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Jeff Lipshaw on Robot Lawyers and Legal Education
July 22, 2017
Over at the hallowed mothership of the Law Professor Blogs Network, TaxProf Blog, Jeff Lipshaw (Suffolk) has written a thought-provoking post entitled "Robot Lawyers, 'Skills Training' and Legal Education." Here are two of the key closing paragraphs: As a long, long, long time practitioner and generalist, I continue to be amused (or something like that) by the buckets of legal education (the rooms of the Mystery House). For example, it took returning to academia to find out that "commercial...
July 22, 2017
Over at the hallowed mothership of the Law Professor Blogs Network, TaxProf Blog, Jeff Lipshaw (Suffolk) has written a thought-provoking post entitled "Robot Lawyers, 'Skills Training' and Legal Education." Here are two of the key closing paragraphs: As a long, long, long time practitioner and generalist, I continue to be amused (or something like that) by the buckets of legal education (the rooms of the Mystery House). For example, it took returning to academia to find out that "commercial...
Disclosure Rules in Contract Law
July 21, 2017
How does the prospect of sale affect the seller’s incentive to investigate — to acquire socially valuable information...
July 21, 2017
How does the prospect of sale affect the seller’s incentive to investigate — to acquire socially valuable information...
Ten Best Practices for Mediators Derived from Neuroscience
July 21, 2017
Start mediations with a short caucus session with each party immediately before joint session (“Early Caucus”). To reduce stress, focus at the start of every mediation on: Building trust and rapport, Fostering a sense of control for parties, and Establishing an atmosphere of security and calm. Acknowledge and normalize stress as well as emotions. Give parties time (at least 30 minutes) to recover from strong emotions and stressful situations before engaging in decision-making...
July 21, 2017
Start mediations with a short caucus session with each party immediately before joint session (“Early Caucus”). To reduce stress, focus at the start of every mediation on: Building trust and rapport, Fostering a sense of control for parties, and Establishing an atmosphere of security and calm. Acknowledge and normalize stress as well as emotions. Give parties time (at least 30 minutes) to recover from strong emotions and stressful situations before engaging in decision-making...
The Paradox of Access Justice, And Its Application to Mandatory Arbitration
July 21, 2017
Access justice is one of the most appealing and least contentious regulatory techniques in law’s repertoire. It aspires...
July 21, 2017
Access justice is one of the most appealing and least contentious regulatory techniques in law’s repertoire. It aspires...
Incompletely Theorized Agreements
July 20, 2017
Well-functioning legal systems often tend to adopt a special strategy for producing agreement amidst pluralism. Participants in legal controversies try to produce incompletely theorized agreements on particular outcomes. They agree on the result and on relatively narrow or low-level explanations for it. They need not agree on fundamental principle. They do not offer larger or more abstract explanations than are necessary to decide the case. When they disagree on an abstraction, they move to a level...
July 20, 2017
Well-functioning legal systems often tend to adopt a special strategy for producing agreement amidst pluralism. Participants in legal controversies try to produce incompletely theorized agreements on particular outcomes. They agree on the result and on relatively narrow or low-level explanations for it. They need not agree on fundamental principle. They do not offer larger or more abstract explanations than are necessary to decide the case. When they disagree on an abstraction, they move to a level...
Marshal Service for Arbitration Awards, Relic or Requirement?
July 20, 2017
So you’ve got an arbitration award, what next? In other types of civil cases, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Rules) control service, and they have greatly reduced the role of U.S. Marshals in serving parties. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(c). But enter the Federal Arbitration Act § 9 and § 12 (FAA). When a party seeks to confirm, vacate, or modify an arbitration award, § 9 and § 12 say that a nonresident party must be “served by the marshal of any district within which the adverse party...
July 20, 2017
So you’ve got an arbitration award, what next? In other types of civil cases, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Rules) control service, and they have greatly reduced the role of U.S. Marshals in serving parties. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(c). But enter the Federal Arbitration Act § 9 and § 12 (FAA). When a party seeks to confirm, vacate, or modify an arbitration award, § 9 and § 12 say that a nonresident party must be “served by the marshal of any district within which the adverse party...
Preserving the Federal Arbitration Act by Reining in Judicial Expansion and Mandatory Use
July 20, 2017
This Article considers the rationale for arbitration reform, as well as the arguments for no reform at all. Part II sets out the Federal Arbitration Act’s basic framework, and discusses the Supreme Court decisions which have arguably expanded the scope of the FAA and enabled a controversial use of modern arbitration. Part III considers specific proposals warranting congressional attention, including pending legislation under the proposed Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007. Part IV concludes in offering...
July 20, 2017
This Article considers the rationale for arbitration reform, as well as the arguments for no reform at all. Part II sets out the Federal Arbitration Act’s basic framework, and discusses the Supreme Court decisions which have arguably expanded the scope of the FAA and enabled a controversial use of modern arbitration. Part III considers specific proposals warranting congressional attention, including pending legislation under the proposed Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007. Part IV concludes in offering...
Does Small Talk in Negotiation Offer Big Gains?
July 19, 2017
According to conventional wisdom, small talk in negotiation builds rapport and gets both sides a better deal in the end. But in fact, the question of whether to engage in small talk can be highly context-specific. New York City investment bankers, for example, tend to be far less likely than Texas oil executives to engage in small talk at the outset of a negotiation. So, rather than adopting a blanket rule when deciding whether to engage in small talk in negotiation, be responsive to the context. Consider...
July 19, 2017
According to conventional wisdom, small talk in negotiation builds rapport and gets both sides a better deal in the end. But in fact, the question of whether to engage in small talk can be highly context-specific. New York City investment bankers, for example, tend to be far less likely than Texas oil executives to engage in small talk at the outset of a negotiation. So, rather than adopting a blanket rule when deciding whether to engage in small talk in negotiation, be responsive to the context. Consider...
Willingness-to-Pay and Willingness-to-Accept Are Probably Less Correlated Than You Think
July 19, 2017
Willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) a monetary amount for a lottery should be closely related. In data from an incentivized survey of a representative sample of 3,000 U.S. adults, we find that WTA and WTP for a lottery are, at best, weakly correlated. Across all respondents, the correlation is slightly negative. For the subgroups that we examine, the correlation is almost always small, typically statistically insignificant, and often negative. The exception is respondents who score...
July 19, 2017
Willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (WTA) a monetary amount for a lottery should be closely related. In data from an incentivized survey of a representative sample of 3,000 U.S. adults, we find that WTA and WTP for a lottery are, at best, weakly correlated. Across all respondents, the correlation is slightly negative. For the subgroups that we examine, the correlation is almost always small, typically statistically insignificant, and often negative. The exception is respondents who score...
The Psychology and Neurobiology of Mediation
July 19, 2017
Perhaps the most common problem in mediation is that people take the conflict personally and the outcome of the mediation...
July 19, 2017
Perhaps the most common problem in mediation is that people take the conflict personally and the outcome of the mediation...
