By Peter LaSorsa
I know the title of this article sounds like a germ that may overtake the country but relax it’s something less threatening but of importance nonetheless. Before we start with IPv6 we need to discuss IPv4. Everyone is on the Internet and logging into your computer from home or work is seamless. Behind the scenes, what really takes place is a number known as an Internet Protocol or “IP” address identifies the sender and receiver of information being sent over the Internet. Currently the industry standard for obtaining the IP address is the IPv4 protocol, however that standard will be changing in June 2011. The reason for the change is that the IPv4 protocol is running out of IP addresses—much like with the explosion of cellular phones, the wireless wavelength bands are being overtaken.
The solution to this problem is IPv6. IPv6 will give another 340 trillion IP addresses and serve to be the new standard. Why should you care and how does this affect you? Well in the future you will need to upgrade at a minimum your router or firewall or both. Now the good news is the future may be 2014 or so. There are several reasons not to run out and purchase IPv6 routers and firewalls at this time. First, many Internet Service Providers don’t have the proper technology in place to offer IPv6 services so your IPv6 router or firewall would not work. Second, even though IPv6 is rolling out in June 2011, the old IPv4 will still work and no immediate change is needed.
Practice News
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May 5, 2011 |
Practice News
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May 4, 2011 |
Practice News
Bad news for plaintiffs’ lawyers – the common fund doctrine does not apply to health care liens, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled recently. The case is Wendling v Southern Illinois Hospital Services -- find out more in the May Illinois Bar Journal.
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May 4, 2011 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am the Executive Director of a 75 attorney firm in Miami. We are meeting in a few months to revise our strategic plan. Some of our partners have suggested that as a result of the current business and economic climate that we start with a clean sheet of paper. Where should we start? What do you see as the key questions that we should be addressing? A. Strategic planning is essentially a five-step process. The first step begins be asking questions. Start by asking the following questions: 1. What substantive issues does the firm face today? 2. What issues will the firm face tomorrow? 3. How has technology impacted (or will impact) how the firm conducts business and delivers services to clients? 4. What are we doing and doing well? 5. What are we not doing well? 6. What do we need to improve or enhance? 7. What metrics will tell us how we are doing? 8. What should be eliminated? 9. What are we not doing that we should be doing? 10. What kind of training will we need to plan for?
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May 1, 2011 |
ISBA News | Practice News
Choice of Business Entities Covenant not to Compete
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April 29, 2011 |
Practice News
More Illinois lawyers provided free legal services during the economic downturn according to the ARDC Annual Report. The report indicates that 29,276 Illinois attorneys provided a total of 2,328,770 pro bono legal service hours last year - a 6% increase over 2009. The number of lawyers making monetary contributions increased 6% as well, with a total contribution of $15,266,660. Grievances against Illinois attorneys continue to decline. The Commission docketed 5,617 investigations, a 3.7% decrease from 2009 and the fewest number of docketed investigations in 18 years. The top three areas of a grievance involve problems with the client-attorney relationship including allegations of neglect (38% of all investigations), failing to communicate (21%) and conduct involving fraud or deceit (15%). Consistent with prior years, the top areas of practice most likely to lead to a grievance include criminal law, domestic relations, tort and real estate. The report shows that the Master Roll of Attorneys continues to increase. The lawyer population in Illinois rose to 86,657 as of Oct. 31, 2010. That does not include the 2,117 attorneys sworn-in in November. That total is a 2.2% increase over 2009. The counties with the greatest increase in attorney population include McHenry (3.2%), Will (2.5%), Lake (2.4%) and Cook (2.4%).
