Jonathan B. Wilson

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Jonathan Wilson is an Atlanta attorney with more than 19 years of experience guiding growing private and public companies.  He currently serves as the outside general counsel of several companies and is the former general counsel of Web.com.com (NASDAQ: WWWW) and EasyLink Services (NASDAQ: ESIC).  He is also the founding chair of the Renewable Energy Committee of the American Bar Association's Public Utility Section.

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Saturday, May 31, 2008

Vindicating Vioxx
After losing billions in market capitalization when news of potential lawsuits emerged, Merck seems to have been largely vindicated in the courts after a pair of appellate decisions gutted lower court rulings for plaintiffs. 

While that is a "reality check" on the tort bar, as the WSJ op-ed describes, it doesn't necessarily mean that justice was done.

A handful of plaintiffs file suit and investors lose billions.  Merck pulled the drug from the market and thousands of employees lost their jobs.  Thousands more patients who relied on the drug for pain relief were forced to go elsewhere.  And now, roughly four years later, the courts demonstrate that there never was anything wrong with the drug to begin with. 
5:08 pm edt 

MIRLIN
Vince Polley's latest edition of MIRLIN, (miscellaneous IT-related legal news), is now live.
3:32 pm edt 

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Texas Tort Reform Draws MDs
A piece in today's WSJ sings the praises of Texas' 2003 and 2005 tort reform efforts.  After that state adopted a number of provisions aimed at decreasing excess litigation medical malpractice insurance has fallen and the number of practitioners has increased. 
2:22 pm edt 

Monday, May 12, 2008

Wikinomics and Government 2.0
An insightful piece in today's WSJ asks whether the collaborative power of wikis can transform government. 

One of the most frustrating experiences in dealing with government is finding helpful information.

Government websites have a tendency to organize information by the program (or statute) that authorize an expenditure.  So, for example, the Department of Health and Human Services has its own online media guide for disasters and emergencies while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has its own counterpart "news media" page.  I can understand how federal government employees might be required to organize their websites this way, but how does this organization create value for citizens?  If a disaster victim wanted to find relevant information about assistance available from the federal government, which website should she visit first? 

Undoubtedly it would take an Act of Congress to replace both websites (each on its own domain of course) to a single, threaded discussion on "emergencies management" as Wikipedia has done. 

But the Web doesn't need to wait for an Act of Congress.  Why not simply organize a wiki with the organizing principle of organizing information about government in a manner that brings together data regarding disparate agencies and programs as that data would be needed by citizens?
8:13 am edt 


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Jonathan B. Wilson is an Atlanta attorney at the law firm of Taylor English Duma LLP.  Jonathan B. Wilson provides legal advice to investors, companies and business executives involving corporate law, securities law, SEC matters, intellectual property, website and Internet legal issues, start-ups, limited liability companies, partnerships, 1934 Act matters, outsourcing, strategic alliance agreements, contracts, and other matters of importance to growing private and publicly-traded companies.