The National Bar Association recently honored the Dallas-based J.L. Turner Legal Association with its Outstanding Affiliate Chapter of the Year Award. The National Bar Association, the nation’s largest bar association for African-American lawyers and judges, gave the award to the JLTLA at the group’s annual convention in San Diego earlier this month. JLTLA president Arthur Anthony , a partner in Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell in Dallas, says that while the 362-member chapter does a lot of outreach work and offers educational programs for its members, he believes the national organization was impressed by the chapter’s participation in Election Protection, a nonpartisan voter rights coalition, during the 2008 presidential election. “Among the programs that we’ve done this year and late last year, that one certainly stands out as a significant project,” says Anthony, who took office in January. Frederick Barrow , an associate with Littler Mendelson in Dallas who was a co-chairman for the North Texas Election Protection effort, says around 50 members of the chapter participated on Election Day, with many of them traveling to polling places to assist individuals who were denied the right to vote by polling officials. Barrow says Election Protection is an important project of the National Bar Association.
Facebook Sued
Trial lawyer W. Mark Lanier of Houston’s The Lanier Law Firm has filed suit against Facebook Inc., the company that owns and operates www.facebook.com, a social networking Web site. The complaint, Melkonian, et al. v. Facebook Inc., et al. filed Aug. 17 in Superior Court of California, Orange County, demands a jury trial. It alleges that Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook Inc. has violated California consumer protection and privacy laws. A spokesman for Facebook writes in an e-mail statement, “We see no merit to this suit and plan to fight it.” Lanier declines to comment on the case. According to the complaint, “Users are led to believe that access to the data they post is limited to other users they have expressly authorized. Facebook’s business model, however, has transformed from that of a social network into that of a data mining company.” The complaint brings five causes of action including violation of California Civil Code §3344; misappropriation of name and likeness under California common law; unfair competition and false advertising under California Business and Professions Code §17200; violation of the California constitutional right to privacy; and violation of the California Online Privacy Act. The suit seeks unspecified damages, attorneys’ fees and costs. The five plaintiffs in the case include a photographer who claims her digital images have been posted on Facebook without her consent, knowledge or compensation; two minors who allegedly opened Facebook accounts without the consent of a parent or guardian; a college student who joined Facebook in 2005 when it was a social networking tool for college students and alleges that the terms and conditions of the user interface have changed several times and without notice to her or her consent; and an actress/model who alleges that her digital images have been disseminated by Facebook without her consent, knowledge or compensation.
