Silicon valley execs

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that they charged 74-year-old John Kapoor, the founder and majority owner of Insys Therapeutics Inc., for bribing doctors to prescribe a powerful opioid to people who didn’t need it. The medicine was a fentanyl-based narcotic called “subsys.”It was meant for fighting pain in cancer patients, but doctors allegedly proscribed it to people without the disease.“In the midst of a nationwide opioid epidemic that has reached crisis proportions, Mr. Kapoor and his company stand accused of bribing doctors to overprescribe a potent opioid and committing fraud on insurance companies solely for profit,” said Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb in a statement. “Today’s arrest and charges reflect our ongoing efforts to attack the opioid crisis from all angles. We must hold the industry and its leadership accountable – just as we would the cartels or a street-level drug dealer.”Some … [Read more...] about Pharma Exec Bribed Doctors to Prescribe Potent Opioids to Patients Who Didn’t Need Them, Feds Say

Rick Klau thought he was a curious choice to be the keynote speaker at this year’s ABA Techshow. After all, he has never practiced law professionally and has spent most of his professional life running Internet startups. Indeed, since 2011, he’s been a product partner for Google Ventures, which links up entrepreneurs from portfolio companies with experts at Google.However, Klau’s time in ever-changing Silicon Valley has given him unique insight into what legal professionals need to do to innovate and stay ahead of the curve. During his keynote address, Klau shared some of his insights and experiences with conference attendees, and he encouraged members of the legal industry to follow Google’s example when it comes to bringing about change.Klau shared three important lessons he has learned during his time in Silicon Valley, adding that they could easily be applied to the legal industry.Klau’s first lesson: He emphasized the importance of using data to … [Read more...] about 3 lessons for legal innovators from startup exec Rick Klau

THE TICKER A sawyer carries a cut of machine grade steel to be shipped throughout the Pacific Northwest at the Pacific Machinery & Tool Steel Company on March 6, 2018 in Portland, Oregon (Natalie Behring/Getty Images) Business executives across the country are registering alarm about the Trump team's aggressive push on trade — even as the president's base largely embraces the moves. The Fed’s latest beige book report released Wednesday  — for which each of the nation’s 12 regional banks survey business leaders, investors and economists in their areas — included 36 mentions of tariffs. The last such survey, published in early March, included none. These widespread fears of a trade war are darkening the picture for an economy otherwise expanding at a healthy clip, and stand in stark contrast to recent polling that shows GOP voters are lining up behind Trump in his trade fight with China.  In Washington, the Trump … [Read more...] about The Finance 202: Fed report shows business execs worry about Trump’s trade moves

Since its inception under the Immigration Act of 1990, the H-1B visa has been a controversial program.  The H-1B visa is a temporary work visa for non-immigrant workers in a specialty occupation and requires a higher degree or its equivalent.[1] This visa program is arguably the most important temporary work visa, and has been simultaneously portrayed as both as the means to a more competitive American workforce,[2] and as a device for usurping high-skill jobs and competitive pay from “native-born” American workers.[3]This paper aims to address these two contradicting perceptions in order to ultimately show that the H-1B visa is a positive and necessary program that needs to be fully understood and promoted. Part II of this paper will be an overview of the H-1B visa program, discussing the program’s background and history in order to put the program into context. Part III will discuss the current effects and benefits of the H-1B visa program. It will also outline … [Read more...] about The H-1B Visa Program: Its Contradictory Perception And Why the U.S. Must Increase The Visa Cap

Every year, we see stories and musings about the death of blogging. Yet we keep finding new law blogs to pour into our directory. Even after we delete defunct and lapsed blogs, we count more than 3,000 in our listings. So for now, at least, reports that blogging is on its way out are greatly exaggerated.That’s especially true for blogs written with personality, passion and enthusiasm. New niche blogs pop up all the time—and those that are smartly written, teach us something and introduce us to new perspectives will catch and keep our attention.In our 4th annual Blawg 100, we organized a bit differently and created some new categories. Yet we know that many blogs defy categories. We have a “lighter fare” grouping, but you can find witty and funny blogs in any category. More of our readers had a hand in the selections this time around: We received more than 1,250 blawg amici, or friend-of-the-blawg, nominations; you’ll see some of the testimonials on the … [Read more...] about The 4th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100