Blog Archives
LegalTech News: Law schools are not doing enough to provide students with the tech skills they’ll need in practice
October 23, 2020
From LegalTech News: Bridging the ‘AI Skills Gap’ in the Legal Industry Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are fast becoming the industry norm, and in this tech-enabled world, a new breed of lawyer is in demand.A recent survey we ran at Luminance found that over 80% of senior lawyers viewed AI and machine learning as critical for the future success of their firm. And as leading organizations charge ahead in their AI adoption, the demand for a broader educational system which...
October 23, 2020
From LegalTech News: Bridging the ‘AI Skills Gap’ in the Legal Industry Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are fast becoming the industry norm, and in this tech-enabled world, a new breed of lawyer is in demand.A recent survey we ran at Luminance found that over 80% of senior lawyers viewed AI and machine learning as critical for the future success of their firm. And as leading organizations charge ahead in their AI adoption, the demand for a broader educational system which...
Burford’s Payday Shows Litigation Finance Not Just About Lawyers
October 22, 2020
Burford Capital has spent more than a decade pitching its investments as a way for Big Law firms to bridge the gap with clients reluctant to pay the steep costs of pursuing legal claims in the U.S. Investors are more frequently buying direct stakes in judgments or legal claims from the clients who hold them, rather than investing in a case at the outset by agreeing to pay lawyers’ fees and expenses in exchange for a share of any returns. The trend was on display in Burford’s first-half...
October 22, 2020
Burford Capital has spent more than a decade pitching its investments as a way for Big Law firms to bridge the gap with clients reluctant to pay the steep costs of pursuing legal claims in the U.S. Investors are more frequently buying direct stakes in judgments or legal claims from the clients who hold them, rather than investing in a case at the outset by agreeing to pay lawyers’ fees and expenses in exchange for a share of any returns. The trend was on display in Burford’s first-half...
Study on Nightmares of “Positional” Tactics in Mediation
October 21, 2020
Jeff Trueman, an experienced Maryland mediator and Pepperdine LLM candidate, wrote an excellent article about the challenges of lawyers, mediators, and insurance claims professionals in mediation. He interviewed subjects about their problems in mediation, and his study provided evidence of professionals behaving badly, very consistent with my post about BATNAs and the emotional pains of “positional negotiation.” He specifically asked about challenges, so this study doesn’t represent...
October 21, 2020
Jeff Trueman, an experienced Maryland mediator and Pepperdine LLM candidate, wrote an excellent article about the challenges of lawyers, mediators, and insurance claims professionals in mediation. He interviewed subjects about their problems in mediation, and his study provided evidence of professionals behaving badly, very consistent with my post about BATNAs and the emotional pains of “positional negotiation.” He specifically asked about challenges, so this study doesn’t represent...
Trial Court Case Filing Trends – Travis County
October 20, 2020
Family filings in Travis County dropped more than civil filings post-COVID but are bouncing back. District and County court clerks report data to the Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA) based on cover sheet categorizations. CourtStatPack.com presents OCA data in easily customizable graphs to quickly spot trends. Here are some highlights: By default, CourtStatPack.com presents annual trends statewide. By clicking on the pie charts, users...
October 20, 2020
Family filings in Travis County dropped more than civil filings post-COVID but are bouncing back. District and County court clerks report data to the Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA) based on cover sheet categorizations. CourtStatPack.com presents OCA data in easily customizable graphs to quickly spot trends. Here are some highlights: By default, CourtStatPack.com presents annual trends statewide. By clicking on the pie charts, users...
Negotiating with Difficult People [Good Cop – Bad Cop]
October 19, 2020
When confronted with a difficult person in any type of negotiation, the default position may seem to be “tit for tat”; if the other person is difficult, then you become more difficult in an attempt to out dominate the other (and potentially dominating) person. But a recent blog post in Harvard PONS entitled, “When Dealing with Difficult People, Try a Complementary Approach” by Katie Shonk (August 27,2020) suggests a different approach. Research indicates that the best results...
October 19, 2020
When confronted with a difficult person in any type of negotiation, the default position may seem to be “tit for tat”; if the other person is difficult, then you become more difficult in an attempt to out dominate the other (and potentially dominating) person. But a recent blog post in Harvard PONS entitled, “When Dealing with Difficult People, Try a Complementary Approach” by Katie Shonk (August 27,2020) suggests a different approach. Research indicates that the best results...
