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Reverse Engineering of Jury Instructions
May 13, 2014
Reverse engineering of jury instructions requires (1) creating a decision structure or decision tree for a case, based on a theory of the case, (2) identifying crucial points in the decision structure or decision tree, and (3) incorporating crucial points into the jury instructions. This paper suggests that reverse engineering of jury instructions can be used to instruct jurors about legal concepts and technical terms before they hear jury instructions or closing arguments. The goal is to improve...
May 13, 2014
Reverse engineering of jury instructions requires (1) creating a decision structure or decision tree for a case, based on a theory of the case, (2) identifying crucial points in the decision structure or decision tree, and (3) incorporating crucial points into the jury instructions. This paper suggests that reverse engineering of jury instructions can be used to instruct jurors about legal concepts and technical terms before they hear jury instructions or closing arguments. The goal is to improve...
Book Review: Short and Happy Guide to Mediation by Will Pryor
May 13, 2014
Will Pryor’s “Short and Happy Guide to Mediation” is both. You can read it in a sitting, and probably will. But it covers...
May 13, 2014
Will Pryor’s “Short and Happy Guide to Mediation” is both. You can read it in a sitting, and probably will. But it covers...
How to Tell When Someone is Lying
May 13, 2014
People lie all the time. According to the psychologist Robert Feldman, who has spent more than four decades studying the phenomenon, we lie, on average, three times during a routine ten-minute conversation with a stranger or casual acquaintance. Hardly anyone refrains from lying altogether, and some people report lying up to twelve times within that time span. I might open a conversation, for instance, by saying how nice it is to meet someone—when I’m really not at all happy about it. I might...
May 13, 2014
People lie all the time. According to the psychologist Robert Feldman, who has spent more than four decades studying the phenomenon, we lie, on average, three times during a routine ten-minute conversation with a stranger or casual acquaintance. Hardly anyone refrains from lying altogether, and some people report lying up to twelve times within that time span. I might open a conversation, for instance, by saying how nice it is to meet someone—when I’m really not at all happy about it. I might...
These Venture Capitalists Skip Law Firms for Legal Services Startups
May 12, 2014
Venture capitalist Jason Mendelson, in a speech he gave last year, was not venturing much oral capital into the concept of investing in legal services. A corporate and securities-law attorney before he co-founded the Foundry Group, his venture capital firm, Mendelson told a conference he found it difficult to invest in companies serving law firms because, unlike regular enterprise customers, they don't always act rationally when it comes to economics. He warned that most legal startups would fail...
May 12, 2014
Venture capitalist Jason Mendelson, in a speech he gave last year, was not venturing much oral capital into the concept of investing in legal services. A corporate and securities-law attorney before he co-founded the Foundry Group, his venture capital firm, Mendelson told a conference he found it difficult to invest in companies serving law firms because, unlike regular enterprise customers, they don't always act rationally when it comes to economics. He warned that most legal startups would fail...
No-Poach Settlements Highlight Antitrust Danger in Hiring
May 12, 2014
The U.S. Department of Justice and the attorney general of California entered into a settlement on May 1 with online marketplace eBay Inc. over an alleged pact with software company Intuit Inc. that neither company would recruit programmers from the other. The settlement was the latest battle in a long antitrust war between Silicon Valley giants and tech employees who claim these companies cheated them out of the chance to compete for better compensation through a series of secret bilateral “no-poaching”...
May 12, 2014
The U.S. Department of Justice and the attorney general of California entered into a settlement on May 1 with online marketplace eBay Inc. over an alleged pact with software company Intuit Inc. that neither company would recruit programmers from the other. The settlement was the latest battle in a long antitrust war between Silicon Valley giants and tech employees who claim these companies cheated them out of the chance to compete for better compensation through a series of secret bilateral “no-poaching”...
2013 Annual Survey of Fifth Circuit Class Action Cases
May 12, 2014
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the federal district courts in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi saw a decrease in class...
May 12, 2014
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the federal district courts in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi saw a decrease in class...
WIPO Publishes Administered Mediation Rules
May 12, 2014
The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") has published a set of WIPO administered mediation rules effective June...
May 12, 2014
The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") has published a set of WIPO administered mediation rules effective June...
Bryan Garner Discusses the Latest Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary
May 12, 2014
Here is an interesting factoid for you: David Lat, editor of the blog Above the Law, is credited with coining three of the 7,500...
May 12, 2014
Here is an interesting factoid for you: David Lat, editor of the blog Above the Law, is credited with coining three of the 7,500...
Legal Tech Startups Face Funding Challenges
May 11, 2014
Some venture capitalists shy away from legal technology because lawyers can't resist skirmishes. “If you have a hammer … you probably know how to use it,” —Miriam Rivera, partner, Ulu Ventures. When two prominent venture capitalists express concerns about providing funding for new legal technology companies, you have to wonder whether there are extra hurdles to obtaining outside funding for legal technology start-ups.That was a somewhat startling revelation at the 2014 LexRedux West—Silicon...
May 11, 2014
Some venture capitalists shy away from legal technology because lawyers can't resist skirmishes. “If you have a hammer … you probably know how to use it,” —Miriam Rivera, partner, Ulu Ventures. When two prominent venture capitalists express concerns about providing funding for new legal technology companies, you have to wonder whether there are extra hurdles to obtaining outside funding for legal technology start-ups.That was a somewhat startling revelation at the 2014 LexRedux West—Silicon...
Two New Tools Allow You to Compare Major Firms’ Billing Rates
May 11, 2014
Call it keeping up with the Joneses (or at least the Jones Days): Two new products provide peeks into the billing rates being...
May 11, 2014
Call it keeping up with the Joneses (or at least the Jones Days): Two new products provide peeks into the billing rates being...
