News
Center for Law Practice Technology
August 30, 2013
This week [Stephanie Kimbro] signed on as Co-Director of a Center for Law Practice Technology which I will be leading with Richard Granat. Over the coming months, we will be working to design a core curriculum and body of courses that reflects our experience in legal tech and draws from the expertise of our colleagues internationally. We hope to bring guest lectures and experts to the Center that will not only provide practical background in law practice management and the use of legal technology,...
August 30, 2013
This week [Stephanie Kimbro] signed on as Co-Director of a Center for Law Practice Technology which I will be leading with Richard Granat. Over the coming months, we will be working to design a core curriculum and body of courses that reflects our experience in legal tech and draws from the expertise of our colleagues internationally. We hope to bring guest lectures and experts to the Center that will not only provide practical background in law practice management and the use of legal technology,...
Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution Launches Employment Mediation Clinic
August 30, 2013
The Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the School of Law will launch a new employment mediation clinic at the start of the 2013-14 academic year in partnership with California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), the largest state civil rights agency in the country. Senior attorney-mediators from the DFEH will serve as clinic faculty and oversee students' preparation of DFEH cases for mediation under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. While participating in the clinic,...
August 30, 2013
The Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the School of Law will launch a new employment mediation clinic at the start of the 2013-14 academic year in partnership with California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), the largest state civil rights agency in the country. Senior attorney-mediators from the DFEH will serve as clinic faculty and oversee students' preparation of DFEH cases for mediation under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. While participating in the clinic,...
Engineering Peace: Achieving the Promise of Mediation in the World’s Most Difficult Conflicts
August 30, 2013
This is the first of a series of four blog postings written by Nadja Alexander , Michael Leathes , Tina Monberg and Irena Vanenkova. Achieving the promise of mediation in conflicts that threaten the stability of societies and economies is one of the most important challenges of our time. Inspiring progress has been made in the past few years by the UN, and political leaders increasingly perceive mediation as vital for avoiding and resolving conflict at all levels in society, worldwide....
August 30, 2013
This is the first of a series of four blog postings written by Nadja Alexander , Michael Leathes , Tina Monberg and Irena Vanenkova. Achieving the promise of mediation in conflicts that threaten the stability of societies and economies is one of the most important challenges of our time. Inspiring progress has been made in the past few years by the UN, and political leaders increasingly perceive mediation as vital for avoiding and resolving conflict at all levels in society, worldwide....
Houston COA Holds Trial Court Inappropriately Modified Arbitrator’s Decision Regarding Joint and Several Liability
August 30, 2013
Texas’ 14th District Court of Appeals in Houston has amended a trial court’s judgment that modified an arbitrator’s decision. In Broemer v. Houston Lawyer Referral Service, No. 14-12-00337-CV, (Tex. App. – Houston [14th Dist.], July 25, 2013), Houston Lawyer Referral Service (“HLRS”) referred three lawsuits to an attorney named Roslyn Bazzelle. When the firm at which Bazelle was employed closed, she took the cases with her to her new position at W. Fulton Broemer & Associates,...
August 30, 2013
Texas’ 14th District Court of Appeals in Houston has amended a trial court’s judgment that modified an arbitrator’s decision. In Broemer v. Houston Lawyer Referral Service, No. 14-12-00337-CV, (Tex. App. – Houston [14th Dist.], July 25, 2013), Houston Lawyer Referral Service (“HLRS”) referred three lawsuits to an attorney named Roslyn Bazzelle. When the firm at which Bazelle was employed closed, she took the cases with her to her new position at W. Fulton Broemer & Associates,...
UK High Court Refuses Stay Despite Concurrent Texas Action
August 30, 2013
MacDermid Offshore Solutions LLC (“MacDermid”) sued Niche Products Limited (“Niche”) in Texas for misleading advertising. Soon thereafter, Niche sued MacDermid in the Patents County Court (“PCC”) in England under the British cause of action for malicious falsehood. Both intellectual property proceedings turned on whether a particular type of oil product was different. MacDermid filed an application with the PCC, requesting that the proceedings be heard in Texas. The PCC dismissed the application,...
August 30, 2013
MacDermid Offshore Solutions LLC (“MacDermid”) sued Niche Products Limited (“Niche”) in Texas for misleading advertising. Soon thereafter, Niche sued MacDermid in the Patents County Court (“PCC”) in England under the British cause of action for malicious falsehood. Both intellectual property proceedings turned on whether a particular type of oil product was different. MacDermid filed an application with the PCC, requesting that the proceedings be heard in Texas. The PCC dismissed the application,...
