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Majority of Rides will be in Self-Driving Cars by 2021
September 23, 2016
Lyft President and co-founder John Zimmer released a 14-page document today in which he predicts that by 2021, "a majority" of rides on its network will be in autonomous vehicles. Also by 2025, Zimmer says personal car ownership in US cities will be a thing of the past. The end of car ownership will change cities in "huge ways," he said, echoing those experts and academics that predict streets and parking lots will be transformed into housing and open spaces with the mass adoption of autonomous...
September 23, 2016
Lyft President and co-founder John Zimmer released a 14-page document today in which he predicts that by 2021, "a majority" of rides on its network will be in autonomous vehicles. Also by 2025, Zimmer says personal car ownership in US cities will be a thing of the past. The end of car ownership will change cities in "huge ways," he said, echoing those experts and academics that predict streets and parking lots will be transformed into housing and open spaces with the mass adoption of autonomous...
Logic is Overrated
September 23, 2016
The reality in negotiations is that we are all emotional creatures despite thinking that we are logical creatures. Many people make the major mistake of thinking that logic is the overarching issue in negotiations. They claim that the other side doesn’t see the logic of their position and if only they could access this one piece of information, they would logically make the same decision. The fallacy of that analysis is the reliance on logic. Most people are driven by emotions not logic. ...
September 23, 2016
The reality in negotiations is that we are all emotional creatures despite thinking that we are logical creatures. Many people make the major mistake of thinking that logic is the overarching issue in negotiations. They claim that the other side doesn’t see the logic of their position and if only they could access this one piece of information, they would logically make the same decision. The fallacy of that analysis is the reliance on logic. Most people are driven by emotions not logic. ...
What We Can Learn from “The Art of War “!
September 23, 2016
In connection with another blog post, I downloaded an internet version of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War translated by the Sonshi Group. In reading through it, I could not help but notice that many of its points relating to “war”, apply with equal force to negotiation, mediation and resolving disputes. For example, in Chapter One: Calculations, points 18 and 19 state: [01.18] Before doing battle, one calculates in the temple and will win, because many calculations were made; before doing battle,...
September 23, 2016
In connection with another blog post, I downloaded an internet version of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War translated by the Sonshi Group. In reading through it, I could not help but notice that many of its points relating to “war”, apply with equal force to negotiation, mediation and resolving disputes. For example, in Chapter One: Calculations, points 18 and 19 state: [01.18] Before doing battle, one calculates in the temple and will win, because many calculations were made; before doing battle,...
Lessons From Recently Vacated Arbitration Awards
September 22, 2016
While I was busy blogging out listicles and “think pieces” last month, my stack of unread arbitration cases grew exponentially. August was apparently a very busy month for publishing arbitration opinions. Maybe most surprisingly, the federal appellate courts vacated three arbitration awards in recent weeks. So I will start there, and end with two headline-worthy awards that got confirmed. First, in Bankers Life & Cas. Ins. Co. v. CBRE, Inc., __ F3d __, 2016 WL 4056400 (7th Cir....
September 22, 2016
While I was busy blogging out listicles and “think pieces” last month, my stack of unread arbitration cases grew exponentially. August was apparently a very busy month for publishing arbitration opinions. Maybe most surprisingly, the federal appellate courts vacated three arbitration awards in recent weeks. So I will start there, and end with two headline-worthy awards that got confirmed. First, in Bankers Life & Cas. Ins. Co. v. CBRE, Inc., __ F3d __, 2016 WL 4056400 (7th Cir....
The Arbitrator Survey: Practices, Preferences and Changes on the Horizon
September 22, 2016
Edna Sussman, SussmanADR LLC, has published “The Arbitrator Survey: Practices, Preferences and Changes on the Horizon,” The American Review of International Arbitration, 2015/Vol. 26, No. 4. In her article, Ms. Sussman discusses her recently conducted survey regarding the preferences and decision-making of 401 domestic and international arbitrators. Here is the abstract: Arbitration counsel want to win. Understanding how arbitrators think, what they favor, how they make decisions, and how they...
