Yes, the attorney general has been going after app developers that DO NOT have privacy policies and fining them $2,500 for every download without a privacy policy.
Great point and requiring your users to scroll through the TOU and then agree (only after scrolling) is the best practice. Courts, however, have not conclusively said this is the silver bullet. Many TOUs have held up in court via a mere click through (with no scroll).
A little confused as to your question. Not making a distinction between "Enterprise" and an "app." These suggestions most certainly apply to Enterprise products and generally these are practices for all web and mobile products.
Did not check on this until now. Meant to say, "in California" considering the heavy conversation surrounding startup lawyers and the location of the author. Good catch! Anyone can take the BAR in California and yet legal prices here are some of the highest in the country.
So you do not need to go to law school to be a lawyer. Anyone can take the BAR and be a lawyer. Again, as Antone points out, this all comes down to a perception of quality. Many people (and I am not saying you) would not hire a lawyer who did not go to law school.
This whole argument that this is "not a free market" is silly. None of the factors pointed to here would actually limit choice or restrain price movement. It is a free market, but that does not mean that the market lacks information asymmetries that would artificially morph prices.
As Antone points out, there is a strong quality perception issue. Ironically, it is the Bottom Line Law Group that is fighting this perception of quality on a daily basis (vs a Wilson or Fenwick). Thus it does not matter if the supply increases if the consumer perceives the bottom-end as an inferior good.
This skewed perception is rooted in a total lack of transparency in the legal industry. This lack of transparency limits the consumer’s ability to find lawyers like Antone, and keeps the cost of standard information and a simple opinion high.
I agree with Antone that the industry is on the brink of change, but it is a BIG messed up industry. Change will come in many forms within the industry's mirco verticals. It will come from networks of smaller more specialized law firms such as the Bottom Line Law Group, and from innovations which create more transparency in the industry to find qualified attorneys and access quality information.
Humor meets the Economist...looking forward to it. It must be odd that I find the Economist entertaining (sometimes funny) to begin with. Anything that touts high quality and original content is worth a read.
As long as you understand where your team's talents are best deployed, a wider knowledge base of your product is only an advantage as a manager. To your point edw, yes when someone attempts to add value where they have no skill, frustration ensues. But, when you can better communicate with your team and understand their plights (via a knowledge of your tech), then expectations align and make for a better team workflow (emphasizing wccrawford's point).
For someone that just jumped this is a great article. So many lawyers around me make the same excuses. Granted, as a risk adverse profession, this verbiage is expected...but calculated fear in any profession results in missed opportunities.