Blogs

BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Author: Stanley Chow University of Minnesota Law School Juris Doctor Candidate, 2025 Judicial Extern to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kesha Tanabe In Department of Agriculture Rural Development Rural Housing Service v. Kirtz , 144 S. Ct. 457 (2024), the Justices unanimously rejected the government’s claim to sovereign immunity under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (the “FCRA”). In the underlying case , the plaintiff sued a federal agency, seeking monetary damages for its failure to correct inaccurate information on a consumer credit report. The plaintiff sought relief under the FCRA pursuant to 11 U.S.C. ...

2024 ABA Techshow Recap

The 2024 ABA Techshow held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago kicked off with its annual Start-Up Pitch Competition on Valentine’s Day. Representatives from fifteen legal tech companies gave their pitches, all hoping for the audience’s vote to win the competition. It was apparent from the pitches that generative AI (GAI) was once again going to be the featured topic of the Techshow, only this year the focus was on how to integrate it into legal tech and the practice of law. Interestingly, the start-up that won this year’s competition was AltFee, which is not using GAI but is responding to the workflow changes and efficiencies law firms will see when ...
BANKRUPTCY BULLETIN Contributing Author: Nauni Manty , Manty & Associates, P.A. In In re Sand, 2023 WL 7449957 (Bankr. D. Minn. November 9, 2023), the bankruptcy court analyzed the personal goods exemption under Minn. Stat. § 550.37, subd. 4(b) which states, in part: “[h]ousehold furniture, household appliances, phonographs, radio and television receivers of the debtor and debtor’s family, not exceeding $11,250 in value.” The trustee objected to the debtor’s exemption of various household goods and appliances, including a computer, DVD player, printer, DSLR camera, a GoPro camera, snowblower and tools under Minn. Stat. § 550.37, ...
This post is from attorney Jared Correia, owner of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, one of MSBA's Advantage Partners . *** It can’t happen to you until it does. I’m talking about the business disaster that could strike your law firm at any moment: flood, fire, data breach, device breakdown, smoke damage, truck carrying 30 , 000 pounds of bananas careening out of control . . . Well, you get the picture. Because any law firm could be struck by disaster, every law firm should develop and maintain a disaster recovery program. T he primary co mponent o f any disaster ...
Hi! I have a colleague looking for someone in the LA area who might be willing to review an HOA's declaration of covenants. PC willing to pay just a little something for the initial review.
Have you looked at your profile on MSBA's website or LinkedIn lately? Now that we are getting into the swing of 2024, it's time to see if your online profiles need refreshing. One of the quickest ways to update your online profiles is to upload a new profile photo, especially if you've gotten a new hairdo, grown a moustache or beard, changed glasses, or otherwise updated your look. If you need a new professional-looking photo, watch for upcoming conferences that may offer a headshot booth you can take advantage of. Updating MSBA Profiles There are two places to update your photo with MSBA. Log in to My Account on the main MSBA website. On the My Account ...
Non-clients sometimes make claims to funds that lawyers are holding in trust. A recent case provides guidance on the unique provisions of the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) relating to such claims. An unmarried couple, Abby and Bob, bought a house together. Abby and Bob’s relationship ended and they listed the house for sale. Abby’s lawyer, Cass, understood that Abby had satisfied certain of Bob’s claims to the equity in the house and the large majority of the sale proceeds should go to Abby, with the remainder to Bob. Bob’s lawyer, Dana, told Cass that Bob claimed more of the proceeds than Cass understood, but Dana would not provide ...

Career opportunity

If you know anyone who is looking for a position in the St. Cloud and Brainerd areas we are hiring an associate to work at our Brainerd and St. Cloud offices, with an opportunity for remote work. It is expected that the position will transition to primarily at the St. Cloud office. The primary practice area will be family, with work in other areas as well. Ed
This article was previously published in Minnesota Lawyer on December 18, 2023. *** The “Single Mistake” Disciplinary Doctrine Among the “Summary Dismissal Guidelines” that the Lawyers Board has maintained for nearly forty years is one stating, “Complaints that principally involve an isolated allegation of malpractice are often summarily dismissed, without prejudice.” [i] The main example considered by the Board in adopting this guideline was summary dismissal of an ethics complaint alleging the untimely filing of a pleading. Likewise, the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility (OLPR) has repeatedly informed ...
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 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 ...
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

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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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

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
Have not used Carl before, if anyone has worked with him as an evaluator and has thoughts please contact me off list. Thanks Ed
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 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 ...