Labor & Employment Law

FINRA Changes Arbitration Hearing Practices

Posted on April 21, 2008
In an email from FINRA, formerly NASD, dated April 14, 2008, the agency announced that the arbitrators' procedures on damages and closing the hearing will be changing. This is, ostensibly, to unify the scripts between NASD and NYSE arbitration codes...

Microsoft Live.com Feature Gives Everyone a New Perspective

Posted on March 31, 2008
I admit that there are times when I am easily entertained. And I am an avowed Microsoft-disliker. But I have to hand it to the folks in Redmond, they've got me interested in something. Click on this link. Then hover over the pushpin and select Zoom to Street level...

Head Shaving To Cure Cancer

Posted on March 30, 2008
When I'm not practicing law, you might find me at a Suncoast High School girls' lacrosse game, where I am an assistant coach. Truth be told, I have no special lacrosse talents, but I go there to help, provide some organization and maybe a few tips I've learned over the years as an amateur sports coach...

Why The iPhone Won't Control The World

Posted on March 21, 2008
I just read another article about how Apple is going to take over the business desktop. Maybe I'm just getting old and surly, but I'm not convinced it's an enterprise device. Here's why. 1) The iPhone keyboard sucks. That's the only word for it. If you like guessing where on the touchscreen you have to put your finger to press the letter "k", then enjoy...

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FINRA, Formerly NASD, Gets Serious About Enforcing Fines

Posted on March 03, 2008
Since just about the beginning of time, FINRA (formerly NASD) fines were viewed as a mere nuisance by out-of-business firms and former registered persons. FINRA has been criticized in the past for not collecting regulatory fines or fees from arbitration proceedings...

U.S. Supreme Court Allows 401(k) Claims

Posted on February 20, 2008
There has been a huge shift in the United States from defined benefit retirement plans, where an employee is guaranteed a fixed payment upon retirement, to defined contribution plans, where the employee makes the contribution and maybe the employer makes a matching payment...

Dobin & Jenks Helps Royal Palm Beach High School Wildcats Softball

Posted on February 08, 2008
You may ask, what does a securities and employment firm like Dobin & Jenks, located in Jupiter, Florida, have to do with a girls' softball team in Royal Palm Beach, some 25 or 30 miles away? It's a long story, for which I will only brag about the highlights...

SEC Seeks To Change Broker Transfer Procedures

Posted on January 21, 2008
Since time immemorial, brokers who left their prior firms have taken copies of customer information. In the "old days", brokers copied their holding pages, new account forms and last monthly statements of their customers. With the advances made in the industry, a broker only needs a customer name, address, account number and phone number to accomplish the transfer...

Digital Television Is Coming! Digital TV Is Coming!

Posted on January 14, 2008
The broadcast television world will change on February 17, 2009, when traditional analog television will go "dark." For information on the changeover, see the NAB website DTVAnswers. How does this affect the practice of law, one might ask. If you received a small portable television, for watching the news, weather or for emergencies, on February 18, 2009, that TV will no longer work, other than as a paperweight...

Job Failures Result In Big Rewards

Posted on January 07, 2008
Is it me? The CEO of Merrill Lynch steps way out of line, while presiding over a disastrous business strategy, and he gets $160 MILLION dollars when he's shown the door. In very recent news, the now-former chairman, president and CEO of H&R Block will receive a package worth $2...

FINRA Closes The Expungement Loophole Some More

Posted on December 17, 2007
FINRA, the securities regulatory agency governing all stockbrokers, has announced its approval of a new expungement rule in a press release dated December 14, 2007. This is further evidence of regulatory scrutiny of a long-standing practice of obtaining expungements in the settlement of customer claims...

Subprime Meltdown - Cleaning Up After The Circus Has Left Town

Posted on December 10, 2007
As a securities litigation lawyer, I often wonder what is the next "big thing" going to be. It's never a matter of "if", but only a matter of "when." We have now been handed the "what" which is the subprime credit markets. An article in Investment News reported that Bank of America is closing its Strategic Cash Fund after its assets dropped from $40 billion to $12 billion...

Jupiter, Florida, Attorney Marc S. Dobin To Speak On Securities Fraud

Posted on December 03, 2007
Blatant self-promotion warning!! I was asked to speak at an NBI seminar entitled "Identifying and Preventing Securities Fraud". It will take place on February 18, 2008. My topic is "Securities Fraud - How It's Done and Who Gets Blamed." I'm looking forward to sharing what little insight I have with the seminar attendees...

Something For Nothing - Free Software Every Day

Posted on November 26, 2007
Here at The Law Planet, we believe that profits increase by increasing revenues or decreasing expenses. If there is a suitable freeware or shareware program we can use to accomplish a task, then we use it. We just discovered GiveAwayOfTheDay. This website has a free software program every day...

The 21st Century Way To Bank - Remote Deposit

Posted on November 19, 2007
Our clients like us enough that they occasionally pay our bills. Most of these bills are paid by check. In fact, we receive checks on an almost daily basis, some large and some small. These checks have to get to the bank somehow. In the old days (as in more than 3 weeks ago), our firm administrator had to go to the back on a regular basis to deposit the checks...

First Thing We Do, Let's Praise All The Lawyers

Posted on November 12, 2007
A recent article in The New York Times described how Pakistan's lawyers are opposing the disbanding of the court system and what appears to be the imposition of martial law. I'm not sure what I, a securities lawyer in Jupiter, Florida, can do about this situation other than stand up and cheer...

Hooray For SIFMA! Sanity In The News.

Posted on November 05, 2007
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), the securities industry's trade group, has been remarkably silent in the arbitration abolition wars. First, the distorted report from Daniel Solin and Edward O'Neal came out which said arbitration was unfair, simply based upon won/loss rates...

Heresy In The Practice Of Law - No Billable Hours!

Posted on October 29, 2007
A recent blurb in the ABA Journal weekly newsletter struck a chord with me. A law firm in Boston has banned billable hours. What's next, not billing for faxes and copies? How will a firm ever make money without billing its clients in 360-second increments? I like billing...

A Black Friday Retrospective

Posted on October 19, 2007
It has been 20 years since the stock market crash of 1987. Many were predicting that this was the end of the world as we know it (Insert REM music here). Others saw the crash as a buying opportunity. It turns out that the buyers were probably right...

Get Your Broker's History For Free

Posted on October 15, 2007
Every stockbroker is required to register with the state in which he or she does business and with, at a minimum,

Morgan Stanley Fined For Hiding Emails.

Posted on October 08, 2007
The newly-minted securities regulator, FINRA just fined Morgan Stanley $12.5 million for failing to produce emails in its possession. To make this even more heinous, Morgan Stanley hid behind the 9/11 tragedy as the reason for its failure to produce...

The Case for Standby Email Accounts

Posted on October 01, 2007
We have our office email domain, Dobinjenks.com and I have a multitude of personal addresses. The most frequent non-business email address I use is my Gmail account. I use the Gmail account for my personal email and I like the web interface design. And it's handy as a backup in case my main email domain is unavailable for some reason...

Broker Transfer Tactics Get SEC Scrutiny

Posted on September 24, 2007
The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued an Order Instituting Administrative Proceedings against

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