September 22, 2016
Edna Sussman, SussmanADR LLC, has published “The Arbitrator Survey: Practices, Preferences and Changes on the Horizon,” The American Review of International Arbitration, 2015/Vol. 26, No. 4. In her article, Ms. Sussman discusses her recently conducted survey regarding the preferences and decision-making of 401 domestic and international arbitrators. Here is the abstract: Arbitration counsel want to win. Understanding how arbitrators think, what they favor, how they make decisions, and how they...
Five Biggest Surprises In The Arbitration Process
September 21, 2016
Five Biggest Surprises In The Arbitration Process No need for a “complaint” with numbered paragraphs or lengthy recitations to start the ball rolling. (To start an arbitration proceeding, a claimant usually just needs to complete a form identifying the parties, the claim amount, and the type of dispute, with a copy of the arbitration agreement attached. No Twiqbal standards, no formal service.) Parties are not obligated to keep arbitration proceedings confidential. (If confidentiality...
September 21, 2016
Five Biggest Surprises In The Arbitration Process No need for a “complaint” with numbered paragraphs or lengthy recitations to start the ball rolling. (To start an arbitration proceeding, a claimant usually just needs to complete a form identifying the parties, the claim amount, and the type of dispute, with a copy of the arbitration agreement attached. No Twiqbal standards, no formal service.) Parties are not obligated to keep arbitration proceedings confidential. (If confidentiality...
Circuit Split Over Collective Action Waivers in Employer’s Arbitration Agreement Continues to Widen
September 21, 2016
On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a published opinion that a class action waiver included in an employer’s...
September 21, 2016
On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a published opinion that a class action waiver included in an employer’s...
Five Arbitration Cases You Should Know
September 20, 2016
Five Arbitration Cases You Should Know Rent-A-Center, West v. Jackson, 130 S. Ct. 2772 (2010). This case is the culmination of the “severability” doctrine, which explains whether a litigant’s challenge to enforceability should be heard in arbitration or in court. For the uninitiated, reading this case is like reading that Bruce Springsteen is actually an alien. It is that counter-intuitive. BG Group, PLC v. Republic of Argentina, 134 S. Ct. 1198 (2014). This case tries...
September 20, 2016
Five Arbitration Cases You Should Know Rent-A-Center, West v. Jackson, 130 S. Ct. 2772 (2010). This case is the culmination of the “severability” doctrine, which explains whether a litigant’s challenge to enforceability should be heard in arbitration or in court. For the uninitiated, reading this case is like reading that Bruce Springsteen is actually an alien. It is that counter-intuitive. BG Group, PLC v. Republic of Argentina, 134 S. Ct. 1198 (2014). This case tries...
Seeing the Evidence is Believing the Evidence
September 20, 2016
I cannot tell you how many times I have been in a mediation and one side tells me something to the effect that they have this great evidence that will totally change the case. When I ask if I can show the other side, they tell me, that they didn’t bring it, the game changing smoke gun evidence with them. The failure to bring all the critical evidence is probably one of the most common mistakes that negotiators make in mediation. First, it is important to understand that often times in the world...
September 20, 2016
I cannot tell you how many times I have been in a mediation and one side tells me something to the effect that they have this great evidence that will totally change the case. When I ask if I can show the other side, they tell me, that they didn’t bring it, the game changing smoke gun evidence with them. The failure to bring all the critical evidence is probably one of the most common mistakes that negotiators make in mediation. First, it is important to understand that often times in the world...
Do Social Scientists Know What They’re Talking About?
September 19, 2016
While the thinking sins identified by Tetlock are universal - we’re all vulnerable to overconfidence and confirmation bias - it’s not clear that the flaws of political experts can be generalized to other forms of expertise. For one thing, predicting geopolitics is famously fraught: there are countless variables to consider, interacting in unknowable ways. It’s possible, then, that experts might perform better in a narrower setting, attempting to predict the outcomes of experiments in their...
September 19, 2016
While the thinking sins identified by Tetlock are universal - we’re all vulnerable to overconfidence and confirmation bias - it’s not clear that the flaws of political experts can be generalized to other forms of expertise. For one thing, predicting geopolitics is famously fraught: there are countless variables to consider, interacting in unknowable ways. It’s possible, then, that experts might perform better in a narrower setting, attempting to predict the outcomes of experiments in their...
