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SCOTX Vacates Arbitration Award in Crop Insurance Dispute
June 6, 2018
The Supreme Court of Texas has ruled that a contract signatory was erroneously “required to arbitrate its non-contractual claims against non-signatories” in a crop insurance dispute. According to a prior Disputing blog post: In Jody James Farms, JV v. The Altman Group, Inc. and Laurie Diaz, No. 17-0062, Jody JamesFarms (“JJF”) purchased crop insurance from Rain & Hail through an insurance agency, the Altman Group, in 2010. The insurance policy contained a lengthy...
June 6, 2018
The Supreme Court of Texas has ruled that a contract signatory was erroneously “required to arbitrate its non-contractual claims against non-signatories” in a crop insurance dispute. According to a prior Disputing blog post: In Jody James Farms, JV v. The Altman Group, Inc. and Laurie Diaz, No. 17-0062, Jody JamesFarms (“JJF”) purchased crop insurance from Rain & Hail through an insurance agency, the Altman Group, in 2010. The insurance policy contained a lengthy...
31st Annual Summer Professional Skills Program in Dispute Resolution in Malibu
June 5, 2018
June 21-23, 2018 Malibu, California (This year's program will be held on the Drescher Graduate Campus due to School of Law renovations!) View the 2018 Brochure All 12 classes for the 2018 program are listed below! We recommend using google chrome web browser for registration. Register Now SAVE THE DATE: On the evening of June 20, 2018, Pepperdine/Straus American Inn of Court for Dispute Resolution will be hosting a dinner appetizer reception at the Jonathan Club in Santa Monica. Registrants...
June 5, 2018
June 21-23, 2018 Malibu, California (This year's program will be held on the Drescher Graduate Campus due to School of Law renovations!) View the 2018 Brochure All 12 classes for the 2018 program are listed below! We recommend using google chrome web browser for registration. Register Now SAVE THE DATE: On the evening of June 20, 2018, Pepperdine/Straus American Inn of Court for Dispute Resolution will be hosting a dinner appetizer reception at the Jonathan Club in Santa Monica. Registrants...
SCOTUS Grants Certiorari in Yet Another Class Arbitration Dispute
June 5, 2018
The Supreme Court of the United States has granted certiorari in yet another class arbitration dispute in the labor context. In Lamps Plus, Inc., et al. v. Varela, No. 17-988, a California man, Frank Varela, signed an agreement to arbitrate any future disputes with Lamps Plus as a condition of employment. The agreement was silent on the issue of class arbitration. Later, Varela filed a class-action lawsuit against his employer following a data breach that disclosed his personal information. In...
June 5, 2018
The Supreme Court of the United States has granted certiorari in yet another class arbitration dispute in the labor context. In Lamps Plus, Inc., et al. v. Varela, No. 17-988, a California man, Frank Varela, signed an agreement to arbitrate any future disputes with Lamps Plus as a condition of employment. The agreement was silent on the issue of class arbitration. Later, Varela filed a class-action lawsuit against his employer following a data breach that disclosed his personal information. In...
Legitimacy Pragmatism in International Arbitration: A Framework for Analysis
June 4, 2018
This chapter makes the simple point that if arbitral lawmaking is not legitimate to the actors who can change that lawmaking, it will likely be unstable and change. Obvious as the point may sound, it helps frame legitimacy debates in international arbitration in a way that makes them practically valuable: it narrows them down to a zone of so-called “conceptual cash-value”. Making that point requires to do two things. First, to decide what meaning is best given to the concept of “legitimacy”....
June 4, 2018
This chapter makes the simple point that if arbitral lawmaking is not legitimate to the actors who can change that lawmaking, it will likely be unstable and change. Obvious as the point may sound, it helps frame legitimacy debates in international arbitration in a way that makes them practically valuable: it narrows them down to a zone of so-called “conceptual cash-value”. Making that point requires to do two things. First, to decide what meaning is best given to the concept of “legitimacy”....
Mixed Modes Task Force Working Group Seeks Feedback from ADR Neutrals
June 4, 2018
Based on initial feedback from the Global Pound Conference, a Mixed Modes Task Force has been set up by the College of Commercial Arbitrators (CCA), the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and the Straus Institutefor Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine School of Law to examine possible new ways of combining mediation with arbitration. (For more information, please see: http://www.imimediation.org/about-imi/who-are-imi/mixed-mode-task-force/#about). One of the six working groups in this...
