In 2016, when the Greensboro Legal Aid office lost the funding necessary to provide representation for members of the community navigating Domestic Violence, or “DV,” court, Tom Robins, an attorney at Bunch & Robins and member of the Family Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, stepped up.
In discussing his decision to begin this project, Tom is practical, and it is easy to see why he’s been a successful family law attorney for decades.
“Legal Aid wasn’t in a position to accept these cases, and it’s what I do so, naturally, it’s what I can do to help. I then asked some other lawyers if they would be willing to take it on.”
On October 12, 2022, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.(AWF) vs. Lynn Goldsmith, et al.[1] The main issue revolves around “transformative” use under the Copyright Act[2] and how transformative the work must be to be protected by the doctrine of Fair Use and not infringe another’s copyright.[3] In 1994, the Supreme Court considered a case regarding transformative use, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., in which the Court held that 2 Live Crew’s parody on Roy Orbison’s song, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” was protected under fair use and that the lower court erred in finding otherwise because they solely looked at the commercial nature without weighing the other fair use factors.[4] The Court also defined “transformative” as “add[ing] something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with [a] new expression, meaning, or message.”[5] The more a work transforms the original, the less the other fair use factors will weigh in the analysis because transforming a work emphasizes “the heart of the fair use doctrine’s guarantee of breathing space within the confines of copyright.”[6] Transformative use also came up in 2020 with Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., where the Court found Google’s use of a portion of code from the Sun Java API, a computer program using Java programming language, to be “new” and “transformative” enough to constitute fair use.[7]
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00IntellectualPropertyhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngIntellectualProperty2022-12-06 10:49:122022-12-06 10:49:40Transforming Transformative Use: A Synopsis of Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith
Salim Uqdah, a Dispute Resolution Council Member and Co-Chair of the Dispute Resolution Pro Bono Committee, discusses his journey to certification for North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission’s Superior Court, Family Financial, and Clerk Mediation programs.
What got you interested in the Dispute Resolution field?
There are two answers to that question. A quick summary is that sometimes, you have to be lost to find your true purpose.
In 2016-2017, I felt lost and conflicted. I no longer wanted to pursue law school, and my crisis of faith and identity felt overwhelming and nerve-racking. After six to seven months of research, I realized that mediation was a viable option for me; it also helped to have the ADR coordinator sitting one cubicle behind me. I took the MSC training in March and opened my company, Uroboros Mediations, in June 2018. I gained expertise in other areas, like divorce coaching, collaborative law neutral facilitation, arbitration in FINRA cases, and dispute system design.
This month’s Paralegal Spotlight is on Johana Sanchez, a Paralegal at Armendariz Law Office, PLLC.
Johana began her legal career in her native country of Venezuela, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Universidad de Carabobo and a Master’s degree in International Criminal Law from the Universidad Latino Americana y del Caribe. However, due to political and social issues, she made the decision to live abroad in Panama. This move led Johana to personal and professional growth, allowing her the opportunity to work as an assistant in a local family law firm, in addition to coursing (but not completing) an MBA at the Universidad Interamericana de Panama. Yet, she desired to continue her professional growth so she decided to move again, this time to the United States. She attended Campus Education Midtown in New York City and Taylor Business Institute in Chicago, places where she would learn English as a second language. Read more
Lawyers are increasingly exposed to gender identity, sexual orientation, and other LGBTQ+ related topics as awareness, acceptance, and open expression of such identities continues to increase in modern society. To honor International Pronouns Day, which was October 19, 2022, we have created a five-step primer to help guide legal practitioners through understanding gender identity, using proper personal pronouns, and acting with best etiquette practices for interacting with LGBTQ+ clients and colleagues.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00NCBA YLDhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBA YLD2022-11-30 11:25:412024-05-07 10:29:56A Pronouns Primer for Practitioners
During the CLE, speakers will explore a number of topics in the area of insurance law. The program will unpack coverage and litigation issues, including resolution of property insurance claims, stacking in uninsured and underinsured motorist claims, and key considerations in cybersecurity. The always popular “Top 10 Insurance Law Decisions” will return, along with a discussion of continuing issues arising from COVID-related losses. Finally, the program reviews Radiator Specialty Company v. Arrowood Indemnity Company and its impact on coverage triggers, coverage allocation across multiple policies and policy exhaustion.
