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2nd Circuit Resurrects Jacoby & Meyers Suit
March 27, 2013
With apologies to Monty Python, a Jacoby & Meyers LLP lawsuit challenging restrictions on non-lawyer investment in law firms is not dead yet—despite its dismissal in March by a New York district court judge. As the plague victim on the cart in Spamalot! sang: I am not dead yet—I can dance, I can sing! I am not dead yet—I can do the Highland Fling! The resurrection of the Jacoby & Meyers suit came on Wednesday, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that...
March 27, 2013
With apologies to Monty Python, a Jacoby & Meyers LLP lawsuit challenging restrictions on non-lawyer investment in law firms is not dead yet—despite its dismissal in March by a New York district court judge. As the plague victim on the cart in Spamalot! sang: I am not dead yet—I can dance, I can sing! I am not dead yet—I can do the Highland Fling! The resurrection of the Jacoby & Meyers suit came on Wednesday, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that...
On the Trail of Cancer
March 27, 2013
IT’S HIGH TIME a book did for epidemiology what Jon Krakauer’s best-selling “Into Thin Air” did for mountain climbing: transform a long sequence of painfully plodding steps and missteps into a narrative of such irresistible momentum that the reader not only understands what propels enthusiasts forward, but begins to strain forward as well, racing through the pages to get to the heady views at the end. And such is the power of Dan Fagin’s “Toms River,” surely a new classic of science...
March 27, 2013
IT’S HIGH TIME a book did for epidemiology what Jon Krakauer’s best-selling “Into Thin Air” did for mountain climbing: transform a long sequence of painfully plodding steps and missteps into a narrative of such irresistible momentum that the reader not only understands what propels enthusiasts forward, but begins to strain forward as well, racing through the pages to get to the heady views at the end. And such is the power of Dan Fagin’s “Toms River,” surely a new classic of science...
SIDEBAR: Mediation
March 26, 2013
I’ve been lucky all my life. Well, mostly. I was born after the Greatest Generation conquered the Depression and Hitler, and I grew up, at least in my sliver of Brooklyn, in an era of relative peace and prosperity. When I started practicing in the late seventies, the legal profession was exciting and expanding, plenty of jobs, trials galore. The future was promising, enticing. If I did what I was taught—work like an ox, be respectful, don’t complain—success...
March 26, 2013
I’ve been lucky all my life. Well, mostly. I was born after the Greatest Generation conquered the Depression and Hitler, and I grew up, at least in my sliver of Brooklyn, in an era of relative peace and prosperity. When I started practicing in the late seventies, the legal profession was exciting and expanding, plenty of jobs, trials galore. The future was promising, enticing. If I did what I was taught—work like an ox, be respectful, don’t complain—success...
Today: Argument in Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter
March 25, 2013
Issue: Whether an arbitrator acts within his powers under the Federal Arbitration Act (as the Second and Third Circuits have held) or exceeds those powers (as the Fifth Circuit has held) by determining that parties affirmatively “agreed to authorize class arbitration,” Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. Animalfeeds Int'l Corp., based solely on their use of broad contractual language precluding litigation and requiring arbitration of any dispute arising under their contract. Cornell Summary: Over a decade...
March 25, 2013
Issue: Whether an arbitrator acts within his powers under the Federal Arbitration Act (as the Second and Third Circuits have held) or exceeds those powers (as the Fifth Circuit has held) by determining that parties affirmatively “agreed to authorize class arbitration,” Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. Animalfeeds Int'l Corp., based solely on their use of broad contractual language precluding litigation and requiring arbitration of any dispute arising under their contract. Cornell Summary: Over a decade...
Investor Protection Meets the Federal Arbitration Act
March 22, 2013
In the past three decades, most recently in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, the United States Supreme Court has advanced an aggressive pro-arbitration campaign, transforming the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) into a powerful source of anti-consumer substantive arbitration law. In the aftermath of AT&T Mobility, which upheld a prohibition on class actions in a consumer contract despite state law that refused to enforce such provisions on unconscionability grounds, efforts have been made to prohibit...