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April 28, 2011 |
Practice News
The Israeli Consulate in New York and the Office of the Legal Advisor at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (AAJLJ), will hold an international Conference on Legal Challenges in Israeli Policy and Advocacy, on June 27-28, in New York. Discussions will focus on:
- Law and Security: the legal framework in the fight against terrorism; operational dilemmas; methods of investigation
- International institutions: challenges facing Israel within the United Nations system; the international legal sphere and the US Legal system
- Law and advocacy: responding to campaigns of delegitimization and "Iawfare"; taking the legal initiative; presenting Israel's case and advancing informed discussion
- Key issues in Israel-Palestinian negotiations: updates and insights from Israel's negotiations with its neighbors
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April 28, 2011 |
Practice News
By Peter LaSorsa There is a constant battle between search engines and business people who provide search engine optimization (“SEO”) services. Mega search engines like Google are always trying to return the most relevant content to users for a given search term string. In order to accomplish this task search engines utilize algorithms. An algorithm is just a sophisticated formula that is secret but allows search engines to read millions of websites and deliver links to those sites in a numerical ranking. So if you type in Chicago personal injury lawyer, Google wants to return the most relevant Chicago personal injury lawyers. The key word here is “relevant”. So Google would want to have the top ten listings on the first page of the search results be the top 10 Chicago personal injury lawyers. In design, that would be the top ten websites that the search engine believes belong to the top ten Chicago personal injury lawyers. The most recent problem for Google is that search engine optimizers learned how to manipulate Google’s algorithm to make low-quality writing more visible than quality content.
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April 27, 2011 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. Our firm is a 12 attorney general practice firm located in the Phoenix metropolitan area. In additional to general practice, we do a fair amount of insurance defense work as well. In an effort to improve firm profitability we have been considering alternative fee arrangements - particularlly contingency fees - with some of our existing clients as well as venturing into personal injury plaintiff work. Can we improve profitability by doing more contingency fee work? A. The CEO of the Howrey LLP, when interviewed about the law firm's recent dissolution, advised that deferred profits from contingency fee work led to the firm's demise. Howrey is a good illustration of what can happen when the risks of contingency fee work is not considered or managed. Contingency-fee work can pose major risks for law firms, as they earn no fees if they lose those cases and sometimes have profits deferred in protracted litigation. In addition, cases can be lost with no fee whatsoever received. Whether your firm is considering "big deal" litigation or bread and butter run of the mill personal injury litigation you may want to consider the following: 1. Don't dabble in contingency fee work. Take it seriously and insure that your case portfolio is adequately diversified. 2. Reduce case portfolio risk and improve case profitability by implementing a sound case intake system to insure that you are selecting quality cases. 3. Realize that you have to spend money to make money and that you simply may not have the financial resources to take on certain cases. Learn how to say no and when to refer these cases out to others. 4.
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April 27, 2011 |
Practice News
The Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee is seeking comment on a proposal to explicitly allow jurors to question witnesses in civil trials. That proposal, and others, will be aired at a public hearing of the Rules Committee on Friday, May 20 in Chicago. Anyone wishing to testify at the public hearing should advise the Committee in writing no later than Friday, May 13. Those wishing to offer written comments should submit them by Friday, May 6. The proposal which would allow jurors to question witnesses would represent a significant change in current Illinois civil trial practice. Currently, there is no Illinois Supreme Court rule that explicitly authorizes jurors to ask questions in civil trials. Neither is there a rule that explicitly prohibits Illinois judges from permitting the practice. In fact, it rarely occurs in Illinois trials. Proponents of the proposal say that Illinois judges are reluctant to allow juror questioning without guidance from the Illinois Supreme Court. Hence, the discussion whether a new Supreme Court rule is needed. Those who favor the proposal have stated that more than half of all states and all of the federal circuits permit jurors to submit written questions for witnesses at the discretion of the trial judge. The proposal before the Rules Committee would also provide Illinois judges with discretion. This is how the proposed procedure would work:
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April 27, 2011 |
Practice News
There isn't much money in it. Often there isn't any. But serving as appointed counsel is a way to gain invaluable courtroom experience and remind yourself why you went to law school in the first place. Find out more in the May IBJ.