Before the CLE, on Thursday, January 26, 2023, the Insurance Law Section will have its annual meeting for members of the Insurance Law Section and will host a social networking event. The networking event will be open to all, including speakers and attendees.
The Insurance Law Section looks forward to seeing everyone on January 26 and 27. Mark your calendars!
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00InsuranceLawhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngInsuranceLaw2022-11-29 10:41:382022-12-16 14:33:54Insurance Law Section Annual Meeting and CLE – January 26-27, 2023
This is the first of three installments of this article.
I. Audit Statistics: What Are Your Chances of Being Audited?
The 2021 Internal Revenue Service Data Book contains audit statistics for 2011 through 2019. Below are audit statistics for 2019 returns:
A. Audit Rates for Individual Income Tax Returns. During FY 2021, only 0.2% of individual income tax returns filed in 2019 were audited (about the same as for 2018 returns).
Total individual returns audited: 0.2%
(1) With no positive income 8%
(2) $100,000 to $500,000 1%
(3) $500,000 to $1 Million 3%
(4) $1 Million to $5 Million 6%
(5) $5 Million to $10 Million 1%
(6) $10 Million or More 2%
So you’ve been appointed a juvenile charged with first-degree murder, but you didn’t handle the transfer from juvenile court – now what?
Locate and Visit/Contact Your Client
Remember, if your client is under 18, they will be housed in a juvenile detention center. There are twelve juvenile detention centers spread out across the state. Make sure to have regular contact with your client – it’s confusing when the first set of hearings is so fast, yet the rest of the case can take months if not years. Contact with your youth client builds trust and credibility.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00CriminalJusticehttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngCriminalJustice2022-11-28 11:52:572022-11-28 11:54:16So You’ve Been Appointed to a Juvenile Charged with First-Degree Murder
I’m thankful that I’m still your chair. You are probably thankful that Jill Jackson will be your next chair. Please don’t impeach me. We just had a Council meeting on November 17.
Here’s an update on my goals.
1. Succession Plan: It’s going to get done by December 31, 2022. So far, zero progress. I only get to fail on December 31, 2022, if I still haven’t done it.
2. Financial Affidavits: We can’t stop winning. We have broken down how to update the financial affidavits by delving into 6 buckets:
“Form” of the Financial Affidavit
“Income” section of the Financial Affidavit
“Fixed” or “Shared Family” section
“Individual Monthly” expenses
Depicting Standard of Living v. Current Standard
User Experience. “User” means our clients, the judges, and ourselves.
We have over 20 people working on this across the state: large counties, small counties, paralegals, attorneys, and more!
3. To streamline Council meetings. It’s an 80/20 on this one now. We’ve made progress. Our last meeting was only 1.5 hours. Read more
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00FamilyLawhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngFamilyLaw2022-11-28 10:50:502022-11-28 11:02:24November Family Law Section Update
Sydney ter Avest is now an associate attorney in the firm’s Business, Tax and Estates practice. She will focus on corporate and business law, estate planning, and wealth transfer and preservation. Ter Avest received a J.D. from Campbell Law School, where she was a teaching scholar and research assistant. While in law school, she received numerous awards and served as a peer mentor and president of the Health Law Association. She earned a B.A. in public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
James R. Paul is now an associate attorney, and he will work in the firm’s Commercial Real Estate practice. Paul will assist clients in real estate matters and disputes. He was a legal extern in St. Joseph County, Ind., where he represented indigent juvenile justice clients. He also interned in the Forsyth County Public Defender’s Office. Paul earned a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame, where he was the 2020 recipient of the Faculty Award for Excellence in Health Care and Canon Law. He received a B.S., magna cum laude, from East Carolina University.