March 22, 2013
In the past three decades, most recently in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, the United States Supreme Court has advanced an aggressive pro-arbitration campaign, transforming the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) into a powerful source of anti-consumer substantive arbitration law. In the aftermath of AT&T Mobility, which upheld a prohibition on class actions in a consumer contract despite state law that refused to enforce such provisions on unconscionability grounds, efforts have been made to prohibit...
Evolving Perceptions of Mediation, Arbitration and Conflict Management in Fortune 1,000 Corporations
March 21, 2013
As attorneys for the world’s most visible clients, corporate counsel played a key role in the transformation of American conflict resolution in the late Twentieth Century. In 1997 a survey of Fortune 1,000 corporate counsel provided the first broad-based picture of conflict resolution processes within large companies. In 2011, a second landmark survey of corporate counsel in Fortune 1,000 companies captured a variety of critical changes in the ways large companies handle conflict. Comparing their...
March 21, 2013
As attorneys for the world’s most visible clients, corporate counsel played a key role in the transformation of American conflict resolution in the late Twentieth Century. In 1997 a survey of Fortune 1,000 corporate counsel provided the first broad-based picture of conflict resolution processes within large companies. In 2011, a second landmark survey of corporate counsel in Fortune 1,000 companies captured a variety of critical changes in the ways large companies handle conflict. Comparing their...
Why is Privatized Procedure so Rare?
March 19, 2013
Increasingly we hear that civil procedure lurks in the shadow of private law. Scholars suggest that the civil rules are mere defaults, applying if the parties fail to contract around them. When judges confront terms modifying court procedures — a trend said to be explosive — they seem all-too-willing to surrender to the inevitable logic of private and efficient private ordering. How concerned should we be? This Article casts a wide net to find examples of private contracts governing procedure,...
March 19, 2013
Increasingly we hear that civil procedure lurks in the shadow of private law. Scholars suggest that the civil rules are mere defaults, applying if the parties fail to contract around them. When judges confront terms modifying court procedures — a trend said to be explosive — they seem all-too-willing to surrender to the inevitable logic of private and efficient private ordering. How concerned should we be? This Article casts a wide net to find examples of private contracts governing procedure,...
Court Compels Arbitration of Signatory While Staying Proceeding Against Nonsignatories
March 18, 2013
Security Life Insurance Company was the successor to certain reinsurance agreements covering underlying life insurance risks. Pursuant to the agreements, the reinsurers created a trust in order to fund the required reserves. The trustee, INA Trust FSB, and the reinsurers thereafter allegedly created a new trust, transferred funds from the previous trust to one of the reinsurers, and/or its principal, but did not name Security Life as a beneficiary under the new trust, as allegedly required under...
March 18, 2013
Security Life Insurance Company was the successor to certain reinsurance agreements covering underlying life insurance risks. Pursuant to the agreements, the reinsurers created a trust in order to fund the required reserves. The trustee, INA Trust FSB, and the reinsurers thereafter allegedly created a new trust, transferred funds from the previous trust to one of the reinsurers, and/or its principal, but did not name Security Life as a beneficiary under the new trust, as allegedly required under...
Evolving Perceptions of ADR at America’s Fortune 1,000 Companies
March 18, 2013
Professors Thomas Stipanowich (Pepperdine University School of Law) and J. Ryan Lamare (Pennsylvania State University)...
March 18, 2013
Professors Thomas Stipanowich (Pepperdine University School of Law) and J. Ryan Lamare (Pennsylvania State University)...
The Future of Law as Seen From Silicon Valley
March 12, 2013
What does the future of law practice look like? It will be user-friendly and accessible via bright and fresh retail shops...
March 12, 2013
What does the future of law practice look like? It will be user-friendly and accessible via bright and fresh retail shops...
