International firm promotes 31 to partner… Long-term KWM head poached… Google gets go-ahead on books following court ruling… Geneva Convention not ready for driverless cars…
International firm promotes 31 to partner
The international law firm White & Case has made its latest round of appointments. Thirty-one lawyers have been promoted but only one in Asia; Mizuho Yamada who becomes a partner in the global mergers and acquisitions practice in Tokyo.
Long-term KWM head poached
Nicola Kerr has been hired by Brown Rudnick in London after more than 15 years as European head of employment at King & Wood Mallesons and legacy firm SJ Berwin. She is the seventh partner to join the London office of the US firm which has yet to venture into Asia-Pacific.
Google gets go-ahead on books following court ruling
Google’s project to scan every single book, which it began in 2004, has won a legal challenge in the US courts. The plan would make the full text of those in the public domain fully available online while copyrighted publications included as excerpts. However it was argued by the Authors’ Guild that even an excerpt would deprive its members of revenue before a court ruled in Google’s favour in 2013. That decision was upheld last week by a federal appeals court which ruled that the move was fair use of copyrighted material and was in the public interest.
Geneva Convention not ready for driverless cars
With testing underway of self-driving cars and the expectation that they will become a common sight on roads worldwide over the next few years, policymakers in Tokyo are considering the legal implications. Along with legislators in the US and Europe lawmakers in Japan are concerned that both the country’s traffic laws and the provisions on road traffic in the Geneva Convention do not allow for a situation where a human is not in control of a road vehicle at all times. Among the main issues is who is to blame if a driverless car is involved in, or causes, an accident. Article 8 of the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic requires every vehicle to have a driver to control it at all times.