McGuireWoods Selects New Partner
Jocelyn Mitnaul Mallette was elected to partner. Mallette represents companies in product liability claims, complex civil litigation, and environmental litigation in state and federal courts. She also represents veterans pro bono through the National Veterans Legal Services Program. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, she served for ten years in the military, where she was an Intelligence Officer, a Wing Executive Officer and an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate with the JAG Corps. In 2017-2018, Mallette was a clerk to Associate Justice Barbara A. Jackson in the North Carolina Supreme Court. Mallette previously served as the NCBA Military & Veterans Law Section Communications Chair. In 2022, she was selected as an NCBA Citizen Lawyer Award recipient. Mallette holds a J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law and a B.S. in legal studies from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Pro Bono Spotlight: Randolph County Domestic Violence Volunteers
Pro Bono CommitteeBy Ashley Skaff
In 2016, when the Greensboro Legal Aid office lost the funding necessary to provide representation for members of the community navigating Domestic Violence, or “DV,” court, Tom Robins, an attorney at Bunch & Robins and member of the Family Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, stepped up.
In discussing his decision to begin this project, Tom is practical, and it is easy to see why he’s been a successful family law attorney for decades.
“Legal Aid wasn’t in a position to accept these cases, and it’s what I do so, naturally, it’s what I can do to help. I then asked some other lawyers if they would be willing to take it on.”
Read more
Transforming Transformative Use: A Synopsis of Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith
Featured PostsOn October 12, 2022, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.(AWF) vs. Lynn Goldsmith, et al.[1] The main issue revolves around “transformative” use under the Copyright Act[2] and how transformative the work must be to be protected by the doctrine of Fair Use and not infringe another’s copyright.[3] In 1994, the Supreme Court considered a case regarding transformative use, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., in which the Court held that 2 Live Crew’s parody on Roy Orbison’s song, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” was protected under fair use and that the lower court erred in finding otherwise because they solely looked at the commercial nature without weighing the other fair use factors.[4] The Court also defined “transformative” as “add[ing] something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with [a] new expression, meaning, or message.”[5] The more a work transforms the original, the less the other fair use factors will weigh in the analysis because transforming a work emphasizes “the heart of the fair use doctrine’s guarantee of breathing space within the confines of copyright.”[6] Transformative use also came up in 2020 with Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., where the Court found Google’s use of a portion of code from the Sun Java API, a computer program using Java programming language, to be “new” and “transformative” enough to constitute fair use.[7]
Read more
Professional Mediator Guide to Certification
Dispute Resolution SectionSalim Uqdah, a Dispute Resolution Council Member and Co-Chair of the Dispute Resolution Pro Bono Committee, discusses his journey to certification for North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission’s Superior Court, Family Financial, and Clerk Mediation programs.
What got you interested in the Dispute Resolution field?
There are two answers to that question. A quick summary is that sometimes, you have to be lost to find your true purpose.
In 2016-2017, I felt lost and conflicted. I no longer wanted to pursue law school, and my crisis of faith and identity felt overwhelming and nerve-racking. After six to seven months of research, I realized that mediation was a viable option for me; it also helped to have the ADR coordinator sitting one cubicle behind me. I took the MSC training in March and opened my company, Uroboros Mediations, in June 2018. I gained expertise in other areas, like divorce coaching, collaborative law neutral facilitation, arbitration in FINRA cases, and dispute system design.
Read more
Paralegal Spotlight: Johana Sanchez
Paralegal DivisionBy the Communications Committee
This month’s Paralegal Spotlight is on Johana Sanchez, a Paralegal at Armendariz Law Office, PLLC.
Johana began her legal career in her native country of Venezuela, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Universidad de Carabobo and a Master’s degree in International Criminal Law from the Universidad Latino Americana y del Caribe. However, due to political and social issues, she made the decision to live abroad in Panama. This move led Johana to personal and professional growth, allowing her the opportunity to work as an assistant in a local family law firm, in addition to coursing (but not completing) an MBA at the Universidad Interamericana de Panama. Yet, she desired to continue her professional growth so she decided to move again, this time to the United States. She attended Campus Education Midtown in New York City and Taylor Business Institute in Chicago, places where she would learn English as a second language. Read more
A Pronouns Primer for Practitioners
DEI, Young Lawyers DivisionLawyers are increasingly exposed to gender identity, sexual orientation, and other LGBTQ+ related topics as awareness, acceptance, and open expression of such identities continues to increase in modern society. To honor International Pronouns Day, which was October 19, 2022, we have created a five-step primer to help guide legal practitioners through understanding gender identity, using proper personal pronouns, and acting with best etiquette practices for interacting with LGBTQ+ clients and colleagues.
