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The Next Great Investment Idea? Somebody Else’s Lawsuit
February 15, 2016
With investors starved for yield and unnerved by volatility, Mighty Group Inc. offers a tantalizing proposition: earn 25% to 30% interest on an asset that has zero correlation with anything else in your portfolio. The catch? Mighty lends money to plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits. You collect only if they do. Plus, the head of this online electronic investment platform recommends that only personal-injury lawyers, or investors who have such lawyers helping them evaluate cases, plunk down...
February 15, 2016
With investors starved for yield and unnerved by volatility, Mighty Group Inc. offers a tantalizing proposition: earn 25% to 30% interest on an asset that has zero correlation with anything else in your portfolio. The catch? Mighty lends money to plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits. You collect only if they do. Plus, the head of this online electronic investment platform recommends that only personal-injury lawyers, or investors who have such lawyers helping them evaluate cases, plunk down...
AlphaGo: Mastering the ancient game of Go with Machine Learning
February 14, 2016
Games are a great testing ground for developing smarter, more flexible algorithms that have the ability to tackle problems in ways similar to humans. Creating programs that are able to play games better than the best humans has a long history - the first classic game mastered by a computer was noughts and crosses (also known as tic-tac-toe) in 1952 as a PhD candidate’s project. Then fell checkers in 1994. Chess was tackled by Deep Blue in 1997. The success isn’t limited to board games, either...
February 14, 2016
Games are a great testing ground for developing smarter, more flexible algorithms that have the ability to tackle problems in ways similar to humans. Creating programs that are able to play games better than the best humans has a long history - the first classic game mastered by a computer was noughts and crosses (also known as tic-tac-toe) in 1952 as a PhD candidate’s project. Then fell checkers in 1994. Chess was tackled by Deep Blue in 1997. The success isn’t limited to board games, either...
Nate Silver Helps Thomson Reuters Get Into The Ediscovery Game
February 14, 2016
The ediscovery game just got a little more interesting. And no, doing actual discovery is still as boring as ever, but the competitive space is definitely more juicy. At an event earlier this week at Thomson Reuter’s Times Square headquarters, timed nicely during the Legaltech show, Eric Laughlin, managing director of Legal Managed Services for Thomson Reuters, hosted a fireside chat with Fivethirtyeight.com’s Nate Silver to launch Thomson Reuters new product eDiscovery Point. Now, what...
February 14, 2016
The ediscovery game just got a little more interesting. And no, doing actual discovery is still as boring as ever, but the competitive space is definitely more juicy. At an event earlier this week at Thomson Reuter’s Times Square headquarters, timed nicely during the Legaltech show, Eric Laughlin, managing director of Legal Managed Services for Thomson Reuters, hosted a fireside chat with Fivethirtyeight.com’s Nate Silver to launch Thomson Reuters new product eDiscovery Point. Now, what...
Podcast: The Future of the Professions: An Interview with Richard and Daniel Susskind
February 14, 2016
So what is a professional? Wikipedia explains the term this way: "A professional is a member of a profession or any person who earns their living from a specified activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare Future of the Professionsmembers of the profession with the particular knowledge and skills necessary to perform the role of that profession. In addition, most professionals are subject to strict codes of conduct enshrining rigorous ethical and moral...
February 14, 2016
So what is a professional? Wikipedia explains the term this way: "A professional is a member of a profession or any person who earns their living from a specified activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare Future of the Professionsmembers of the profession with the particular knowledge and skills necessary to perform the role of that profession. In addition, most professionals are subject to strict codes of conduct enshrining rigorous ethical and moral...
Singaporean Telco M1 Achieved 1Gbps Speeds Across its 4G Network
February 13, 2016
Singapore's third-largest telecommunications carrier, M1, has announced that it attained 1Gbps download/130Mbps upload speeds on its 4G mobile network in Singapore in partnership with Chinese technology giant Huawei. The trial was conducted inside of M1's LTE Advanced test lab, and attained through the combination of four network technologies: 4x4 Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO); two-component carrier (2CC) uplink carrier aggregation; 3CC tri-band downlink carrier aggregation; and Higher...
