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I was recently published on The Huffington Post examining the concept of trusted online communities, online identity and the shaping a global democracy online. The chance to establish norms for justice over the Internet that transcend international boundaries is something the world, and the legal community in particular, can drive to secure rights both on and offline: The changes resulting from the rise of the Internet are taking hold, and the legal community has yet to catch up to the way the world is now interacting. As our modes of business and daily interactions take place increasingly over the Web, the world is beginning to define theRead More →

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This year Internet Bar Organization is co-organizing the international ODR2014 Conference, which will take place from June 25-27 at UC Hastings and Stanford Law. I am excited about the agenda we have put together, which includes many of my closest colleagues. Here is a preview I wrote about a data security presentation by one of my board members Demetrios Eleftheriou, along with the brilliant Anjli Garg: At the Stanford Law program at ODR2014 (June 26-27), two of the world’s leading thinkers on protecting private information, Anjli Garg and Demetrios Eleftheriou, will explore the disputes that can arise when companies handle personal data (PD) and how to avoid them. In their recent articleRead More →

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When it comes to legal education at a grassroots level, I am drawn to strong initiatives that provide access to justice training, both in the U.S. and beyond. A key player in these efforts is Street Law, Inc, a nonprofit Washington, DC organization dedicated to educating students and communities across the world about their legal rights, about global human rights, and about democracy at the local and international level. Finding established change agents like Street Law which have been working at the grassroots level for years is a gift. The need for global communities to learn to empower themselves in terms of legal education, humanRead More →

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RAMON MULLERAT – A Visionary and Inspirational Leader in the Law Leaves us too soon. The lawyer, jurist and specialist in international arbitration Ramón Mullerat Balmaña passed away on the morning of May 31, 2013. Ramón was President of the Council of the European lawyers (CCBE) in 1996 and a great promoter of the internationalization of law. After a fifty year professional career, Ramón was recognized internationally as an arbitrator. He was a lawyer in schools in Barcelona and Madrid, in the Court of Paris, Honorary Member of the Law Society of England and Wales, and ex-co president of the Human Rights Institute of theRead More →

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What a story. Really delves into so many issues we read about every day. Power without accountability corrupts. There are so many places where power resides, and, the question of to whom the power holders are accountable is the ultimate question in my mind. I’ve always felt that it’s with all of us – ordinary citizens. Not the media, not the politicians, not even the jurists (many of whom seem tied to a political agenda); Media, politics, the judicial system – power resides there and, it’s up to all of us to call it to account. Poverty, environmental disaster, war, anything evil – raises itsRead More →

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After having completed several projects in Africa, Brazil and Haiti – PeaceTones is poised to go to Kenya and begin scaling its scope by offering more services to musicians everywhere.  To get there, we need your help. First, to see what we are doing – take a look at this link which tells our story – in a contest  Q and A format – https://www.vnistories.com/Page/ViewIdea?ideaid=213&foolIE6=1#comment_674 So it’s pretty exciting to see how we’ve grown from a simple idea of empowering musicians to developing a fair trade music model that features “Songs of Justice” !! Please vote for PeaceTones to win the Cisco contest and help usRead More →

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This story about a global cybercriminal network is an example of how challenging it is for cops to get the robbers.  They did in this case, congrats to the cops!! Laws don’t stop cybercriminals from crossing borders with increasingly sophisticated schemes.  If you read to the end of the article, the quiet mention of who will  bear the loss (the cops didn’t recover anywhere near all that was stolen) is unresolved.  That’s a fault of the global legal system.  And there is no solution in site. Eight Charged in 45-million Global Cyber Bank Thefts, New York Times.Read More →

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http://ning.it/zL1634 The False Ideals of the Web – op ed piece by Jaron Lanier “The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, which is being considered in the House while the Senate looks at a similar bill, is deemed the worst thing ever. Popular sites like Wikipedia staged a blackout on Wednesday to protest the bills. Google put a black banner over its name. Nothing quite like that has ever happened before. This is extraordinary, because it shows that belief in the priority of fighting SOPA is so absolute as to trump the stated nonpartisan missions of these sites.” Absolute positions are not the foundationRead More →

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I am a member of the eLawyering Task Force of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section (LPM).   LPM is one of the ABA’s sections which houses thousands of lawyers who pay attention to the business of being a lawyer.  Recently, there has been a lot of comment on the email threads from task force members about LegalZoom’s legal battles. Richard Granat, one of the eLawyering Task Force co-chairs, and a long time friend, posted recently in the email list – much of what he wrote is public information, and a good bit summarized the activities of the Task Force in the early 2000sRead More →

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The American Bar Association plays a key role in setting a policy framework that States look to when regulating the conduct of lawyers.  The current Ethics commission debates have reached an impasse on the topic of virtual practice.  See  20120619_draft_release_for_comment_rule_5_5_comment_4_virtual_practice . But as any tax lawyer or any international business lawyer will tell you,  jurisdictional boundaries for the practice of law are problematic when either your subject matter or your clients’ business crosses state boundaries.  Tax lawyers advise on the consequences of 50 state tax laws and federal tax law routinely.  International business lawyers structure global transactions taking into account the laws of multiple jurisdictions.  I am not familiarRead More →