Read more
Insurance Law Section Annual Meeting and CLE – January 26-27, 2023
Insurance Law SectionThe North Carolina Bar Association’s Insurance Law Section is pleased to announce its upcoming CLE program, “The Continued Exploration of Insurance Law, Coverage, and Litigation Issues,” which is scheduled for Friday, January 27, 2023. Attendees will be able to attend the CLE in person at the Bar Center in Cary or via live Webcast. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend.
During the CLE, speakers will explore a number of topics in the area of insurance law. The program will unpack coverage and litigation issues, including resolution of property insurance claims, stacking in uninsured and underinsured motorist claims, and key considerations in cybersecurity. The always popular “Top 10 Insurance Law Decisions” will return, along with a discussion of continuing issues arising from COVID-related losses. Finally, the program reviews Radiator Specialty Company v. Arrowood Indemnity Company and its impact on coverage triggers, coverage allocation across multiple policies and policy exhaustion.
Before the CLE, on Thursday, January 26, 2023, the Insurance Law Section will have its annual meeting for members of the Insurance Law Section and will host a social networking event. The networking event will be open to all, including speakers and attendees.
The Insurance Law Section looks forward to seeing everyone on January 26 and 27. Mark your calendars!
Federal Income Tax Update
Tax SectionThis is the first of three installments of this article.
I. Audit Statistics: What Are Your Chances of Being Audited?
The 2021 Internal Revenue Service Data Book contains audit statistics for 2011 through 2019. Below are audit statistics for 2019 returns:
A. Audit Rates for Individual Income Tax Returns. During FY 2021, only 0.2% of individual income tax returns filed in 2019 were audited (about the same as for 2018 returns).
Total individual returns audited: 0.2%
(1) With no positive income 8%
(2) $100,000 to $500,000 1%
(3) $500,000 to $1 Million 3%
(4) $1 Million to $5 Million 6%
(5) $5 Million to $10 Million 1%
(6) $10 Million or More 2%
Read more
So You’ve Been Appointed to a Juvenile Charged with First-Degree Murder
Criminal JusticeSo you’ve been appointed a juvenile charged with first-degree murder, but you didn’t handle the transfer from juvenile court – now what?
Locate and Visit/Contact Your Client
Remember, if your client is under 18, they will be housed in a juvenile detention center. There are twelve juvenile detention centers spread out across the state. Make sure to have regular contact with your client – it’s confusing when the first set of hearings is so fast, yet the rest of the case can take months if not years. Contact with your youth client builds trust and credibility.
Read more
November Family Law Section Update
Family Law SectionI’m thankful that I’m still your chair. You are probably thankful that Jill Jackson will be your next chair. Please don’t impeach me. We just had a Council meeting on November 17.
Here’s an update on my goals.
1. Succession Plan: It’s going to get done by December 31, 2022. So far, zero progress. I only get to fail on December 31, 2022, if I still haven’t done it.
2. Financial Affidavits: We can’t stop winning. We have broken down how to update the financial affidavits by delving into 6 buckets:
We have over 20 people working on this across the state: large counties, small counties, paralegals, attorneys, and more!
3. To streamline Council meetings. It’s an 80/20 on this one now. We’ve made progress. Our last meeting was only 1.5 hours. Read more
Checking In: November 22, 2022
Checking InCompiled by Jessica Junqueira
Carruthers & Roth, P.A. Adds New Associates
James R. Paul is now an associate attorney, and he will work in the firm’s Commercial Real Estate practice. Paul will assist clients in real estate matters and disputes. He was a legal extern in St. Joseph County, Ind., where he represented indigent juvenile justice clients. He also interned in the Forsyth County Public Defender’s Office. Paul earned a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame, where he was the 2020 recipient of the Faculty Award for Excellence in Health Care and Canon Law. He received a B.S., magna cum laude, from East Carolina University.
McGuireWoods Selects New Partner
Read more