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Legal Sector Gains Modest 100 Jobs in August
September 15, 2017
After the legal sector took a major hit in July losing 3,400 jobs (nearly wiping out all the gains of the previous six months), be thankful for small favors. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal sector gained back a modest 100 jobs in August. Of course, BLS frequently makes post-report adjustments to its monthly labor stats as more accurate information is acquired so the final figure may eventually change for better or worse. Also noteworthy is a report by Bloomberg Law that...
September 15, 2017
After the legal sector took a major hit in July losing 3,400 jobs (nearly wiping out all the gains of the previous six months), be thankful for small favors. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal sector gained back a modest 100 jobs in August. Of course, BLS frequently makes post-report adjustments to its monthly labor stats as more accurate information is acquired so the final figure may eventually change for better or worse. Also noteworthy is a report by Bloomberg Law that...
Delaware Dethroned by South Dakota as Top Corporate Lawsuit Venue, Report Says
September 13, 2017
South Dakota has replaced Delaware as the No. 1 choice of in-house counsel and business executives for handling corporate lawsuits, according to a new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform. The new Harris poll announced Tuesday morning at a Chamber conference in Washington, D.C., showed Vermont, Idaho, Minnesota and New Hampshire closely following South Dakota in the rankings. Delaware had been the top state in the studies for the past 15 years, but finished...
September 13, 2017
South Dakota has replaced Delaware as the No. 1 choice of in-house counsel and business executives for handling corporate lawsuits, according to a new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform. The new Harris poll announced Tuesday morning at a Chamber conference in Washington, D.C., showed Vermont, Idaho, Minnesota and New Hampshire closely following South Dakota in the rankings. Delaware had been the top state in the studies for the past 15 years, but finished...
Lawyers Make Better CEOs Than MBAs
August 27, 2017
Harvard Business Review: Do Lawyers Make Better CEOs Than MBAs?, by M. Todd Henderson (Chicago): We were interested in how lawyer CEOs might influence firm decision making more broadly — and whether they differ from CEOs without a law degree. I collaborated with Irena Hutton, Danling Jiang, and Matt Pierson to compare the behavior of CEOs with law degrees with those who earned a bachelor’s degree, MBA, or other degree. We looked at about 3,500 CEOs, about 9% of whom have law degrees....
August 27, 2017
Harvard Business Review: Do Lawyers Make Better CEOs Than MBAs?, by M. Todd Henderson (Chicago): We were interested in how lawyer CEOs might influence firm decision making more broadly — and whether they differ from CEOs without a law degree. I collaborated with Irena Hutton, Danling Jiang, and Matt Pierson to compare the behavior of CEOs with law degrees with those who earned a bachelor’s degree, MBA, or other degree. We looked at about 3,500 CEOs, about 9% of whom have law degrees....
Adventures in Higher Education, Happiness, and Mindfulness
August 27, 2017
Excellent article on well-being and happiness. Peter H. Huang (Colorado), Adventures in Higher Education, Happiness, and Mindfulness "This Article recounts my unique adventures in higher education, including being a Princeton University freshman mathematics major at age 14, Harvard University applied mathematics graduate student at age 17, economics and finance faculty at multiple schools, first-year law student at the University of Chicago, second- and third-year law student at Stanford University,...
August 27, 2017
Excellent article on well-being and happiness. Peter H. Huang (Colorado), Adventures in Higher Education, Happiness, and Mindfulness "This Article recounts my unique adventures in higher education, including being a Princeton University freshman mathematics major at age 14, Harvard University applied mathematics graduate student at age 17, economics and finance faculty at multiple schools, first-year law student at the University of Chicago, second- and third-year law student at Stanford University,...
Microsoft is Nearly Phasing out the Billable Hour
August 25, 2017
From Bloomberg Big Law Business: Microsoft has quietly unveiled new parameters for its outside counsel, and, in an effort to step away from the billable hour, announced it hopes to shift 90 percent of its legal work into alternative fee arrangements within two years. David Howard, a corporate vice president and deputy general counsel at the company, wrote online Friday that Microsoft wants to establish a “new type of relationship” with the law firms handling its most important work. During...