February 13, 2016
Singapore's third-largest telecommunications carrier, M1, has announced that it attained 1Gbps download/130Mbps upload speeds on its 4G mobile network in Singapore in partnership with Chinese technology giant Huawei. The trial was conducted inside of M1's LTE Advanced test lab, and attained through the combination of four network technologies: 4x4 Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO); two-component carrier (2CC) uplink carrier aggregation; 3CC tri-band downlink carrier aggregation; and Higher...
Profession at a Crossroads: Will Lawyers Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way?
February 13, 2016
In October, I wrote about Richard and Daniel Susskind’s new book, The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts. The Susskinds will be visiting the U.S. (Cambridge and New York City) in a few weeks, so I thought it would be worth a little more time exploring the implications of their work. (Read my Q&A with Richard Susskind.) The Susskinds identify a number of trends that run across professions:
February 13, 2016
In October, I wrote about Richard and Daniel Susskind’s new book, The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts. The Susskinds will be visiting the U.S. (Cambridge and New York City) in a few weeks, so I thought it would be worth a little more time exploring the implications of their work. (Read my Q&A with Richard Susskind.) The Susskinds identify a number of trends that run across professions:
Google DeepMind AI Navigates a Doom-like 3D Maze Just by Looking
February 13, 2016
Google DeepMind just entered the 90s. Fresh off their success in playing the ancient game of Go, DeepMind’s latest artificial intelligence can navigate a 3D maze reminiscent of the 1993 shooter game Doom. Unlike most game-playing AIs, the system has no access to the game’s internal code. Instead it plays just as a human would, by looking at the screen and deciding how to proceed. This ability to navigate a 3D space by “sight” could be useful for AIs operating in the real world. The...
February 13, 2016
Google DeepMind just entered the 90s. Fresh off their success in playing the ancient game of Go, DeepMind’s latest artificial intelligence can navigate a 3D maze reminiscent of the 1993 shooter game Doom. Unlike most game-playing AIs, the system has no access to the game’s internal code. Instead it plays just as a human would, by looking at the screen and deciding how to proceed. This ability to navigate a 3D space by “sight” could be useful for AIs operating in the real world. The...
Insurance and Reinsurance in the Fairchild Enclave
February 12, 2016
The dreadful disease of mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos, has a number of features that pose almost intractable problems for tort law and liability insurance, notably the time lag of some 35 years between exposure and injury, and the accepted current impossibility of science proving exactly which exposure has given rise to the disease. The Supreme Court has addressed tort and insurance issues on no fewer than six occasions, most recently in Zurich Insurance PLC UK Branch v International...
February 12, 2016
The dreadful disease of mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos, has a number of features that pose almost intractable problems for tort law and liability insurance, notably the time lag of some 35 years between exposure and injury, and the accepted current impossibility of science proving exactly which exposure has given rise to the disease. The Supreme Court has addressed tort and insurance issues on no fewer than six occasions, most recently in Zurich Insurance PLC UK Branch v International...
Early Case Assessment Pays Off for Royal Dutch Shell
February 12, 2016
Since launching its dedicated litigation department in 2012, energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has reduced its annual litigation...
February 12, 2016
Since launching its dedicated litigation department in 2012, energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has reduced its annual litigation...
Arbitration Agreement Requiring Rmployee to Pay Own Attorney’s Fees Not Substantively Unconscionable
February 12, 2016
In Ophthalmic Consultants of Texas, P.A. v. Morales, the Court of Appeals for the Thirteenth District of Texas reversed the trial...
February 12, 2016
In Ophthalmic Consultants of Texas, P.A. v. Morales, the Court of Appeals for the Thirteenth District of Texas reversed the trial...
