Your
friendly neighborhood technology counsel here: As you likely
know, my goal is to become THE Indiana technology lawyer;
however, technology is not my only area of interest. Like
many of the folks at Alerding Castor Hewitt, technology law
is a passion, but we all strive to be a full service law firm for
all businesses. Thus, in addition to tech stuff, I also
litigate matters for several banking and business clients.
And, as any good lawyer does, when I see changes in the law
that may...Read More »Your
friendly neighborhood technology counsel here: As you likely
know, my goal is to become THE Indiana technology lawyer;
however, technology is not my only area of interest. Like
many of the folks at Alerding Castor Hewitt, technology law
is a passion, but we all strive to be a full service law firm for
all businesses. Thus, in addition to tech stuff, I also
litigate matters for several banking and business clients.
And, as any good lawyer does, when I see changes in the law
that may...Read More »I must take a moment to open with a caveat. The study of
privacy and hence privacy law or privacy litigation is an analysis
that spans centuries. In fact, while it seems like privacy
issues have only recently come to the forefront with the advent of
technology, they have, in fact, been prevalent in ever major level
of recorded history. I put this point out there to help you
recognize that there are books and books addressing the issues of
privacy and my little foray into the issue is but a...Read More »
You might wonder why an Indiana law firm with a practice in several areas of technology (Indiana Internet Litigation, SaaS Legal Consulting to name just two) finds itself supporting a golf outing that raises money for adoption? "As a firm that prides itself on supporting the local community, we don't always align our charitable giving strictly to serve our immediate demographic. There are many organizations deserving of our support and Adoptions of Indiana is certainly one of them," comments...
Read More »Your friendly neighborhood technology counsel here: The
Indiana Supreme Court recently discussed the ability of a lay
witness to provide "expert" opinions in Sibbing v.
Cave, 922 N.E.2d 594 (Ind. 2010). In that
case, counsel asked the plaintiff what she believed caused her
pain. She responded something to the effect of "the bulging
disc in my lower back", and the opposing party objected based on a
lack of expert foundation. The basic argument to the trial
court was that this lay person...Read More »
Given the firm's
technology legal counsel and software litigation practice, it
only makes sense that the firm would support the prestigious
2010 Techpoint MIRA Awards Gala taking place on
Saturday, May 15th, 2010. It makes for a positive synergy
between the two groups.
The TechPoint Mira Awards, presented by BKD, is the premier technology awards program in the state of Indiana. Since the turn of the century, TechPoint has honored Indiana businesses, schools and universities, and individuals for...
Read More »
Your friendly neighborhood
technology legal counsel here to discuss with you the hidden
dangers lurking in your unassuming (and unread) terms of service
agreements. Janet Croswell, one of our fabulous tech lawyers,
posted back on February 10, 2010 about the pitfalls that businesses
face related to the clickwrap agreement (here's a link for those
playing along at home blog.alerdingcastor.com/blog/alerding-castor).
Now for those of you scratching your head and wondering what a
"clickwrap...Read More »
There is a good
article on the Mercury News Blog today on How dot-com
start-ups have changed 10 years later. The article
addresses the maturity of both technology companies and
US private equity investors over the last decade. It is
an interesting read.There has been a lot of activity in angel investor groups and venture capital investments in Indiana technology companies over the last few months. 2010 has definitely started with a bang at Alerding Castor Hewitt where we have helped five...Read More »
Congratulations
are in order to Brian Hewitt, the newest parter of Alerding Castor
Hewitt, LLP, who was recognized this week as one of Indiana's 2010
top 50 Super Lawyers.Brian concentrates his practice on estate, trust, and guardianship planning, administration, and litigation; and mediation and business law.
He is a Certified Estate Planning and Administration Specialist, a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and a member of the Probate Litigation Committee of the... Read More »
How
many times have you signed up for a service on-line, scrolled past
all the legal jargon, and clicked "I Accept" or "I Agree"
without taking the time to actually read the terms and conditions
you're agreeing to? Admit it. We all do it.
But, just as a warning to be careful the next time you're purchasing that new mp3, or more importantly signing your company up for something on-line... those shrink-wrap and click-wrap agreements have been held by the courts to be binding.
Contracting in...Read More »
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2010
Contact: Lainey Scheetz
317.403.9012
lscheetz@alerdingcastor.com
ALERDING CASTOR HEWITT LLP PARTNER NAMED TO FORTY UNDER 40
Indianapolis,
IN – Alerding Castor Hewitt LLP is pleased to announce that Michael
Alerding, a partner at the firm, has been named to the 2010
Indianapolis Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 list. The list
recognizes local business and professional leaders who have
achieved success and excelled in their field before the age of 40.
Those...
