U.S. District Court Judge Paul W. Grimm

It’s one thing to hear lawyers talk about the “CSI effect,” where jurors expect to see prosecutors present the high-tech evidence that regularly cracks cases on television.

It’s another thing to hear one of the foremost authorities on evidence and discovery say it.

“It’s more powerful than a great opening statement or a tear-inducing closing,” U.S. District Court Judge Paul W. Grimm told a packed seminar during the Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting in Ocean City.

The Criminal Law and Practice Section’s panel mixed a discussion of the newest technologies with references to Popeye, Mr. Peabody and several utterances of the phrase “if you are of a certain age.”

Those of a certain age could recall where prosecutors needed someone on the witness stand to identify the suspect as the person who committed the crime.

Now, “cell phones are the new, best way to solve crimes,” said Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger. The first three questions investigators ask a suspect is for his name, if he has a cellphone and if he always has his cellphone on him, he added.

Shellenberger described a case where four people were convicted in connection with a murder based on a suspect’s cellphone address book and recent calls. Surveillance cameras helped corroborate the defendants were at the scene of a crime.

In another case, Baltimore County prosecutors were able to obtain a murder conviction by mapping the victim’s and defendant’s cellphone “pings” to cell phone towers to prove they were in the same location at the same time.

“Technology not only solved the crime, it proved the crime,” he said.

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Kannon K. Shanmugam, Alonzo Jay King Jr.’s lawyer, was reviewing the amicus briefs filed to the Supreme Court in support of Maryland’s DNA collection law when he started counting. Forty-nine states had filed briefs.

Shanmugam was encouraged.

“Someone held out!” he recalled to laughter during a panel session at the Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting. “Then I realized it was Maryland.”

Shanmugam was gracious in defeat Thursday as he provided the lawyers and judges in Ocean City with his perspective on Maryland v. King, which reinstated the state law permitting police to collect DNA samples from people arrested on charges of committing or attempting to commit a violent crime.

“I think this is a case we will look back on in 10 or 15 years and say, That was the case from this term that had the largest impact,” said Shanmugam, a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington.

As Shanmugam was doing research for his case, he discovered the Supreme Court had never decided on the constitutionality of fingerprinting, let alone DNA testing. (He also found that since the Maryland law’s adoption, there were 20 cases where a suspect was arrested and not convicted but DNA led to the prosecution of another crime.)

Both sides agreed there was a search in the case: Shanmugam’s strategy was to argue to that DNA is different from a fingerprint when it comes to a search.

“DNA testing is not used for identification, it’s simply to show that someone committed a crime,” he said, an argument championed by Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissent.

Shanmugam called the oral argument “fascinating.”

“It felt like one of those relatively few cases where the decision is in doubt during the argument,” he said.

(Also in attendance at oral arguments and Thursday’s panel were Court of Appeals Judges Glenn T. Harrell Jr. and Mary Ellen Barbera, with the latter introducing herself to Shanmugam after the discussion ended.)

The majority, Shanmugam said, placed weight on the fact King had been arrested previously, meaning King had “lost some some expectation of privacy.”

The narrowness of the reasoning was deliberate, Shanmugam added.

“The court is mindful of the fact one of the major issues it will deal with [in the future] is the Fourth Amendment and emerging technologies, particularly used by law enforcement,” he said.

That’s why Justice Samuel A. Alito called the Maryland v. King “one of the most important criminal procedure cases in the last 10 years,” Shanmugam said.

“I’m now the guy who lost the most important criminal procedure case in the last 10 years,” he added with a smile.

Attorneys need to tap into their inner-techie with their own website, social media pages, blogs and videos, according to a seminar at the Maryland State Bar Association’s 2013 Annual Meeting.

Jabez LeBret of Get Noticed Get Found Inc., which helps law firms with marketing strategies, discussed how attorneys can maximize their presence online.

LaBret, who co-wrote the book “Online Law Practice Strategies,” spoke to an overflowing room of attorneys Thursday in Ocean City.

Here is a list of recommendations LaBret made to attorneys during the presentation:

• Keywords are essential.
• Make sure to beef up Google+ local pages. Google has likely already created pages for your law firm, but attorneys should add pictures and additional information about the firm.
• Clean up online directory listings by adding a website URL, address, phone number and name. Some directories are free, some are paid, but there are a lot of them. “This is a marathon,” LeBret said. “This is not a sprint. This is not something you should do over a weekend.”
• A Facebook page is not a replacement for a personal website. “Never put all your eggs in a basket with a system you don’t control,” LeBret said.
• Don’t make up profiles in order to give your firm good reviews.
• Don’t pay for reviews or respond to reviews.
• Add a 60 second introduction video on your website.
• Blog about four times a month about local topics, between 250 and 600 words per blog post. “It makes you look human when you’re blogging about the things going on around you,” LeBret said.
• Send a press release once every eight weeks. “We don’t care if any one reads the press release, we are doing this for the search engines,” LeBret said.
• Social media is must. It is not an effective tool for attracting new clients but essential for search engine ranking.
• Social media pages are for providing information, not advertising.
• Put your law firm’s phone number in the upper right-hand corner of the website. “If I want to contact you to give you money, don’t make me work for it,” LeBret said.
• Put a disclaimer on every page of the website, including blogs.
• Do not use clients’ names in blogs.
• Don’t sign three year contracts with tech companies.

A happy soggy Monday to you on a week where many of the state’s lawyers will be heading “downy ocean” and we all celebrate Old Glory. Here are some law links to chew on:

– As online privacy dominates the news, Ron Miller of the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog has details on a new Maryland Rule concerning personal information and court records.

