Trainees on the cheap

Legal Cheek’s Alex Aldridge has blogged on the potential tumble that trainee solicitor’s salaries will take in England if they are re-classified as apprentices under Solicitors Regulation Authority proposals.
The current salary of £18,590 in central London and £16,650 outside could fall drastically – perhaps as low as £5,408. Mr Aldrige points out: ‘Trainee solicitors working in areas such as legal aid would, under the proposals, earn less than half what someone on the national minimum wage of £6.08 an hour takes home.’

Clowning around in court

It’s said that no one really looks forward to jury service, but it’s never a great idea to lie to get out of it, especially if you plan on bragging about your deception on a radio show as well, writes Stephanie Rabiner from Findlaw’s Legally Weird blog.
However, Susan Cole from Denver certainly thought it would be a great idea. In fact, she even faked post-traumatic stress disorder – allegedly turning up to court in hair curlers, odd shoes, and, of course, clown makeup – to dupe the judge.
Wanting to gain some acknowledgement for her crafty exploits, Ms Cole, 57, decided to brag to a local radio show. Unfortunately for her, one of the listeners was none other than the presiding judge, Ann Mansfield.
Ms Cole now faces charges of first-degree perjury and attempting to influence a public service, each of which carries a hefty fine and up to six years behind bars.

‘Timeline’ demands firms’ attention

Merrilyn Astin Tarlton from the Attorney at Work blog has encouraged firms using Facebook business pages to embrace the new ‘Timeline’ style, which became the only page format available at the end of March.
Ms Tarlton says the flexibility of the format will be a welcome addition: ‘With Timeline on your business page, it’s going to be much easier to look like a pro and have some control over your message.’
However, in many ways, it is the same old story. ‘It’s still all about traffic and the ability to interact. The only way continually to attract attention to your law firm’s Facebook page is via constant updates to it.’

Chinese intellectual property take-away

For the second time in a few months, principles encouraged by the China Law blog have taken a substantial hit, explains Dan Harris.
Firstly, Mr Harris began to find that his proposals on ‘problemfree outsourcing’ in China were starting to fail. Now, he has had to concede that his statement that, ‘if you combine best legal practices with best operational practices, you’ll do just fine in China,’ might not be the solid advice he would like it to be.
He writes that even those companies who appear to have taken all necessary steps are having their intellectual property stolen in China. ‘Though a good contract and a good IP registration increase the ability to trust, neither of them equal total control.’

Dog days in Michigan

The Michigan Liquor Control Commission has come under John Mesirow’s magnifying glass at Legal Juice, as its naming convention decisions have led to a lawsuit brought by the Flying Dog Brewery.
Apparently, Flying Dog is upset that the commission has ‘censored its free speech’ by rejecting labels for ‘Raging Bitch’ – the brewer’s 20th anniversary India Pale Ale.
On its own, this may not seem to be a bad verdict, but when Mr Mesirow considers Flying Dog’s approved labels, he finds the decision becomes something of a head-scratcher.
On the OK list already are ‘Doggie Style’ Classic Pale Ale, ‘In Heat Wheat’ Hefeweizen Ale, and the simple Grand Rapids brew with the name ‘Dirty Bastard’, crafted by Founders.