The United States
Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has granted certiori on a case in the
privacy litigation arena that focuses on the question of whether a
governmental employee has Fourth Amendment rights in the contents
of an employer issued pager. The case is City of Ontario
v. Quon (www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2008/06/18/0755282.pdf).
In Quon, the Ninth Circuit made several decisions.
It first decided that a third party company that provided
texting services to the City of Ontario was...Read More »I know that as your friendly neighborhood Indiana technology
counsel, I usually post wonderful things about privacy
litigation (look to see my blog on the Supreme Court taking up
a case of privacy expectation in texting) and other fun cyberspace
law, but today I'm going to digress for just a bit. Indiana
Senate Bill 192 has recently been introduced by State Senator Sue
Errington (D-Delaware County) and would govern how a hospital
applies visitation rights in a domestic partnership situation
(www...
Read More »
Closing
in on the end of 2009 I have to say that I am quite pleased
with the commitment Indiana showed this year to be a State that
supports and promotes innovation, entreprenuership and business
growth.This week I had breakfast with Larry O'Connor, Executive Director of Butler University's Business Accelerator. Larry is a former CEO of Bank One Indiana. Following his "retirement", Larry became CEO of The IndianapolisMuseumm of Art, and recently took the position to lead theAcceleratorr...Read More »
Interesting case (2009 WL
4261214) came across my desk. Not related to Indiana Internet
litigation, but interesting conundrum. The basic facts are
that client wanted to send e-mail response to his attorneys.
In adding the second attorney, he inadvertently sent it to a
third party. Through several forwards, it ends up at his
opposing counsel's desk. That counsel wants to use it in
litigation. Ultimately, the Idaho District Court found that
it was an inadvertent production and made the...Read More »A colleague of mine brought to my attention two recent federal
cases in which the courts elected to deny motions to compel
electronically stored information (ESI). In Kay Beer
Distributing v. Energy Brands, Inc.,the Eastern District of Wisconsin determined that, among
other things, Kay's request for every e-mail with their name in it
was too broad. The court also considered in its
determination the fact that Energy Brand's counsel had
offered to work with Kay to do more directed keyword...Read More »
So
you've launched your company and hired a web-developer to breathe
life into the idea you've poured your heart and soul into
developing over the past several months, perhaps even
years...Maybe you never even thought to ask the question, but at the end of the day who actually owns "your" website? You or the web designer?
Indiana software litigation in a ruling by the Supreme Court of Indiana, Conwell v. Gray Loon Outdoor Marketing Group, points to the fact that hiring a contractor for the...Read More »
What are your metrics for business success? I attended a
non-profit board meeting this past week where the directors were
working through this question - "How do we measure
success?"
A common metric that was discussed was # of volunteers in the organization in ___ years. Although this metric does measure growth, it does not measure the quality of growth. What if the volunteers are under committed, under trained or just plain lousy at their job? You may meet your metric but find that your...Read More »
A common metric that was discussed was # of volunteers in the organization in ___ years. Although this metric does measure growth, it does not measure the quality of growth. What if the volunteers are under committed, under trained or just plain lousy at their job? You may meet your metric but find that your...Read More »
As an admitted technophile, I can't help but look into all the
newest gizmos and gadgets. Plus, working at an information
technology law firm, I can even bill it sometimes. Thus, I've
recently begun a fascination with e-books. Jason Wilson
has done a very interesting set of blogs looking at the use
of e-books (or lack of use) for lawyers (www.jasnwilsn.com/).
Jason's viewpoint is as a counterpoint to a recent set of blogs by
Professor Eugene Volokh (volokh.com/2009/10/02/the-future-of-books-...
Read More »
There are several business blogs that I follow. Most of these
are written by SaaS law / Internet law clients of mine or other
Indiana businesses in technology industries. Lately I have
been falling behind on them. This morning I am trying to
catch up.
I came across a very good, brief video on Kristian Andersen + Associates' blog.
The video is from the Bigger Ideas/Smaller Indiana conference this past summer. In the video Kristian Andersen shares his feelings on central Indiana's business...Read More »
I came across a very good, brief video on Kristian Andersen + Associates' blog.
The video is from the Bigger Ideas/Smaller Indiana conference this past summer. In the video Kristian Andersen shares his feelings on central Indiana's business...Read More »
The TechPoint
Innovation Summit 2009 is finally here. I have been
looking forward to this event this year (which has not necessarily
been the case in past years). This year's focus is more tailored to helping seed and emerging stage Indiana technology companies pursue excellence in developing their innovation, marketing their innovation and seeking funding for their innovation. As an Indiana tech lawyer these topics hit right at heart of the needs I have wrestled through with my clients.
I...Read More »
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