Data
Moneyball for Lawyers: Interview with Lex Machina CEO Josh Becker
June 26, 2018
In the book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Michael Lewis documented how the Oakland Athletics used analytics to build a competitive baseball team. In much the same way, lawyers are increasingly using analytics to get the upper hand in litigation and business development. One of the companies that pioneered the use of analytics in law is Lex Machina. In this edition of the podcast Law Technology Now, I speak with the company’s CEO Josh Becker. We discuss the company’s beginnings...
June 26, 2018
In the book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Michael Lewis documented how the Oakland Athletics used analytics to build a competitive baseball team. In much the same way, lawyers are increasingly using analytics to get the upper hand in litigation and business development. One of the companies that pioneered the use of analytics in law is Lex Machina. In this edition of the podcast Law Technology Now, I speak with the company’s CEO Josh Becker. We discuss the company’s beginnings...
Vanderbilt Hosts Summit on Law and Innovation
June 16, 2018
Creating connections and collaborations between people across the legal world, including academics, practitioners, legal technology experts, and others. Moving the legal profession and legal education into the 21st century and beyond. Those are the goals of an April 30 summit at Vanderbilt Law School called SoLI: The Summit on Law and Innovation. The goals are ambitious but necessary, say summit co-facilitators Caitlin (Cat) Moon and Larry Bridgesmith, adjunct professors at the school’s Program...
June 16, 2018
Creating connections and collaborations between people across the legal world, including academics, practitioners, legal technology experts, and others. Moving the legal profession and legal education into the 21st century and beyond. Those are the goals of an April 30 summit at Vanderbilt Law School called SoLI: The Summit on Law and Innovation. The goals are ambitious but necessary, say summit co-facilitators Caitlin (Cat) Moon and Larry Bridgesmith, adjunct professors at the school’s Program...
Statutory Interpretation on the Bench: A Survey of Forty-Two Judges on the Federal Courts of Appeals
June 15, 2018
This Article reports the results of a survey of a diverse group of forty-two federal appellate judges concerning their approaches to statutory interpretation. The study reveals important differences between their approaches and the approach that the Supreme Court purports to take. It also helps to substantiate the irrelevance of the enduring, but now-boring, textualism-versus-purposivism debate. None of the judges we interviewed was willing to associate himself or herself with “textualism” without...
June 15, 2018
This Article reports the results of a survey of a diverse group of forty-two federal appellate judges concerning their approaches to statutory interpretation. The study reveals important differences between their approaches and the approach that the Supreme Court purports to take. It also helps to substantiate the irrelevance of the enduring, but now-boring, textualism-versus-purposivism debate. None of the judges we interviewed was willing to associate himself or herself with “textualism” without...
Do Checklists Work?
June 15, 2018
"Checklists" have long-endured as an inexpensive--and seemingly efficacious--way to reduce risk flowing from tasks requiring complex decision-making. In many complex endeavors--e,g, piloting an aircraft or surgery--checklists are ubiquitous. Indeed, checklists are so pervasive that their efficaciousness is typically assumed or implied. Exploiting a natural experiment that arose in Seattle and involved state department of health restaurant inspection protocols, in Do Checklists Make a Difference?...
June 15, 2018
"Checklists" have long-endured as an inexpensive--and seemingly efficacious--way to reduce risk flowing from tasks requiring complex decision-making. In many complex endeavors--e,g, piloting an aircraft or surgery--checklists are ubiquitous. Indeed, checklists are so pervasive that their efficaciousness is typically assumed or implied. Exploiting a natural experiment that arose in Seattle and involved state department of health restaurant inspection protocols, in Do Checklists Make a Difference?...
Lawsuit Lead Time Prediction: Comparison of Data Mining Techniques Based on Categorical Response Variable
June 13, 2018
The quality of the judicial system of a country can be verified by the overall length time of lawsuits, or the lead time. When the lead time is excessive, a country’s economy can be affected, leading to the adoption of measures such as the creation of the Saturn Center in Europe. Although there are performance indicators to measure the lead time of lawsuits, the analysis and the fit of prediction models are still underdeveloped themes in the literature. To contribute to this subject, this article...
June 13, 2018
The quality of the judicial system of a country can be verified by the overall length time of lawsuits, or the lead time. When the lead time is excessive, a country’s economy can be affected, leading to the adoption of measures such as the creation of the Saturn Center in Europe. Although there are performance indicators to measure the lead time of lawsuits, the analysis and the fit of prediction models are still underdeveloped themes in the literature. To contribute to this subject, this article...