August 25, 2017
From Bloomberg Big Law Business: Microsoft has quietly unveiled new parameters for its outside counsel, and, in an effort to step away from the billable hour, announced it hopes to shift 90 percent of its legal work into alternative fee arrangements within two years. David Howard, a corporate vice president and deputy general counsel at the company, wrote online Friday that Microsoft wants to establish a “new type of relationship” with the law firms handling its most important work. During...
Applicants Plunged 52%, And Acceptance Rates Increased 20%, At Non-T14 Law Schools From 2008 To 2016
August 19, 2017
U.S. News & World Report, Less Competitive Law School Admissions a Boon for Applicants: U.S. News data reveal that the average number of applicants at the top 14 schools in the Best Law Schools rankings was 20.6 percent lower for the entering class of 2016 than it was for the entering class of 2008. Meanwhile, the average number of applicants at lower-ranked law schools plunged 52.3 percent between 2008 and 2016. U.S. News data shows that acceptance rates at the top 14 law schools...
August 19, 2017
U.S. News & World Report, Less Competitive Law School Admissions a Boon for Applicants: U.S. News data reveal that the average number of applicants at the top 14 schools in the Best Law Schools rankings was 20.6 percent lower for the entering class of 2016 than it was for the entering class of 2008. Meanwhile, the average number of applicants at lower-ranked law schools plunged 52.3 percent between 2008 and 2016. U.S. News data shows that acceptance rates at the top 14 law schools...
Lipshaw on Lawyering by Artificial Intelligences
August 19, 2017
Jeffrey M. Lipshaw (Suffolk University Law School) has posted Halting, Intuition, Heuristics, and Action: Alan Turing and the Theoretical Constraints on AI-Lawyering (Savannah Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This is a reflection on the relationship of lawyering and artificial intelligence. Its goal is a better understanding of the theoretical constraints of the latter. The first part is an assessment of one particular and crucially important aspect in the theory of machine...
August 19, 2017
Jeffrey M. Lipshaw (Suffolk University Law School) has posted Halting, Intuition, Heuristics, and Action: Alan Turing and the Theoretical Constraints on AI-Lawyering (Savannah Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This is a reflection on the relationship of lawyering and artificial intelligence. Its goal is a better understanding of the theoretical constraints of the latter. The first part is an assessment of one particular and crucially important aspect in the theory of machine...
Baker McKenzie deploys bespoke AI for M&A
August 13, 2017
The firm will employ new artificial intelligence tools across nine offices to achieve faster and more comprehensive contract...
August 13, 2017
The firm will employ new artificial intelligence tools across nine offices to achieve faster and more comprehensive contract...
LawArXiv Aims to Ensure Open Access to Legal Scholarship
August 12, 2017
Aiming to ensure continued open access to legal scholarship, several academic and library groups joined forces in May to launch LawArXiv, a website devoted to preserving open access to legal scholarship. Uploading articles is free to the scholarly legal community and all uploaded content is freely accessible to the public. The site’s collection of articles is still small — fewer than 250 articles so far. Needless to say, that number should grow as more scholars begin to use the site. Users...
August 12, 2017
Aiming to ensure continued open access to legal scholarship, several academic and library groups joined forces in May to launch LawArXiv, a website devoted to preserving open access to legal scholarship. Uploading articles is free to the scholarly legal community and all uploaded content is freely accessible to the public. The site’s collection of articles is still small — fewer than 250 articles so far. Needless to say, that number should grow as more scholars begin to use the site. Users...
Artificial intelligence and Objective Analysis
August 5, 2017
The 2016 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report found that ‘the legal services sector is not working well for individual consumers and small businesses. These consumers generally lack the experience and information they need to find their way around the legal services sector and to engage confidently with providers’. Stating too that clients find it difficult to “make informed choices because there is very little transparency about price, service and quality”. The CMA encourages...
August 5, 2017
The 2016 Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report found that ‘the legal services sector is not working well for individual consumers and small businesses. These consumers generally lack the experience and information they need to find their way around the legal services sector and to engage confidently with providers’. Stating too that clients find it difficult to “make informed choices because there is very little transparency about price, service and quality”. The CMA encourages...
