Articles and Columns for May 2020

• How not to fall for coronavirus BS: avoid the 7 deadly sins of thought – Luke Zaphir, Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project, posits that amid the panicked flurry of the pandemic, employing concepts from the field of critical thinking called vice epistemology can be demonstrably useful. This theory argues our thinking habits and intellectual character traits cause poor reasoning. Zaphr targets for discussion 7 “intellectual sins” of which we should be mindful in these challenging times.
• Biological Informatics 2020 – We can and do depend upon Marcus P. Zillman’s ability to consistently provide LLRX readers with timely, informative and actionable subject matter resource guides. This month he provides an extensive bibliography on bioinformatics – “an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex.” This subject matter is especially important for researchers as the COVID-19 pandemic remains an active threat throughout America and around the world.
• How Law Firms Are Responding to COVID-19 [Survey Results] – On an individual level, lawyers and legal professionals are experiencing a mix of productivity challenges in a new and potentially permanently changed legal landscape. Martin Cogburn discusses the top productivity challenges individuals are facing, the tools they’re adopting, and their thoughts on the long term effects of COVID-19 on the legal industry.
• Small Kicks, Big Waves – Serving Justice for Expectant Mothers in the Business World – Karina Bihar is a student of Professor Dennis Kennedy at Michigan State College of Law. I am pleased to publish her timely and significant article. Bihar states: “…a higher number of mothers are entering the workforce than ever before…according the U.S. Department of Labor, 71.5% of mothers in the United States are working. However, there has been very little advancement made in society to help mothers maintain their working status. As a result, many mothers are forced into choosing lower paying jobs, part-time work, or leaving the workforce to care for young children, causing loss of earnings, gender pay gaps, and loss of valuable workers in the market.” Her struggles as an expectant mother in law school gave her greater awareness of the problems that career mothers need addressed and her article provides an actionable, innovative and well documented solution that merits the attention and tangible support of the legal education and professional communities.
• Re-Opening Your Law Firm: There’s a Bar Association Guide for That! After months of business closures, many states are beginning to slowly allow more essential businesses to open their doors. In most states, law firms will be among the first wave of businesses that are permitted to resume providing services to the public. This is a welcome development for lawyers, but one that comes hand in hand with uncertainty. After all, resuming business in the midst of a pandemic is uncharted territory, and opening your firm doesn’t mean you’ll be returning to business as usual. Attorney Nicole L. Black identifies the host of issues that must be considered when re-opening, not the least of which is to ensure that the health of both law firm employees and clients is protected.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, May 31, 2020 – Four highlights from this week: A flood of coronavirus apps are tracking us. Now it’s time to keep track of them; Johns Hopkins releases report on digital contact tracing to aid COVID-19 response; Coronavirus stimulus payments mistaken for junk mail; IRS issues clarification; and Reality bites: Data privacy edition.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, May 24, 2020 – Four highlights from this week: Half of Americans decided not to use something over privacy concerns in past year; How much access to data should be permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic?; Sharing Senior Photos On Social Media Enables Data Mining, Better Business Bureau Warns; and Apple, Google to harness phones for virus infection tracking.Foreign Hackers Swipe Millions in Unemployment Benefits; An Apple whistleblower has publicly slammed the company, claiming it violated ‘fundamental rights’ after Siri recorded users’ intimate moments without consent; Google censored search results after bogus copyright claims; and COVID-19 data sharing with law enforcement sparks concern.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, May 16, 2020 – Four highlights from this week: Zoom bolsters policy and engineering teams as it courts government; The lack of women in cybersecurity leaves the online world at greater risk; How to Set Your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to Control Who Sees What; and UK accidentally leaves contact-tracing app plans on open Google Drive.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, May 10, 2020 – Four highlights from this week: Contact-Tracing Apps in the United States; Employment-Related Identity Fraud: Improved Collaboration and Other Actions Would Help IRS and SSA Address Risks; How My Boss Monitors Me While I Work From Home; and Report: “We Chat, They Watch: and How International Users Unwittingly Build up WeChat’s Chinese Censorship Apparatus.“
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, May 2, 2020 – Four highlights from this week: Managers turn to surveillance software to ensure employees are (really) working from home; Coronavirus impact: Meat processing plants weigh risks of prosecution if they’re blamed for spreading infection; How Cybercriminals are Weathering COVID-19; Zoom or Not?; and NSA Offers Agencies Guidance for Choosing Videoconference Tools.

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