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Predicting the Future – Digital Life in 2025
April 3, 2014
Pew reported it canvassed “2,558 experts and technology builders” who “predict the Internet will become ‘like electricity’ — less visible, yet more deeply embedded in people’s lives for good and ill.” Included in the Report were my comments about education by 2025: The greatest social change between now and 2025 will be to raise the educational standards for people regardless of their locale. The Internet has already proven to be a great educational tool, and such wonderful bodies...
April 3, 2014
Pew reported it canvassed “2,558 experts and technology builders” who “predict the Internet will become ‘like electricity’ — less visible, yet more deeply embedded in people’s lives for good and ill.” Included in the Report were my comments about education by 2025: The greatest social change between now and 2025 will be to raise the educational standards for people regardless of their locale. The Internet has already proven to be a great educational tool, and such wonderful bodies...
The Jury Trial is Dying: Should We Mourn its Demise? at NYU
April 2, 2014
Jury trials in civil cases are part of our Bill of Rights, and the jury trial has always been thought of as a pillar of American democracy. In practice, however, it is increasingly rare. Why is this happening? What does the demise of the jury trial mean for our civil justice system? Does it change democratic citizenship? Can the trend be reversed? Should we try, or just allow the jury trial become a relic of an earlier time? Our distinguished panel of trial and appellate lawyers and academic experts...
April 2, 2014
Jury trials in civil cases are part of our Bill of Rights, and the jury trial has always been thought of as a pillar of American democracy. In practice, however, it is increasingly rare. Why is this happening? What does the demise of the jury trial mean for our civil justice system? Does it change democratic citizenship? Can the trend be reversed? Should we try, or just allow the jury trial become a relic of an earlier time? Our distinguished panel of trial and appellate lawyers and academic experts...
The Neuroscience of Rationalizing Our Mistakes
April 2, 2014
Many of us have a hard time admitting when we’re wrong, but, even more so, we don’t like admitting that something about...
April 2, 2014
Many of us have a hard time admitting when we’re wrong, but, even more so, we don’t like admitting that something about...
Mysterious Brain Region That is Vital to How You Decide
April 2, 2014
Whether you’re choosing between job offers or deciding which car or house to buy, this region is probably involved. One of the smallest parts of the brain has a vital role in decision-making, a new study suggests. The area of the brain, the lateral habenula, near the centre, has previously been associated with avoidant behaviour and depression, but is now being looked at again. Professor Stan Floresco, one of the study’s authors said: “These findings clarify the brain processes involved...
April 2, 2014
Whether you’re choosing between job offers or deciding which car or house to buy, this region is probably involved. One of the smallest parts of the brain has a vital role in decision-making, a new study suggests. The area of the brain, the lateral habenula, near the centre, has previously been associated with avoidant behaviour and depression, but is now being looked at again. Professor Stan Floresco, one of the study’s authors said: “These findings clarify the brain processes involved...
How Body Language Lets Us Down
April 2, 2014
It is not just ordinary humans who want to believe in the power of body language. The New York Times just posted John Tierney’s article, “At airports, a misplaced faith in body language.” Tierney notes that the federal government poured about $1 billion into training airport personnel to tell if you might be a terrorist just by looking at your nonverbal behaviors as you stand in line waiting to get screened. (I discussed the program here previously.) The problem with relying...
April 2, 2014
It is not just ordinary humans who want to believe in the power of body language. The New York Times just posted John Tierney’s article, “At airports, a misplaced faith in body language.” Tierney notes that the federal government poured about $1 billion into training airport personnel to tell if you might be a terrorist just by looking at your nonverbal behaviors as you stand in line waiting to get screened. (I discussed the program here previously.) The problem with relying...
Wage Depression RICO Claims Getting Twiqbal’d
April 2, 2014
Some scholars are skeptical that the new Twombly/Iqbal pleading standard has really changed much of anything in employment discrimination cases. But the new plausibility standard appears to be having a real, discernable effect in a different type of employment law case – RICO claims for depressed wages. In these cases, legal workers allege that their employers have engaged in an unlawful criminal enterprise involving the violation of federal immigration law while hiring undocumented workers. ...
April 2, 2014
Some scholars are skeptical that the new Twombly/Iqbal pleading standard has really changed much of anything in employment discrimination cases. But the new plausibility standard appears to be having a real, discernable effect in a different type of employment law case – RICO claims for depressed wages. In these cases, legal workers allege that their employers have engaged in an unlawful criminal enterprise involving the violation of federal immigration law while hiring undocumented workers. ...
Mass and Class Claims in Arbitration
April 1, 2014
On April 9, the 11th Annual ITA-ASIL Conference: Mass and Class Claims in Arbitration will be presented from 12:00 noon – 4:30 p.m. in Washington D.C. at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center. The conference examines the competing trends and future prospects for class and mass claims in litigation and arbitration and features a keynote address by Carolyn B. Lamm (White & Case LLP, Washington, D.C.), past President of the ABA and lead advocate for the 60,000 Italian claimants in Abaclat v. Argentine...
April 1, 2014
On April 9, the 11th Annual ITA-ASIL Conference: Mass and Class Claims in Arbitration will be presented from 12:00 noon – 4:30 p.m. in Washington D.C. at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center. The conference examines the competing trends and future prospects for class and mass claims in litigation and arbitration and features a keynote address by Carolyn B. Lamm (White & Case LLP, Washington, D.C.), past President of the ABA and lead advocate for the 60,000 Italian claimants in Abaclat v. Argentine...
Robotic Attorneys and the Future
April 1, 2014
Will legal work soon be performed by robots? Drones may soon be delivering your Amazon packages, but will they also be taking over your legal career? James O’Toole in a story in CNN Money contemplates whether “the lawyers of the future may be less J.D. than R2D2.” “Lots of legal work is already being computerized by some firms, including the drafting of simple contracts and the search for evidence in reams of documents,” O’Toole says. Though industry experts admit a robotic attorney...
April 1, 2014
Will legal work soon be performed by robots? Drones may soon be delivering your Amazon packages, but will they also be taking over your legal career? James O’Toole in a story in CNN Money contemplates whether “the lawyers of the future may be less J.D. than R2D2.” “Lots of legal work is already being computerized by some firms, including the drafting of simple contracts and the search for evidence in reams of documents,” O’Toole says. Though industry experts admit a robotic attorney...
LexisNexis UK Launches as an Alternative Business Structure
April 1, 2014
The legal publisher is approved to provide advisory services. Are lawyers being replaced by legal software? There are many...
April 1, 2014
The legal publisher is approved to provide advisory services. Are lawyers being replaced by legal software? There are many...
BREAKING: Citing Legal Industry Disruption, West, Lexis Open their Data to Free Access
April 1, 2014
Last month, Harvard Law School hosted the conference, Disruptive Innovation in the Market for Legal Services, featuring Harvard Business School Prof. Clayton M. Christensen, author of the seminal 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. That came not long after ReInvent Law NYC, another conference that focused on innovation and disruption in the legal industry. Indeed, as I wrote then, we may be in the midst of a time of unprecedented innovation in legal technology. Citing this very trend towards...
April 1, 2014
Last month, Harvard Law School hosted the conference, Disruptive Innovation in the Market for Legal Services, featuring Harvard Business School Prof. Clayton M. Christensen, author of the seminal 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. That came not long after ReInvent Law NYC, another conference that focused on innovation and disruption in the legal industry. Indeed, as I wrote then, we may be in the midst of a time of unprecedented innovation in legal technology. Citing this very trend towards...