– Why some lawsuits over Obamacare will come from the health care legislation’s supporters.

– “A Cuyahoga County prosecutor was fired this week after he admitted posing as a woman in a Facebook chat with an accused killer’s alibi witnesses in an attempt to persuade them to change their testimony.” (HT: Above the Law)

– Steve Martin and his banjo (HT: Lowering the Bar)

– Chewbacca and his light-saber cane

Asked: Our weekly question to the In-House community

Last week, The Washington Post wrote about White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler’s stylish designer shoes, something other news organizations have written about previously.

The Post story received criticism in the legal community and Debbie Hines, founder of LegalSpeaks.com, called for the newspaper to apologize to Ruemmler. In her column, Hines contended Ruemmler should be known for her career accomplishments and not for the style of her footwear.

So here’s our question for you:

What did you think about the article on the White House counsel’s shoes?

Leave a comment below or email me.

Need to Know:

• A former official in the Department of Treasury was named co-general counsel at JPMorgan Chase.
• President Barack Obama plans to nominate a former Lockheed Martin general counsel as head of the FBI.
• The former general counsel of the Motion Picture Association of America will become the leader of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
• Marriott’s general counsel will join a law firm in Atlanta.
• A former executive director and general counsel of the Major League Baseball umpires union passed away.

Follow us on Twitter for In-House news and discussion: @TDRInHouse

• Want the latest on who’s been hired, fired or moving and shaking? Head to our Movers and Shakers page to find out.
• For networking events and other happenings this week in Maryland, check out our calendar of events.
• Get the very latest updates from our law reporters on Twitter: @TDRKristi, @Steve_Lash, @TDRBeth.
• Check out The Daily Record on Facebook.In-

Welcome to the first Monday in June, a month to play the greatest hits of Sir Edward Elgar and Harry Chapin. Here are some news items to get your week started.

– How much is one’s image worth?

– New Jersey, like Maryland, recalls retired judges.

– Veterans courts thrive in Minnesota.

– Trial could determine if something is rotten at Apple.

Asked: Our weekly question to the In-House community

The pro bono work of general counsels is under debate in Arizona.

The state’s supreme court is considering a law that limits the pro bono work in-house counsel can do in the state. General counsels can perform legal work in Arizona even if they are not licensed in the state, but state laws restrict corporate attorneys from representing third parties in pro bono cases. In order to do so, they have to go through another certification process.

The Association of Corporate Counsel is urging the court to change the rules and the petition by the state’s bar association is pending in court.

So here’s our question for you:

Do you think general counsels registered but not licensed in a state should be able to do pro bono work in that state without restrictions?

Leave a comment below or email me.

Need to Know:

• A Sidley Austin lawyer will be the Legal Services Corp.’s new general counsel.
• Minnesota companies auctioned off lunch with their general counsels for charity.
• Saab’s former general counsel was arrested along with other executives as part of a tax fraud investigation.
• A Colorado general counsel is in trouble for using the company credit card for golf outings.
• The Washington Post wrote an article about the White House counsel’s shoes.
• Motorola Solutions named a new general counsel.
• Corning Inc. named a new general counsel.

Follow us on Twitter for In-House news and discussion: @TDRInHouse

• Want the latest on who’s been hired, fired or moving and shaking? Head to our Movers and Shakers page to find out.
• For networking events and other happenings this week in Maryland, check out our calendar of events.
• Get the very latest updates from our law reporters on Twitter: @TDRKristi, @Steve_Lash, @TDRBeth.
• Check out The Daily Record on Facebook.In-

Welcome to Tuesday and game two of the Battle of the Beltways. Here are some pregame news items.

– A man who helped give rise to many a Constitutional Law and bar exam question has died.

– President Obama will play Pick Three.

– Millions may have overstayed their welcome.

– Roger Clemens may have cheated off the diamond.

Happy (rainy) Friday everyone! Here’s your pre-Memorial Day weekend legal news round-up:

– The Brooklyn district attorney’s office will face numerous challenges as it begins an unusual examination of 50 homicide convictions originally looked into by one police detective, Louis Scarella. Scarella , who is now retired, has come under fire some of the methods he used while investigating these cases. This includes using the same drug addict as an eyewitness. Mr. Scarcella has denied wrongdoing.

– Hans G. Poppe, a Louisville lawyer whose fainting caused a mistrial in a medical-malpractice trial is being sued by the insurance company providing medical malpractice coverage to the defendant doctor and hospital he filed suit against.

– Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to exclude it from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill. The chain of arts-and-crafts stores argued that businesses should be able to seek exception from that section of the health law if it violates their religious beliefs.

First, the serious part: Nicholas Walker, a 33-year-old Miami man, was shot and killed while driving his car onto Interstate 95.

Now, for the slightly humorous part: Scott Simon, 24, was charged with first-degree murder in Walker’s death after he accidentally recorded a phone call, via a butt-dial, saying he was going to follow Walker home and kill him. Police believe Simon coordinated the shooting but did not pull the trigger, according to the Miami Herald.

Finally, for a funny story about tapping keys with your tuchis: A 911 operator in California received a call with no one on the other end. Rather than hang up, the dispatcher stayed on the line and heard two men discussed wanting to do drugs and breaking into a car.

The dispatcher heard a window shatter and the two people saying they found prescription drugs.

Police arrested the men a little while later.

“Damn,” one of the suspects said upon learning a butt-dial led to their arrest.

Well said.