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Stipanowich Receives CPR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dispute Resolution
February 18, 2016
Pepperdine School of Law Professor Thomas J. Stipanowich has been awarded the 2015 James F. Henry Award by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR Institute). The award will be presented at the Institute’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans on February 16, 2016. CPR is a membership-based, nonprofit alliance of global corporations, law firms, scholars, and public institutions dedicated to the principles of conflict prevention and alternative dispute resolution. The award,...
February 18, 2016
Pepperdine School of Law Professor Thomas J. Stipanowich has been awarded the 2015 James F. Henry Award by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR Institute). The award will be presented at the Institute’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans on February 16, 2016. CPR is a membership-based, nonprofit alliance of global corporations, law firms, scholars, and public institutions dedicated to the principles of conflict prevention and alternative dispute resolution. The award,...
Judicial Retirements and the Staying Power of U.S. Supreme Court Decisions
February 18, 2016
The influence of U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions depends critically on how these opinions are received and treated by lower courts, which decide the vast majority of legal disputes. We argue that the retirement of justices on the Supreme Court serves as a simple heuristic device for lower court judges in deciding how much deference to show to Supreme Court precedent. Using a unique data set of the treatment of all Supreme Court majority opinions in the courts of appeals from 1953 to 2012, we find...
February 18, 2016
The influence of U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions depends critically on how these opinions are received and treated by lower courts, which decide the vast majority of legal disputes. We argue that the retirement of justices on the Supreme Court serves as a simple heuristic device for lower court judges in deciding how much deference to show to Supreme Court precedent. Using a unique data set of the treatment of all Supreme Court majority opinions in the courts of appeals from 1953 to 2012, we find...
Software Detects CEO Emotions, Predicts Financial Performance
February 17, 2016
Computer programs that scan facial expressions have been used to detect whether people respond positively to commercials or whether hospital patients are in pain. Can they also read a CEO’s mind? James Cicon thinks they can. A finance professor at University of Central Missouri, Cicon built software that analyzed video of the faces of Fortune 500 executives for signs of emotions like fear, anger, disgust, and surprise. The emotions, he found, correlated with profit margins, returns on assets,...
February 17, 2016
Computer programs that scan facial expressions have been used to detect whether people respond positively to commercials or whether hospital patients are in pain. Can they also read a CEO’s mind? James Cicon thinks they can. A finance professor at University of Central Missouri, Cicon built software that analyzed video of the faces of Fortune 500 executives for signs of emotions like fear, anger, disgust, and surprise. The emotions, he found, correlated with profit margins, returns on assets,...
A Network Perspective on Negotiation: What Is New and Why It Matters
February 17, 2016
The resources that individual negotiators need to solve their problems are not available in a single, concentrated form, and they are certainly not available only within an isolated dyad itself. Instead, the necessary resources are widely dispersed among many actors within networks of business relationships. The best deal is unlikely to be fixed or predetermined, but is rather the outcome of long and time-consuming negotiations that will then affect further negotiations. In this article, I describe...
February 17, 2016
The resources that individual negotiators need to solve their problems are not available in a single, concentrated form, and they are certainly not available only within an isolated dyad itself. Instead, the necessary resources are widely dispersed among many actors within networks of business relationships. The best deal is unlikely to be fixed or predetermined, but is rather the outcome of long and time-consuming negotiations that will then affect further negotiations. In this article, I describe...
Ex-Client Sues Lawyer for Accounting of Settlement
February 17, 2016
A former client of Houston lawyer Merrick Nepomuceno filed a breach of fiduciary duty and legal malpractice suit alleging Nepomuceno failed to provide him with a release form to sign for an alleged $80,000 settlement and hasn't provided an accounting of how the money was distributed. * * * "Defendant settled plaintiff's personal injury case without authorization and then failed to timely notify him the case was settled, believed to misrepresented the amounts of the funds that were being paid...
February 17, 2016
A former client of Houston lawyer Merrick Nepomuceno filed a breach of fiduciary duty and legal malpractice suit alleging Nepomuceno failed to provide him with a release form to sign for an alleged $80,000 settlement and hasn't provided an accounting of how the money was distributed. * * * "Defendant settled plaintiff's personal injury case without authorization and then failed to timely notify him the case was settled, believed to misrepresented the amounts of the funds that were being paid...
Has the Eastern District’s Patent Docket Peaked?
February 16, 2016
Can the Eastern District of Texas' enormous patent docket get any bigger? It's a reasonable question to ask after the district...
February 16, 2016
Can the Eastern District of Texas' enormous patent docket get any bigger? It's a reasonable question to ask after the district...
ADR and Negotiations: Negotiating for the Right Mediator
February 16, 2016
The following question was posed to faculty member and executive committee member Guhan Subramanian as part of our “Ask the Negotiation Coach” series of articles. Question: My company is in the middle of a contract dispute with a customer. The dollar values are large, but thus far things have stayed professional. Our contract specifies binding arbitration in the event of a dispute, but the customer has proposed mediation as a way to avoid the risk of an arbitrated outcome and also to preserve...
February 16, 2016
The following question was posed to faculty member and executive committee member Guhan Subramanian as part of our “Ask the Negotiation Coach” series of articles. Question: My company is in the middle of a contract dispute with a customer. The dollar values are large, but thus far things have stayed professional. Our contract specifies binding arbitration in the event of a dispute, but the customer has proposed mediation as a way to avoid the risk of an arbitrated outcome and also to preserve...
People Prefer System 2 Nudges (Kind Of)
February 16, 2016
In the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, those involved in law and policy have been exploring choice-preserving approaches, or “nudges,” informed by behavioral science and with the purpose of promoting important public policy goals, such as improved health and safety. But there is a large and insufficiently explored difference between System 1 nudges, which target or benefit from automatic processing, and System 2 nudges, which target or benefit from deliberative processing. Graphic...
February 16, 2016
In the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, those involved in law and policy have been exploring choice-preserving approaches, or “nudges,” informed by behavioral science and with the purpose of promoting important public policy goals, such as improved health and safety. But there is a large and insufficiently explored difference between System 1 nudges, which target or benefit from automatic processing, and System 2 nudges, which target or benefit from deliberative processing. Graphic...
PTAB Favourable to Patent Owners, Lex Machina Report Shows
February 15, 2016
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) may not be the “death squad for patents” it was once described as, with a report...
February 15, 2016
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) may not be the “death squad for patents” it was once described as, with a report...
Citi Report: Managing Partners Losing Confidence in Economy
February 15, 2016
Managing partners’ confidence in the economy slumped in the last quarter of 2015, according to the latest Citi Private Bank Law Watch Managing Partner Confidence Index released Thursday. In the Citi index, scores of 0-99 indicate a lack of confidence; 100 is neutral and 101-200 is confident. Although managing partners' overall confidence remained in the positive range, their expectations for the economy at large slid six points to 97 in the final quarter. It was the first time since 2012 that...
February 15, 2016
Managing partners’ confidence in the economy slumped in the last quarter of 2015, according to the latest Citi Private Bank Law Watch Managing Partner Confidence Index released Thursday. In the Citi index, scores of 0-99 indicate a lack of confidence; 100 is neutral and 101-200 is confident. Although managing partners' overall confidence remained in the positive range, their expectations for the economy at large slid six points to 97 in the final quarter. It was the first time since 2012 that...
