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What Bees Tell Us About Making Better Decisions
May 27, 2014
Cornell University biologist Thomas Seely, in a Cornell Chronicle Online story by Susan S. Lang, explains how bees build coalitions until a quorum develops. Seely says bees rely on disagreement and contest, whereas humans often rely on consensus and compromise. Researchers know the bees make excellent decisions because they set up situations that offered choices to the bees, some superior for bees and others not so great. The bees almost always chose the superior sites. * * * To help feel...
May 27, 2014
Cornell University biologist Thomas Seely, in a Cornell Chronicle Online story by Susan S. Lang, explains how bees build coalitions until a quorum develops. Seely says bees rely on disagreement and contest, whereas humans often rely on consensus and compromise. Researchers know the bees make excellent decisions because they set up situations that offered choices to the bees, some superior for bees and others not so great. The bees almost always chose the superior sites. * * * To help feel...
Your Stress is My Stress: Observing Stress Can Trigger Physical Stress Response
May 26, 2014
Merely observing stressful situations can trigger a physical stress response, research shows. Stress is a major health threat in today's society. It causes a range of psychological problems like burnout, depression and anxiety. Even those who lead relatively relaxed lives constantly come into contact with stressed individuals. Whether at work or on television: someone is always experiencing stress, and this stress can affect the general environment in a physiologically quantifiable way through increased...
May 26, 2014
Merely observing stressful situations can trigger a physical stress response, research shows. Stress is a major health threat in today's society. It causes a range of psychological problems like burnout, depression and anxiety. Even those who lead relatively relaxed lives constantly come into contact with stressed individuals. Whether at work or on television: someone is always experiencing stress, and this stress can affect the general environment in a physiologically quantifiable way through increased...
How About Paying Parents for Their Kids’ Good Grade?
May 26, 2014
In Think Like a Freak, we touch briefly on paying schoolkids for good grades — which, much of the time, isn’t successful. This inspired a note from a reader named Gary Crowley, who describes himself as “an economics major in college many years ago”: Hey Guys, Loved Think Like a Freak. One thought: Why don’t we trying paying parents for kids getting good grades??? If the parents are motivated to make money, from someone else’s hard work, then they’ll make the kids work harder...
May 26, 2014
In Think Like a Freak, we touch briefly on paying schoolkids for good grades — which, much of the time, isn’t successful. This inspired a note from a reader named Gary Crowley, who describes himself as “an economics major in college many years ago”: Hey Guys, Loved Think Like a Freak. One thought: Why don’t we trying paying parents for kids getting good grades??? If the parents are motivated to make money, from someone else’s hard work, then they’ll make the kids work harder...
A Deal is a Deal!
May 26, 2014
Settlement Agreement Included Presumptions about Economic Loss The Deepwater Horizon incident prompted a number of legal actions, including multidistrict litigation surrounding private economic and property damage claims and medical claims stemming from the accident and oil spill. In 2012, BP reached a settlement with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC), which acts on behalf of individual and business plaintiffs in the multi-district litigation proceedings. BP initially joined with the plaintiffs...
May 26, 2014
Settlement Agreement Included Presumptions about Economic Loss The Deepwater Horizon incident prompted a number of legal actions, including multidistrict litigation surrounding private economic and property damage claims and medical claims stemming from the accident and oil spill. In 2012, BP reached a settlement with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC), which acts on behalf of individual and business plaintiffs in the multi-district litigation proceedings. BP initially joined with the plaintiffs...
Patent Pilot Program Could Cut Litigation Costs
May 26, 2014
In 2011, Congress created a program designed to streamline district court patent cases. One aim of the Patent Pilot Program was to reduce the high cost of patent litigation. The idea was to foster a greater level of specialization in technical and procedural issues unique to patent matters among certain judges. The rationale was simple: judges who more regularly hear patent cases will be better equipped to efficiently and correctly resolve complex issues—such as the meaning of technical terms...
May 26, 2014
In 2011, Congress created a program designed to streamline district court patent cases. One aim of the Patent Pilot Program was to reduce the high cost of patent litigation. The idea was to foster a greater level of specialization in technical and procedural issues unique to patent matters among certain judges. The rationale was simple: judges who more regularly hear patent cases will be better equipped to efficiently and correctly resolve complex issues—such as the meaning of technical terms...