June 4, 2018
Based on initial feedback from the Global Pound Conference, a Mixed Modes Task Force has been set up by the College of Commercial Arbitrators (CCA), the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and the Straus Institutefor Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine School of Law to examine possible new ways of combining mediation with arbitration. (For more information, please see: http://www.imimediation.org/about-imi/who-are-imi/mixed-mode-task-force/#about). One of the six working groups in this...
Law and Psychology Grows Up, Goes Online, and Replicates
June 3, 2018
Over the last 30 years, legal scholars have increasingly deployed experimental studies, particularly hypothetical scenarios, to test intuitions about legal reasoning and behavior. That movement has accelerated in the last decade, facilitated in large part by cheap and convenient Internet participant recruiting platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk. The widespread use of online subjects, a practice that dramatically lowers the barriers to entry for experimental research, has been controversial. At the same...
June 3, 2018
Over the last 30 years, legal scholars have increasingly deployed experimental studies, particularly hypothetical scenarios, to test intuitions about legal reasoning and behavior. That movement has accelerated in the last decade, facilitated in large part by cheap and convenient Internet participant recruiting platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk. The widespread use of online subjects, a practice that dramatically lowers the barriers to entry for experimental research, has been controversial. At the same...
Can Non-Lawyers Bring More Benefit to the Legal Profession Than Lawyers?
June 3, 2018
Penn also emphasized the importance of process in the context of improving the workflows of her lawyers. She showed a pyramid where the wide base of Process Improvement held up everything else, including the smallest tip at the top where law and legal strategy came into play. She illustrated this by sharing a picture of a whiteboard with colored Post-It notes neatly arranged mapping out a process during a meeting with one of her firm partners. After they completed that mapping exercise, the partner...
June 3, 2018
Penn also emphasized the importance of process in the context of improving the workflows of her lawyers. She showed a pyramid where the wide base of Process Improvement held up everything else, including the smallest tip at the top where law and legal strategy came into play. She illustrated this by sharing a picture of a whiteboard with colored Post-It notes neatly arranged mapping out a process during a meeting with one of her firm partners. After they completed that mapping exercise, the partner...
Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real-World Tasks Over the Phone
June 2, 2018
A long-standing goal of human-computer interaction has been to enable people to have a natural conversation with computers,...
June 2, 2018
A long-standing goal of human-computer interaction has been to enable people to have a natural conversation with computers,...
Number of AI Companies in Legal Grows 65% In Last Year
June 2, 2018
The number of artificial intelligence companies catering to the legal field has grown by 65 percent in the last year, from 40 to 66. This finding is from the In-House Counsel’s LegalTech Buyer’s Guide 2018, published today by the contract review automation company LawGeex. The increase in AI companies includes a number of “agile and well-funded startups,” says the guide, but also a number of established players that are joining the field, such as LexisNexis with its Lexis Answers...
June 2, 2018
The number of artificial intelligence companies catering to the legal field has grown by 65 percent in the last year, from 40 to 66. This finding is from the In-House Counsel’s LegalTech Buyer’s Guide 2018, published today by the contract review automation company LawGeex. The increase in AI companies includes a number of “agile and well-funded startups,” says the guide, but also a number of established players that are joining the field, such as LexisNexis with its Lexis Answers...
The Warriors’ Key Chess Piece Is Also a Chess Fanatic
June 1, 2018
NBA playoff series are chess matches. So it’s a good thing that Klay Thompson really, really loves chess. Thompson plays chess as often as he plays basketball: almost every day. “It’s a great game,” he said. He owns multiple chess boards at home. He carries a magnetic chess set on road trips. And he juggles several chess games on his phone, which is a problem for Thompson: He’s not good at chess on his phone. What he appreciates most about chess are the moments when...
June 1, 2018
NBA playoff series are chess matches. So it’s a good thing that Klay Thompson really, really loves chess. Thompson plays chess as often as he plays basketball: almost every day. “It’s a great game,” he said. He owns multiple chess boards at home. He carries a magnetic chess set on road trips. And he juggles several chess games on his phone, which is a problem for Thompson: He’s not good at chess on his phone. What he appreciates most about chess are the moments when...
