Learn how to help your clients generate revenue stream from the intellectual property they already own! Many of your clients are ready to take their intellectual property rights to the next level...are you ready to advise them? Join us via the Internet on September 8, 2016 for this in-depth look at how you can help your clients achieve their business goals and avoid the pitfalls created by licensing their intellectual property. Intellectual property attorneys and general practitioners with basic practice experience who attend this online seminar will better understand: the benefits of licensing; how to use licensing to leverage intellectual property; what types of intellectual property should be licensed; the various types of licenses and what each protects; important terms of licensing agreements and the difference between assignment and licensing; using intellectual property as collateral; how to monitor licensees; addressing and resolving licensing disputes; and keeping an eye out for antitrust concerns. 

The USAO has one Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) position available in the Criminal Division in our Fairview Heights office. The United States Attorney's Office (USAO), Southern District of Illinois (SDIL), is a fast-paced, collegial, and energetic office which seeks to maintain the highest standards of excellence in the enforcement of federal laws and the representation of the United States.  Our headquarters are located in Fairview Heights, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, MO.  Our branch offices are located in Benton and East St. Louis, in or near the federal courthouse. The office presently employs 32 attorneys and 34 support staff.

Join the Illinois Bar Foundation and the Friends of Tom Leahy for a Leahy Memorial Happy Hour on Thursday, September 8 in Chicago to celebrate the life of Tom Leahy. The proceeds from this event will support the Foundation's Legal Fellowships program at Tom's alma mater, Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Tickets are $100 and sponsorship opportunities are available. For tickets and sponsorship information, please call 312-726-6072 or click here. 

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the managing partner of a five lawyer firm in Denton, Texas. We have the opportunity of acquiring a sole owner practice in a nearby city with a complimentary practice area. We have had one meeting and our firm is interested. We want to initially do a quick and dirty due diligence so see whether this firm is really a qualified opportunity. What sort of information should we ask for?

Members of the ISBA Traffic Law Section attended the annual National College for DUI Defense 2016 Harvard Session at Austin Hall, Harvard Law School.

You may have been asked this by a client, or maybe your Aunt Mabel: "If I see a dog in a hot car, can I break the window to let it out?"

Not without breaking the law, writes Melissa Anne Maye in the June Animal Law newsletter. "Although a person might feel that it's worth taking the risk to save the dog, smashing in someone's car window constitutes Criminal Damage to Property," she writes, quoting 720 ILCS 5/21-1(a), which defines it as "knowingly damag[ing] any property of another."

"There is no exception for 'good intentions,'" Maye writes. And if the property damage exceeds $300 - likely in the case of a broken car window - the crime is a Class 4 felony. 

That doesn't mean the inhumane pet owners won't get theirs, though. Find out why in the August Illinois Bar Journal.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Department of Justice, is seeking an experienced attorney to work as a Division Counsel in the Chicago Field Division of DEA.  The position is part of the staff of DEA, Office of Chief Counsel and is located in Chicago, Illinois.

Job Description: 

The Division Counsel is involved in all legal matters and issues concerning the Chicago Field Division, including criminal, civil, and administrative law.  This includes substantive drug-related and money laundering statutes, investigative methods and techniques, search and seizure, electronic surveillance, interview and interrogation, evidence, discovery, drafting and reviewing legislative proposals relating to criminal law and procedure, and Federal sentencing guidelines, legal training, and legal review of operational policies and procedures.  It also includes matters relating to support of civil and administrative litigation, including regulatory issues under the Controlled Substances Act (21 USC § 801 et seq.), as well as personnel and fiscal law questions.

The new overtime regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, which take effect December 1, will impact many law-firm employers to the extent they have traditionally been paying, or not paying, employees with certain job responsibilities for hours worked in excess of 40 per week.

In general,  executive, administrative, and professional ("EAP") employees are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime provisions. According to the DOL's fact sheet, the Department has historically required three tests to be met before the FLSA's EAP exemption applies. See https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/overtime-factsheet.htm.

To qualify for the exemption, employees must (1) be paid a fixed, predetermined salary; (2) the amount paid must meet a specific minimum salary level; and (3) the employee's job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative, or professional duties.

The new rule raises the minimum salary from a weekly amount of $455 ($23,660 annually) to $913 per week ($47,476 annually), doing away with the requirement that the rate be an annual salary as opposed to a fixed hourly rate. Teachers, lawyers, and doctors are considered bona fide professionals under the rule; whether they make $913 per week is irrelevant. Law firms need to audit positions within their ranks to determine both whether the weekly amount and the duties tests are met.

Attorney Robert Duncan discusses 4 things you need to know about pleadings when starting your legal career.

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the managing partner of a 12-attorney firm in Providence, R.I. In our recent partner meetings we have been discussing ramping up marketing. How much should we be spending on marketing?