A General Release Is a Release by Any Other Name
May 26, 2014
Be sure you know what you’re giving up when signing a general release. As Zuckerman Spaeder partner Jason Knott explains in Suits by Suits, general releases “mean what they say even if employees and employers later disagree as to whether they actually meant to give up their claims.” Take the case of Mattatall v. Transdermal. Debourah Mattatall once owned DPM Therapeutics Corporation, which she sold to Transdermal. Knott says DPM’s minority shareholders sued her to prevent the sale,...
May 26, 2014
Be sure you know what you’re giving up when signing a general release. As Zuckerman Spaeder partner Jason Knott explains in Suits by Suits, general releases “mean what they say even if employees and employers later disagree as to whether they actually meant to give up their claims.” Take the case of Mattatall v. Transdermal. Debourah Mattatall once owned DPM Therapeutics Corporation, which she sold to Transdermal. Knott says DPM’s minority shareholders sued her to prevent the sale,...
The Great Disruption: How Machine Intelligence Will Transform the Role of Lawyers in the Delivery of Legal Services
May 24, 2014
Professor John O. McGinnis of Northwestern University and Professor Russell G. Pearce of Fordham University have published The Great Disruption: How Machine Intelligence Will Transform the Role of Lawyers in the Delivery of Legal Services, Fordham Law Review, 82, 3041-3066 (2014). Here is the abstract: This Article argues that machines are coming to disrupt the legal profession and that bar regulation cannot stop them. Part I describes the relentless growth of computer power in hardware,...
May 24, 2014
Professor John O. McGinnis of Northwestern University and Professor Russell G. Pearce of Fordham University have published The Great Disruption: How Machine Intelligence Will Transform the Role of Lawyers in the Delivery of Legal Services, Fordham Law Review, 82, 3041-3066 (2014). Here is the abstract: This Article argues that machines are coming to disrupt the legal profession and that bar regulation cannot stop them. Part I describes the relentless growth of computer power in hardware,...
Justice Scalia Rejects 2-Year Law School, Skills Training
May 24, 2014
Antonin Scalia, Commencement Address at William & Mary Law School,Reflections on the Future of the Legal Academy (May 11, 2014): What I want to discuss with you briefly—and I promise to be brief—is whether (to be blunt about it) you have essentially wasted one of your three years here, and could have done the job in two. It is a current proposal for reformthat law students should be permitted to sit for the bar exam and otherwise be eligible to practice law after only two years of study....
May 24, 2014
Antonin Scalia, Commencement Address at William & Mary Law School,Reflections on the Future of the Legal Academy (May 11, 2014): What I want to discuss with you briefly—and I promise to be brief—is whether (to be blunt about it) you have essentially wasted one of your three years here, and could have done the job in two. It is a current proposal for reformthat law students should be permitted to sit for the bar exam and otherwise be eligible to practice law after only two years of study....
Running Your Legal Business Like Nate Silver
May 23, 2014
In the ELM world, legal analytics can provide law firms, corporate law, and claims litigation departments with the data that they need as a foundation for their most critical decisions. Years of professional experience and wisdom do not fly out the window when you implement fact-based decision making. Good instincts are supplemented by concrete, real-world information that helps to hone those instincts for even better results. For example, Dawn the corporate attorney might have a general sense,...
May 23, 2014
In the ELM world, legal analytics can provide law firms, corporate law, and claims litigation departments with the data that they need as a foundation for their most critical decisions. Years of professional experience and wisdom do not fly out the window when you implement fact-based decision making. Good instincts are supplemented by concrete, real-world information that helps to hone those instincts for even better results. For example, Dawn the corporate attorney might have a general sense,...
Suja Thomas on Declining Jury Trials
May 23, 2014
Suja Thomas (Illinois) has posted to SSRN Blackstone's Curse: The Fall of the Criminal, Civil, and Grand Juries and the Rise...
May 23, 2014
Suja Thomas (Illinois) has posted to SSRN Blackstone's Curse: The Fall of the Criminal, Civil, and Grand Juries and the Rise...