Pricing Legal Claims III-Staged Funding And The Link To Options Analysis
August 29, 2013
A paradigm shift is underway regarding claim valuation, from viewing claims as assets to real options. The asset approach, while accurate and workable at a basic level, oversimplifies the reality of litigation by treating all the decisions involved as essentially two: the decision to file suit, and the decision to settle. In reducing litigation this way, the assumption is that the litigators and litigants are essentially passive investors, and that a fixed commitment to full funding has been made...
August 29, 2013
A paradigm shift is underway regarding claim valuation, from viewing claims as assets to real options. The asset approach, while accurate and workable at a basic level, oversimplifies the reality of litigation by treating all the decisions involved as essentially two: the decision to file suit, and the decision to settle. In reducing litigation this way, the assumption is that the litigators and litigants are essentially passive investors, and that a fixed commitment to full funding has been made...
Oxford Health and Manifest Disregard, Part II.C
August 29, 2013
Part II.C: Does Oxford Portend Judicial Reconsideration of Whether Class-Arbitration Consent is a Question of Arbitrability? In Stolt-Nielsen and Oxford the parties voluntarily submitted the class-arbitration-consent question to arbitrators because a four-Justice plurality ruled in Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Bazzle, 539 U.S. 444 (2003), that the class-arbitration-consent issue was not a question of arbitrability for the court to decide. While “courts assume that the parties...
August 29, 2013
Part II.C: Does Oxford Portend Judicial Reconsideration of Whether Class-Arbitration Consent is a Question of Arbitrability? In Stolt-Nielsen and Oxford the parties voluntarily submitted the class-arbitration-consent question to arbitrators because a four-Justice plurality ruled in Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Bazzle, 539 U.S. 444 (2003), that the class-arbitration-consent issue was not a question of arbitrability for the court to decide. While “courts assume that the parties...
N.F.L. Agrees to Settle Concussion Suit for $765 Million
August 29, 2013
The N.F.L. agreed to pay $765 million to settle a lawsuit brought by more than 4,500 retirees with advanced dementia and other health problems as well as the families of players who have died from what they claimed were the long-terms effects of head trauma. The settlement will be seen as a positive outcome for the league, which, should the lawsuit have moved forward, was facing the potential of billions of dollars in liability payments and a lengthy and almost assuredly revealing discovery phase...
August 29, 2013
The N.F.L. agreed to pay $765 million to settle a lawsuit brought by more than 4,500 retirees with advanced dementia and other health problems as well as the families of players who have died from what they claimed were the long-terms effects of head trauma. The settlement will be seen as a positive outcome for the league, which, should the lawsuit have moved forward, was facing the potential of billions of dollars in liability payments and a lengthy and almost assuredly revealing discovery phase...
Fretboard Logic: Learning From the Guitar How to Value Your Case
August 29, 2013
The Problem: You think that your client’s pain is so severe and different than the typical client that you value the case substantially higher than the other side will pay. The Solution: Understand what “category” your adversary has put your case in and either accept it or try to create a new category of value. Consider the guitar fretboard for a moment. It is a complex maze of horizontal, vertical and perpendicular dimensions to achieve sound that stretch across a think plank of wood up to 25 inches....
August 29, 2013
The Problem: You think that your client’s pain is so severe and different than the typical client that you value the case substantially higher than the other side will pay. The Solution: Understand what “category” your adversary has put your case in and either accept it or try to create a new category of value. Consider the guitar fretboard for a moment. It is a complex maze of horizontal, vertical and perpendicular dimensions to achieve sound that stretch across a think plank of wood up to 25 inches....
The Federal Arbitration Act and Displacement of Agency Regulation
August 29, 2013
Maureen Weston, Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, has published a timely article entitled, The Accidental Preemption Statute: The Federal Arbitration Act and Displacement of Agency Regulation, 6 Penn. St. Y.B. on Arb. & Mediation 59 (2013); Pepperdine University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2013/15. In her paper, Professor Weston examines the dichotomy between the Federal Arbitration Act and the regulatory procedures used by federal agencies. Here is the abstract: The...
August 29, 2013
Maureen Weston, Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, has published a timely article entitled, The Accidental Preemption Statute: The Federal Arbitration Act and Displacement of Agency Regulation, 6 Penn. St. Y.B. on Arb. & Mediation 59 (2013); Pepperdine University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2013/15. In her paper, Professor Weston examines the dichotomy between the Federal Arbitration Act and the regulatory procedures used by federal agencies. Here is the abstract: The...
