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Legal Analytics, Social Science, and Legal Fees: Reimagining “Legal Spend” Decisions in an Evolving Industry
July 12, 2019
To give you a feel for the power of legal analytics, imagine that you are the managing partner of a law firm. With a good...
July 12, 2019
To give you a feel for the power of legal analytics, imagine that you are the managing partner of a law firm. With a good...
Trial by Jury: Why it Works and Why it Matters
July 7, 2019
I am an unabashed believer in the jury system, an unabashed believer that juries take their obligations as jurors seriously,...
July 7, 2019
I am an unabashed believer in the jury system, an unabashed believer that juries take their obligations as jurors seriously,...
Legal Theory Lexicon: The Prisoners’ Dilemma
June 28, 2019
One of the most useful tools in analyzing legal rules and the policy problems to which they apply is game theory. The basic...
June 28, 2019
One of the most useful tools in analyzing legal rules and the policy problems to which they apply is game theory. The basic...
Martins, Price, & Witt on Contractual Waivers of Tort Rights
June 21, 2019
Ryan Martins, Shannon Price and John Fabian Witt (Yale University, Law School, Students, Yale University, Law School, Students and Yale University - Law School) have posted Contract’s Revenge: The Waiver Society and the Death of Tort (Cardozo Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A generation ago observers confidently predicted the death of contract and the triumph of tort. But contract has risen from the dead. Contracts waiving tort rights have become ubiquitous...
June 21, 2019
Ryan Martins, Shannon Price and John Fabian Witt (Yale University, Law School, Students, Yale University, Law School, Students and Yale University - Law School) have posted Contract’s Revenge: The Waiver Society and the Death of Tort (Cardozo Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A generation ago observers confidently predicted the death of contract and the triumph of tort. But contract has risen from the dead. Contracts waiving tort rights have become ubiquitous...
Are Lawyers Citing the Best Cases to Courts?
June 17, 2019
Here is a question I've never thought about before: Are lawyers citing the best cases to courts? In other words, do the courts use the cases cited in the briefs, and how often do the courts use cases not mentioned in any brief? The answer may surprise you! Kevin Bennardo & Alexa Chew (UNC), Citation Stickiness. "This Article is an empirical study of what we call citation stickiness. A citation is sticky if it appears in one of the parties’ briefs and then again in the court’s...
June 17, 2019
Here is a question I've never thought about before: Are lawyers citing the best cases to courts? In other words, do the courts use the cases cited in the briefs, and how often do the courts use cases not mentioned in any brief? The answer may surprise you! Kevin Bennardo & Alexa Chew (UNC), Citation Stickiness. "This Article is an empirical study of what we call citation stickiness. A citation is sticky if it appears in one of the parties’ briefs and then again in the court’s...
Can The Accounting Firms Unseat Biglaw?
June 15, 2019
A hot conversation started around the legal industry — an industry where the bar for the term “hot” is apparently...
June 15, 2019
A hot conversation started around the legal industry — an industry where the bar for the term “hot” is apparently...
Settlement Malpractice
June 11, 2019
Lawyers routinely settle lawsuits or advise their clients about settlement. One might expect, therefore, that clients routinely complain about some aspect of their lawyers’ settlement services. Ten years of data from eleven jurisdictions paint a vivid, different picture: although the vast majority of civil lawsuits are resolved through negotiated settlements and although complaints against lawyers are common, fewer than 1% of reported legal malpractice cases and only about 1.5% of Bar complaints...
June 11, 2019
Lawyers routinely settle lawsuits or advise their clients about settlement. One might expect, therefore, that clients routinely complain about some aspect of their lawyers’ settlement services. Ten years of data from eleven jurisdictions paint a vivid, different picture: although the vast majority of civil lawsuits are resolved through negotiated settlements and although complaints against lawyers are common, fewer than 1% of reported legal malpractice cases and only about 1.5% of Bar complaints...
American Law Firms in Transition: Trends, Threats and Strategies
June 10, 2019
American Law Firms: Trends, Threats and Strategies takes a sweeping, incisive view of law firms' uneven progress after the Great Recession and analyzes the five elements that will determine their success or failure in the next decade: culture, character, practices, systems and leaders. Studying every critical aspect of law firms from income trends to attorney attrition rates and from gender bias to leadership development, this book shows how law firms have struggled to adapt to rapidly changing...
June 10, 2019
American Law Firms: Trends, Threats and Strategies takes a sweeping, incisive view of law firms' uneven progress after the Great Recession and analyzes the five elements that will determine their success or failure in the next decade: culture, character, practices, systems and leaders. Studying every critical aspect of law firms from income trends to attorney attrition rates and from gender bias to leadership development, this book shows how law firms have struggled to adapt to rapidly changing...
Pepperdine Hosts International Conference For Dispute Resolution Teachers, Scholars, And Leaders
June 9, 2019
The Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine Law School, ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report for 13 of the past 15th years, will host a landmark conference on June 18-19, 2019: Appreciating Our Legacy and Engaging theFuture: An International Conference for Dispute Resolution Teachers, Scholars, and Leaders. Participants will compare perspectives on four decades of change in managing and resolving conflict. The Co-Chairs of the Conference are: Tom...
June 9, 2019
The Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine Law School, ranked #1 by U.S. News & World Report for 13 of the past 15th years, will host a landmark conference on June 18-19, 2019: Appreciating Our Legacy and Engaging theFuture: An International Conference for Dispute Resolution Teachers, Scholars, and Leaders. Participants will compare perspectives on four decades of change in managing and resolving conflict. The Co-Chairs of the Conference are: Tom...
The use of iPads by U.S. Fifth Circuit judges and law clerks
June 8, 2019
When the presentation allowed for questions from the audience, I asked the judges whether they prefer to read briefs in paper, on the computer, or on an iPad, and whether that led them to have any preferences on how the brief is written, such as whether they prefer to see cites in the text or in the footnotes. All four judges said that they were big fans of the impressive use of technology at the Fifth Circuit. For example, after a lawyer e-files a brief, the court adds hyperlinks to the PDF version...
June 8, 2019
When the presentation allowed for questions from the audience, I asked the judges whether they prefer to read briefs in paper, on the computer, or on an iPad, and whether that led them to have any preferences on how the brief is written, such as whether they prefer to see cites in the text or in the footnotes. All four judges said that they were big fans of the impressive use of technology at the Fifth Circuit. For example, after a lawyer e-files a brief, the court adds hyperlinks to the PDF version...