Preventing Bad Settlement Decisions and Impasse: Using Brain Science, Game Theory, Animated Communication and Micro-Interventions
June 12, 2018
Faculty: Douglas Noll and Don Philbin Please note: This is a high level, advanced course for those engaged in the mediation of litigated disputes, whether as advocates or mediators.The fact patterns of this course will be familiar to the experienced mediator and trial advocate in negotiation: difficult people, heightened emotions, overly confident case assessments, deeply held beliefs, barriers to rational deals.We will explore the neuropsychology behind these defining characteristics and the mediator...
June 12, 2018
Faculty: Douglas Noll and Don Philbin Please note: This is a high level, advanced course for those engaged in the mediation of litigated disputes, whether as advocates or mediators.The fact patterns of this course will be familiar to the experienced mediator and trial advocate in negotiation: difficult people, heightened emotions, overly confident case assessments, deeply held beliefs, barriers to rational deals.We will explore the neuropsychology behind these defining characteristics and the mediator...
‘AIQ’ Review: Getting Smarter All the Time
June 11, 2018
Their book has two goals. First, to document the reach of AI in everyday life: It’s now used to predict corn yields, track gender bias in films, map disease outbreaks and sort vegetables, among hundreds of other applications. But “AIQ” also aims to demystify AI. Each chapter focuses on an algorithm in a different industry, tracing the roots of each back to an innovator from before the computer era. One chapter goes back to Isaac Newton’s stint at the Royal Mint, another to Florence Nightingale’s...
June 11, 2018
Their book has two goals. First, to document the reach of AI in everyday life: It’s now used to predict corn yields, track gender bias in films, map disease outbreaks and sort vegetables, among hundreds of other applications. But “AIQ” also aims to demystify AI. Each chapter focuses on an algorithm in a different industry, tracing the roots of each back to an innovator from before the computer era. One chapter goes back to Isaac Newton’s stint at the Royal Mint, another to Florence Nightingale’s...
Huang, Hui, & Li on Federal Judge Ideology & Litigation Risk
June 11, 2018
Allen Huang (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Department of Accounting), Kai Wai Hui (The University of Hong Kong (HKU) - Department of Accounting), & Reeyarn Zhiyang Li (University of Mannheim - Accounting and Taxation; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) have posted Federal Judge Ideology: A New Measure of Ex-Ante Litigation Risk on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Drawing on the political theory of judicial decision making, our paper proposes a parsimonious ex ante...
June 11, 2018
Allen Huang (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Department of Accounting), Kai Wai Hui (The University of Hong Kong (HKU) - Department of Accounting), & Reeyarn Zhiyang Li (University of Mannheim - Accounting and Taxation; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) have posted Federal Judge Ideology: A New Measure of Ex-Ante Litigation Risk on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Drawing on the political theory of judicial decision making, our paper proposes a parsimonious ex ante...
Chess Grandmasters Show the Same Longevity Advantage as Elite Athletes
June 10, 2018
It’s well established that elite athletes have a longer life expectancy than the general public. A recent review of over 50 studies comprising half a million people estimated the athletic advantage to be between 4 and 8 years, on average. This comes as little surprise. One can easily imagine how the same genetic endowment and training necessary to develop physical prowess in sport might also manifest in physical health. Now for the first time, a study published in PLOS One (open access) shows...
June 10, 2018
It’s well established that elite athletes have a longer life expectancy than the general public. A recent review of over 50 studies comprising half a million people estimated the athletic advantage to be between 4 and 8 years, on average. This comes as little surprise. One can easily imagine how the same genetic endowment and training necessary to develop physical prowess in sport might also manifest in physical health. Now for the first time, a study published in PLOS One (open access) shows...
An Augmented Reality Microscope for Cancer Detection
June 9, 2018
Applications of deep learning to medical disciplines including ophthalmology, dermatology, radiology, and pathology have recently shown great promise to increase both the accuracy and availability of high-quality healthcare to patients around the world. At Google, we have also published results showing that a convolutional neural network is able to detect breast cancer metastases in lymph nodes at a level of accuracy comparable to a trained pathologist. However, because direct tissue visualization...
June 9, 2018
Applications of deep learning to medical disciplines including ophthalmology, dermatology, radiology, and pathology have recently shown great promise to increase both the accuracy and availability of high-quality healthcare to patients around the world. At Google, we have also published results showing that a convolutional neural network is able to detect breast cancer metastases in lymph nodes at a level of accuracy comparable to a trained pathologist. However, because direct tissue visualization...
