In its July 5, 1993, issue, The New Yorker ran a cartoon by Peter Steiner showing a dog at a computer saying to his canine friend, “On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog.” While online anonymity may have been the case in 1993, the intervening years – with advances in data collection, biometric information and global positioning, as well as with surveillance cameras everywhere – have shown that anonymity is rapidly becoming extinct.

Planning an annual meeting can be stressful for corporate secretaries and other members of a company’s law department. Margaret M. (Peggy) Foran, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary at Sara Lee, offered her suggestions for success.

With identity theft victims numbering more than 10 million annually, the American Bar Association Business Law Section took an in-depth look at the crime from the perspective of prevention, victim’s assistance, company response and the Federal Trade Commission.

ABA Day brings hundreds of state, local and specialty leaders to Washington D.C. each year for visits with members of Congress, legislative training and issues briefings. During the three-day event, held April 20 – 22, bar associations and individuals who have been active and effective in lobbying their congressional delegations throughout the year are honored in front of their peers with the ABA Day Grassroots Award.

Even with increased demands on their time, corporate law departments and their law firms are willing to make time to do pro bono work, according to a panel at the American Bar Association Business Law Section 2010 Spring Meeting in Denver on April 23.

Community leaders, activists and local citizens will meet to discuss the rise in teen violence in Detroit and identify solutions during “Stop Teen Violence – Time to Deliver.” The town hall meeting will take place Monday, May 3, at YouthVille Detroit, 7375 Woodward Avenue. The day-long program, co-sponsored by Wayne County Juvenile Court and the American Bar Association Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice, begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m.

Among ABA Law Day events held in Washington, D.C., was an April 26 National Press Club luncheon seminar for high school teachers participating in programs by the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit organization that educates and inspires young people to become informed and engaged citizens. Featured speaker at the luncheon was Jeffrey Rosen, professor of law at The George Washington University and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic.

The Google Library Project — a partnership between Google and several libraries whose purpose it was to make into digital format millions of books, giving libraries that provided books full digital copies for their own collections, and posting online small portions, or snippets of those works — raised many questions relating to copyright infringement and fair use under copyright law. Indeed, authors of many of the books being reproduced brought a class action suit against Google.

Knowing how to sell groceries, fly airplanes or pick up garbage are generally not in the average lawyer’s skill set or on her to-do list. But increased government regulation and the need to navigate international laws and treaties are just two of the reasons more lawyers are moving into the corner office in Fortune 50 companies—including Kroger Co., Continental Airlines and Waste Management Inc.—according to “CEO, Esq.” the cover story in the May issue of ABA Journal.

Nearly 40 percent of the respondents to the 2009 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report acknowledge that it is very important for them to get training on their firm’s technology. But who has the time? If ABA members have as little as 15 minutes to spare they can get caught up on tricks, tips, shortcuts and features of commonly used office and legal software on Training Tuesdays.

Martha Bergmark, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, is a recipient of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation’s 2010 John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award. The section also recognized the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and the Pittsburgh Pro Bono Partnership during a special luncheon at the section’s annual conference Friday in New York City.

With the enactment of the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, those youth who face the difficulties of transitioning out of foster care when they reach age 18 may have a chance at a brighter future. On April 15 -16, more than 100 leaders and youth-at-risk experts met at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City to discuss how to effectively execute the law and ways to further assist these vulnerable youth.