July 2017 Archives

The New York State Department of Health (DOH) has released the draft New York City Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD) for public comment. The FAD sets forth the requirements that New York City must follow to continue to avoid filtering its Catskill/Delaware water supply and to ensure safe drinking water for more than 9.5 million New Yorkers. 

In anticipation of the final FAD being issued this year, the draft has been released for a 45-day public comment period, ending September 5, 2017. 

To view the draft FAD and for instructions on how to comment, visit DOH's New York City's Filtration Avoidance Determination webpage

The patent drafting software, dubbed RoboReview, automates paralegal work, bringing more rigor to the task of researching prior art and potentially saving thousands of dollars on a filing. It's sold as a subscription product on an unlimited or per-use basis.

"Typically this review is done by humans doing multiple searches," says James Billmaier, TurboPatent's chief executive officer. "Very seasoned attorneys are amazed at things the machine finds that they miss in these very technically written documents."

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Adobe announced it would end support for the multimedia plug-in Flash by the end of 2020. 

"Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats," the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. 

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I've written about my move to a new home and the technology I'm using. With the move came a search for a new alarm system. I looked at "smart alarm" solutions, but ultimately, I installed a system from SimpliSafe. It's not fancy, and it's certainly not tech-forward. But it was friendly on the budget and after a few initial hiccups seems to work as advertised.

Account takeovers by cybercriminals are on the rise and increasingly practitioners are the targets. Heed the advice of the IRS, state tax agencies and industry partners: Don't Take the Bait.

For more information, visit Protect Your Clients, Protect Yourself.

Dear General Practice Section member:

The 2017 American Bar Association Annual Meeting is headed to New York, August 10 - 15.  The ABA is working with the NYSBA General Practice Section, along with other Local/Affinity Bar Associations and New York Law Firms, on the new CLE in the City Series, in conjunction with the ABA Annual Meeting. 

This innovative set of programs offers:

·         12 specialty tracks to fit your legal interest

·         4.5 CLE credits with over 30+ sessions

·         Affordable tickets without a meeting registration fee - $25/session

·         Programs presented at leading law firms or special venues in midtown Manhattan

We are excited to share with you the CLE in the City brochure.  Registration is now open!

Register today to secure your place at the CLE in the City Series.  You can purchase individual program tickets for $25 without registering for the ABA Annual Meeting by entering the promo code LAP during the registration process.  You must reside within the Tri-State area to take advantage of this great offer. You do not have to be an ABA member to take advantage of these unique CLE programs. Click here to register.

Included with your $25 CLE in the City ticket:

Bonus CLE 

Thursday, August 10 | 4 - 5:30 p.m. | Bright Insight: Key Business Drivers and Trends Affecting Real Estate Decision-Making (CLE Accreditation Requested) | New York Hilton Midtown

Reception

Thursday, August 10 | 5:30 - 7 p.m. | Trial of Two Pizzas (New York v. Chicago) and Reception | ABA EXPO | New York Hilton Midtown

If you would like to attend other exciting events being offered at the ABA Annual Meeting, please visit the website www.ambar.org/annual.  General ABA Annual Meeting registration is open with registration fees starting as low as $95.00.   

We look forward to seeing you in August.

To try to get more concrete information on the current state of affairs, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon who has a reputation of being a privacy advocate, recently sent a letter to Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with questions on the current policies.  I encourage you to read the full response as posted by the Washington Post, as well as the article by Brian Fung of the Post, but here are four parts of the response that jumped out a me.

Find out how to protect your clients from emails that claim they are from the IRS by watching this YouTube video.

A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the 2015 corruption conviction of Sheldon Silver, the once-powerful New York State Assembly speaker who obtained nearly $4 million in illicit payments in return for taking official actions that benefited others, according to evidence presented at his trial.

In vacating Mr. Silver's conviction, the appellate court cited a United States Supreme Court ruling last year involving Bob McDonnell, a former Republican governor of Virginia, that narrowed the definition of the kind of official conduct that can serve as the basis of a corruption prosecution.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan concluded, in light of the Supreme Court's narrower definition, that the jury instructions given by the judge in Mr. Silver's trial were erroneous and that a properly instructed jury might not have convicted him.

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Full text of Decision-click link below:

http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/0579cf52-4c1f-450e-ad78-2d637953e1ce/1/doc/16-1615_opn.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/0579cf52-4c1f-450e-ad78-2d637953e1ce/1/hilite/

Earlier today, the United States filed a civil complaint to forfeit thousands of cuneiform tablets and clay bullae. As alleged in the complaint, these ancient clay artifacts originated in the area of modern-day Iraq and were smuggled into the United States through the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, contrary to federal law. Packages containing the artifacts were shipped to Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. ("Hobby Lobby"), a nationwide arts-and-crafts retailer based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and two of Hobby Lobby's corporate affiliates. The shipping labels on these packages falsely described cuneiform tablets as tile "samples."

The government also filed a stipulation of settlement with Hobby Lobby, in which Hobby Lobby consented to the forfeiture of the artifacts in the complaint, approximately 144 cylinder seals and an additional sum of $3 million, resolving the civil action. Hobby Lobby further agreed to adopt internal policies and procedures governing its importation and purchase of cultural property, provide appropriate training to its personnel, hire qualified outside customs counsel and customs brokers, and submit quarterly reports to the government on any cultural property acquisitions for the next eighteen months.

The complaint and stipulation of settlement were announced by Bridget M. Rohde, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York.

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Similar to a "phishing" scam -- where computer users receive an authentic-looking email that appears to be from their bank, Internet Service Provider (ISP), favorite store, or other organization - "smishing" messages are sent to you via SMS (text message) on your mobile phone.

What does the sender want? To defraud you

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