Menu
Blog Archives
Does the Chief Justice Make Partisan Appointments to Special Courts and Panels?
February 25, 2016
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has the exclusive and independent power to appoint federal judges to various special courts and panels, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the court that oversees all domestic surveillance for national security, including domestic data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA). This article examines the propensity of Chief Justices to appoint co-partisan judges to these panels. Such appointments may serve to produce decisions...
February 25, 2016
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has the exclusive and independent power to appoint federal judges to various special courts and panels, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the court that oversees all domestic surveillance for national security, including domestic data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA). This article examines the propensity of Chief Justices to appoint co-partisan judges to these panels. Such appointments may serve to produce decisions...
For Boston Lawyer, IP Lawsuits Are Now an Investment Opportunity
February 24, 2016
The litigation finance powerhouse Burford Capital is delving into intellectual property claims for the first time, and it’s tapped former Proskauer Rose LLP partner Justin Daniels to lead the effort from Boston. Burford, based in London, is one of the largest litigation finance firms in the world, with a market capitalization of $641 million. Legal financiers front litigation expenses for both law firms and companies, in return for a share of any monetary award to come from the litigation. In the case...
February 24, 2016
The litigation finance powerhouse Burford Capital is delving into intellectual property claims for the first time, and it’s tapped former Proskauer Rose LLP partner Justin Daniels to lead the effort from Boston. Burford, based in London, is one of the largest litigation finance firms in the world, with a market capitalization of $641 million. Legal financiers front litigation expenses for both law firms and companies, in return for a share of any monetary award to come from the litigation. In the case...
Lex Machina’s New Attorney Data Engine Improves Accuracy of Litigation Data
February 24, 2016
Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company and creator of Legal Analytics®, today announced the release of its Attorney Data Engine,...
February 24, 2016
Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company and creator of Legal Analytics®, today announced the release of its Attorney Data Engine,...
The Big-Data Future Has Arrived
February 24, 2016
It is now possible to measure everything, from the movement of billions of stars to each heartbeat. Big data, the tech...
February 24, 2016
It is now possible to measure everything, from the movement of billions of stars to each heartbeat. Big data, the tech...
Offer of Complete Relief to Named Plaintiff Does Not Moot Class Action
February 23, 2016
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court resolved a circuit split when holding in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez¸ No. 14-857, that an unaccepted Rule 68 offer of judgment that would fully satisfy a named plaintiff’s individual claim does not moot individual or class claims. The Court left open the question of whether actual payment in some form, rather than merely offering to pay a settlement or judgment, would lead to the same result. In the underlying case, the plaintiff received a single, unsolicited...
February 23, 2016
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court resolved a circuit split when holding in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez¸ No. 14-857, that an unaccepted Rule 68 offer of judgment that would fully satisfy a named plaintiff’s individual claim does not moot individual or class claims. The Court left open the question of whether actual payment in some form, rather than merely offering to pay a settlement or judgment, would lead to the same result. In the underlying case, the plaintiff received a single, unsolicited...
When Data Confounds Our Intuition
February 23, 2016
These blindspots confuse us. And when prompted with data that confounds our expectations, only 10% of the time will we trust the data rather than our intuition, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Decisive Actions: How Businesses Make Decisions report. 57% of the time, survey respondents would reanalyze the data to ensure no issue with data collection or math errors. Our ultimate goal with data is to defeat bias. In the “Philosophy of Data,” New York Times Op-Ed columnist David...
February 23, 2016
These blindspots confuse us. And when prompted with data that confounds our expectations, only 10% of the time will we trust the data rather than our intuition, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Decisive Actions: How Businesses Make Decisions report. 57% of the time, survey respondents would reanalyze the data to ensure no issue with data collection or math errors. Our ultimate goal with data is to defeat bias. In the “Philosophy of Data,” New York Times Op-Ed columnist David...
Forecasting Domestic Violence: A Machine Learning Approach to Help Inform Arraignment Decisions
February 23, 2016
Arguably the most important decision at an arraignment is whether to release an offender until the date of his or her next scheduled court appearance. Under the Bail Reform Act of 1984, threats to public safety can be a key factor in that decision. Implicitly, a forecast of “future dangerousness” is required. In this article, we consider in particular whether usefully accurate forecasts of domestic violence can be obtained. We apply machine learning to data on over 28,000 arraignment cases from...
February 23, 2016
Arguably the most important decision at an arraignment is whether to release an offender until the date of his or her next scheduled court appearance. Under the Bail Reform Act of 1984, threats to public safety can be a key factor in that decision. Implicitly, a forecast of “future dangerousness” is required. In this article, we consider in particular whether usefully accurate forecasts of domestic violence can be obtained. We apply machine learning to data on over 28,000 arraignment cases from...
Corporate Law Firm Rates Up Despite Weakening Demand
February 22, 2016
Stagnating Demand Rates at large corporate law firms have risen by three to four per cent a year since the economic downturn, according to Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group. But it seems that prices are getting steeper amid stagnating demand; according to Wells Fargo Private Bank’s Legal Specialty Group, demand for legal services from corporate law firms rose only 0.5 per cent last year, as clients keep more legal work in-house and law firms face competition from lower-cost legal-service...
February 22, 2016
Stagnating Demand Rates at large corporate law firms have risen by three to four per cent a year since the economic downturn, according to Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group. But it seems that prices are getting steeper amid stagnating demand; according to Wells Fargo Private Bank’s Legal Specialty Group, demand for legal services from corporate law firms rose only 0.5 per cent last year, as clients keep more legal work in-house and law firms face competition from lower-cost legal-service...
SEC Investigations and Securities Class Actions: An Empirical Comparison
February 22, 2016
Using actions with both an SEC investigation and a class action as our baseline, we compare the targeting of SEC-only investigations...
February 22, 2016
Using actions with both an SEC investigation and a class action as our baseline, we compare the targeting of SEC-only investigations...
Algorithmic Contracts by Lauren Henry Scholz
February 22, 2016
Recently, I had the good fortune to interact with Lauren Henry Scholz, currently Resident Fellow and Knight Law and Media Scholar at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Scholz’s in-progress article, Algorithmic Contracts, addresses topics that will be of great interest to many readers of this blog. She not only tackles the fiscally important development of technological automation of contracting processes, but she also wades into the significant implications of computer-facilitated...
February 22, 2016
Recently, I had the good fortune to interact with Lauren Henry Scholz, currently Resident Fellow and Knight Law and Media Scholar at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Scholz’s in-progress article, Algorithmic Contracts, addresses topics that will be of great interest to many readers of this blog. She not only tackles the fiscally important development of technological automation of contracting processes, but she also wades into the significant implications of computer-facilitated...
