of Education (In re Stewart), No. 22-AP-04053, 2023 WL 4276909 (Bankr. D. Minn. June 29, 2023), Judge Kesha Tanabe used two adversary parties’ procedural blunder as an opportunity to issue written guidance on settlements, undue hardship, and voluntary dismissal. Maureen Leah Stewart (“Stewart” or the “Debtor”) and the U.S. Department of Education jointly filed a document captioned “Stipulation for Discharge of Plaintiff’s United States Department of Education Loans and to Dismiss Adversary Proceeding with Prejudice” (the “Stipulation”) ...

Fast Forward - Prepare Now to Make Money Later

By Mary Warner posted 07-25-2023
This post comes courtesy Jared Correia, attorney from Red Cave Consulting, one of MSBA's Advantage Partners. -------- Fast Forward: Prepare Now to Make Money Later Lawyers are often so head-down on substantive work that they spend very little time considering their ‘ sales cycle ’, which every business has. Whereas software companies consider metrics like ‘ cost of acquisition ’, law firms merely send out cadres of attorneys to network, with the fervent hope that that activity generates business at some undetermined point in the future. I remember having a conversation with a lawyer who told me that his marketing goal was ...

News from the Fediverse

By Mary Warner posted 07-17-2023
I feel a bit like the gopher in Disney’s The Lion King providing a report to the hornbill Zazu, “Sir! News from the underground!” Daily we’re receiving a barrage of news about generative AI in the legal field. But there’s another tech arena that is also currently experiencing rapid development: the Fediverse. Compared to generative AI, the Fediverse is the underground, and it’s changing so fast that I’ve had to rethink this article several times while writing it. I spend a lot of time on Mastodon, perhaps one of the most well-known platforms within the current Fediverse, which had over 10 million registered users as of March 2023. 1 Approximately 294,000 ...

Bankruptcy Bulletin: Major Cleanup of Local Bankruptcy Rules Effective July 17, 2023

By Alexander Beeby posted 07-11-2023
BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Editor: Alexander J. Beeby , Sapientia Law Group, PLLC A significant cleanup of the 1000 and 9000 series of Local Rules and Local Forms for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota goes into effect on July 17, 2023. According to the Public Notice , the amendments are intended to conform the Local Rules and Local Forms with the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (“Federal Bankruptcy Rules”) and current practice. These changes are planned to be the first phase of a complete review of all Local Rules in this district. This article is intended to provide an overview or highlight of key ...

Trauma-Informed Practices for Attorneys CLE

By Thomas James posted 07-10-2023
Katie Olson (Mitchell-Hamline's Zero Abuse Project and Trauma-Informed Legal Advocacy program director) and Jennifer Bovitz (MLM attorney and former OLPR directory) will be presenting a 2-hour program on Trauma-Informed Practices on Wednesday, July 12 at 11:00 a.m., with a video replay on August 1 at 2:00 p.m. Approved by the Minnesota BCLE for 2.0 CLE credits, including 1.0 Ethics and 1.0 Elimination of Bias. Cost: $75. Registration information: July 12 live webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3016890206172/WN_7GzW53FKT8-9aX7AvKkDyA August 1 video replay: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2816890206683/WN_UB_9VznIQAyEHLXwd2B-kw

Bankruptcy Bulletin: SCOTUS Held United States Secretary of Education Lacked Statutory Authority to Cancel $430 Billion in Federal Student Loan Debt

By David Tanabe posted 07-09-2023
BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Editor: Chen Di Xu Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Juris Doctor Candidate, 2024 Judicial Extern to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kesha Tanabe In Biden v. Nebraska , 2023 WL 4277210 (U.S. June 30, 2023), the United States Supreme Court held that the United States Secretary of Education (“Secretary”) lacked authority under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (“HEROES Act”) to depart from the existing provisions of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (“Education Act”) and establish a student loan forgiveness program that would eliminate the federal student ...

Bankruptcy Bulletin: Eighth Circuit Holds Creditor Waived Right to Challenge Receiver’s Final Accounting

By David Tanabe posted 07-08-2023
BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Author: Gemma (Yoon Jeung) Jo University of Minnesota Law School Juris Doctor Candidate, 2024 Judicial Extern to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kesha Tanabe In United States v. Kelley , 70 F.4th 482 (8th Cir. 2023), the Eighth Circuit affirmed a district court’s order granting a receiver’s motion to wind up a receivership, including approval of its fees, a final accounting, and record-retention policies. The Eighth Circuit held that a creditor had waived its ability to object to the receiver’s motion under a prior settlement agreement. It further held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by approving the ...