Big Law Firms Prosper Despite Covid-Impaired Economy
October 18, 2020
Lawyers at large law firms aren’t worried, as many Americans are, about job security while the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend everyday life. Some of them are even collecting extra bonuses. Firm leaders and consultants attribute the stability to lawyers’ ability to easily work from home, business that comes from a range of industries and practice areas, and a major reduction in travel expenses.
October 18, 2020
Lawyers at large law firms aren’t worried, as many Americans are, about job security while the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend everyday life. Some of them are even collecting extra bonuses. Firm leaders and consultants attribute the stability to lawyers’ ability to easily work from home, business that comes from a range of industries and practice areas, and a major reduction in travel expenses.
Greenberg & Ebner on Online Dispute Resolution & Access to Justice
October 17, 2020
Elayne E. Greenberg (St. John's University School of Law) & Noam Ebner (Creighton University Graduate School - Department of Interdisciplinary Studies) have posted How Much Justice Can You Afford (Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation, 2020) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: It is one of the oldest lawyer jokes in the book, and its punchline is about to change. Remember the New Yorker cartoon, in which a lawyer and the client sit at a table, and the lawyer assesses...
October 17, 2020
Elayne E. Greenberg (St. John's University School of Law) & Noam Ebner (Creighton University Graduate School - Department of Interdisciplinary Studies) have posted How Much Justice Can You Afford (Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation, 2020) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: It is one of the oldest lawyer jokes in the book, and its punchline is about to change. Remember the New Yorker cartoon, in which a lawyer and the client sit at a table, and the lawyer assesses...
Why Twelve Jurors Matter for Civil Trials
October 16, 2020
As society, and the civil justice system, plan a return to more normal operations as the pandemic recedes, Judges Patrick Higginbotham and Lee Rosenthal, and Professor Steven Gensler, have written a persuasive article in Judicature about the importance of 12-person juries in civil cases: “Over the last 40-plus years, the 12- person civil jury has gone from being a fixture in the federal courts to a relative rarity. We should all be concerned. That the Supreme Court has allowed us to use smaller...
October 16, 2020
As society, and the civil justice system, plan a return to more normal operations as the pandemic recedes, Judges Patrick Higginbotham and Lee Rosenthal, and Professor Steven Gensler, have written a persuasive article in Judicature about the importance of 12-person juries in civil cases: “Over the last 40-plus years, the 12- person civil jury has gone from being a fixture in the federal courts to a relative rarity. We should all be concerned. That the Supreme Court has allowed us to use smaller...
What’s A Bottom Line?
October 15, 2020
Everyone knows that a bottom line in a lawsuit is an immutable “line in the sand” that is accurately reported to mediators and counterparts as the least that a plaintiff would accept or most that a defendant would pay. Not really. During the life cycle of a case, lawyers start with vague and tentative bottom lines, and they develop more precise and confident bottom lines as the case progresses. People typically are not candid with others – and sometimes even with themselves...
October 15, 2020
Everyone knows that a bottom line in a lawsuit is an immutable “line in the sand” that is accurately reported to mediators and counterparts as the least that a plaintiff would accept or most that a defendant would pay. Not really. During the life cycle of a case, lawyers start with vague and tentative bottom lines, and they develop more precise and confident bottom lines as the case progresses. People typically are not candid with others – and sometimes even with themselves...
Steinman on Appellate Review of Civil Jury Verdicts
October 14, 2020
Adam Steinman (University of Alabama - School of Law) has posted Appellate Courts and Civil Juries on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In federal civil litigation, decisionmaking power is shared by juries, trial courts, and appellate courts. This article examines an unresolved tension in the different doctrines that allocate authority among these institutions, which has led to confusion regarding the relationship between appellate courts and civil juries. At base, the current uncertainty...
October 14, 2020
Adam Steinman (University of Alabama - School of Law) has posted Appellate Courts and Civil Juries on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In federal civil litigation, decisionmaking power is shared by juries, trial courts, and appellate courts. This article examines an unresolved tension in the different doctrines that allocate authority among these institutions, which has led to confusion regarding the relationship between appellate courts and civil juries. At base, the current uncertainty...
