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Just Two Questions Predict How Well a Pilot Will Handle An Emergency
August 11, 2015
Human error is now the leading cause of plane crashes, and one of the principal factors that provokes pilots to make mistakes is stress. Some pilots cope heroically in the face of stress, such as Chesley Sullenberger who steered his plane and passengers to safety, landing on the Hudson river after a double engine failure. Others fare less well, with sometimes fatal results. Knowing in advance how pilots will respond to stressful situations is therefore of paramount of importance to flight safety...
August 11, 2015
Human error is now the leading cause of plane crashes, and one of the principal factors that provokes pilots to make mistakes is stress. Some pilots cope heroically in the face of stress, such as Chesley Sullenberger who steered his plane and passengers to safety, landing on the Hudson river after a double engine failure. Others fare less well, with sometimes fatal results. Knowing in advance how pilots will respond to stressful situations is therefore of paramount of importance to flight safety...
Arbitration Fireworks: Three Federal Circuits Refuse To Compel Arbitration
August 11, 2015
Three federal appellate courts recently affirmed lower courts’ refusal to compel arbitration. These cases show that the federal policy favoring arbitration is not absolute – the parties must have agreed to arbitrate the claims at issue and the defendant cannot have waived its right to arbitrate by engaging in significant discovery and motion practice. In Lloyd v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., __ F.3d __, 2015 WL 3937978 (2d Cir. June 29, 2015), the issue was whether putative class and collective...
August 11, 2015
Three federal appellate courts recently affirmed lower courts’ refusal to compel arbitration. These cases show that the federal policy favoring arbitration is not absolute – the parties must have agreed to arbitrate the claims at issue and the defendant cannot have waived its right to arbitrate by engaging in significant discovery and motion practice. In Lloyd v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., __ F.3d __, 2015 WL 3937978 (2d Cir. June 29, 2015), the issue was whether putative class and collective...
Need To Negotiate and Settle A Case? There’s An App For That
August 11, 2015
Settlement negotiations are never fun. The back and forth and countless rounds of negotiations can cause the process to be drawn-out...
August 11, 2015
Settlement negotiations are never fun. The back and forth and countless rounds of negotiations can cause the process to be drawn-out...
Specific Performance v. Money Damages: The Importance of Attorney Fees
August 10, 2015
Yonathan A. Arbel's “Contract Remedies in Action: Specific Performance” (not up on the web yet, it seems. An idea in the paper that particularly caught my attention was this: Many contract cases involve some contingency fee component, so that part of the lawyer’s payment is based on a fixed percentage of the amounts the client wins. In specific performance cases, such contingency fees create a problem, as there is rarely a clear metric upon which to assess the value of performance. Dollar...
August 10, 2015
Yonathan A. Arbel's “Contract Remedies in Action: Specific Performance” (not up on the web yet, it seems. An idea in the paper that particularly caught my attention was this: Many contract cases involve some contingency fee component, so that part of the lawyer’s payment is based on a fixed percentage of the amounts the client wins. In specific performance cases, such contingency fees create a problem, as there is rarely a clear metric upon which to assess the value of performance. Dollar...
Texas: Arbitration Clause Between Attorney and Client Upheld
August 10, 2015
This post is authored by Lonnie Schooler with Jackson Walker. Lonnie is on the State Bar of Texas' ADR Section Council. Thanks to Lonnie for brining this decision to us and for providing this outstanding analysis of Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams LLP v. Lopez. Introduction. The Texas Supreme Court on June 26, 2015, through Justice Johnson issued its unanimous decision in Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams L.L.P. v. Lopez (which included a concurring opinion by Justice Guzman, joined...
August 10, 2015
This post is authored by Lonnie Schooler with Jackson Walker. Lonnie is on the State Bar of Texas' ADR Section Council. Thanks to Lonnie for brining this decision to us and for providing this outstanding analysis of Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams LLP v. Lopez. Introduction. The Texas Supreme Court on June 26, 2015, through Justice Johnson issued its unanimous decision in Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams L.L.P. v. Lopez (which included a concurring opinion by Justice Guzman, joined...
Litigation Funder Burford Capital Eyes Lending to Firms
August 10, 2015
For a third straight year, Burford Capital Limited, one of the world’s largest litigation funders, posted record income for the first half of the year. On Tuesday, the funding firm reported $30.7 million in profits from its litigation investments for the six months of 2015, 64 percent higher than the same period in the previous year. Burford's overall income of $40.6 million, which includes other litigation-related revenue, was up by nearly half over 2014. And in an effort to deploy that...
August 10, 2015
For a third straight year, Burford Capital Limited, one of the world’s largest litigation funders, posted record income for the first half of the year. On Tuesday, the funding firm reported $30.7 million in profits from its litigation investments for the six months of 2015, 64 percent higher than the same period in the previous year. Burford's overall income of $40.6 million, which includes other litigation-related revenue, was up by nearly half over 2014. And in an effort to deploy that...
Reversing the Decline of the Civil Jury Trial
August 9, 2015
If you’ve been to a federal courthouse lately, you might have been struck by the pin-drop silence. Fewer than 1% of federal...
August 9, 2015
If you’ve been to a federal courthouse lately, you might have been struck by the pin-drop silence. Fewer than 1% of federal...
Solicitors ‘In Denial’ About Threat From Accountants
August 9, 2015
That's the headline from today's Law Society Gazette, the publication of record for solicitors in England and Wales. The UK is fairly far along in liberalization of its legal markets, progressing from the Clementi Report in 2004 to the Legal Services Act 2007 to the licensing of Alternative Business Structures in 2012. Now several hundred entities have obtained ABS status. The Gazette article reports that accountants are poised to be large players in the ABA space: Accountants will soon be competing...
August 9, 2015
That's the headline from today's Law Society Gazette, the publication of record for solicitors in England and Wales. The UK is fairly far along in liberalization of its legal markets, progressing from the Clementi Report in 2004 to the Legal Services Act 2007 to the licensing of Alternative Business Structures in 2012. Now several hundred entities have obtained ABS status. The Gazette article reports that accountants are poised to be large players in the ABA space: Accountants will soon be competing...
New Study Suggests the Perfect Age to Get Married
August 9, 2015
From Time: A new study suggests that people should get married between the ages of 28 and 32 if they don’t want to get divorced, at least in the first five years. The study was done by Nick Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah, and published by the generally pro-marriage Institute of Family Studies. It suggests that people who get married between 28 and 32 split up least in the ensuing years. This is a new development; sociologists formerly believed that waiting longer to get hitched...
August 9, 2015
From Time: A new study suggests that people should get married between the ages of 28 and 32 if they don’t want to get divorced, at least in the first five years. The study was done by Nick Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah, and published by the generally pro-marriage Institute of Family Studies. It suggests that people who get married between 28 and 32 split up least in the ensuing years. This is a new development; sociologists formerly believed that waiting longer to get hitched...
Avvo Receives Further $71 Million Investment
August 8, 2015
Rapidly growing lawyer directory Avvo has received a further $71.5 million in financing. The latest funding round was led by Technology Crossover Ventures, with participation from Vulcan Capital and existing investor, Coatue. In an announcement, Avvo said it will use the cash to accelerate hiring, increase Avvo brand awareness through marketing initiatives, and expand its product offerings. The latest financing round brings the total venture investment in Avvo to $132 million. In the last...
August 8, 2015
Rapidly growing lawyer directory Avvo has received a further $71.5 million in financing. The latest funding round was led by Technology Crossover Ventures, with participation from Vulcan Capital and existing investor, Coatue. In an announcement, Avvo said it will use the cash to accelerate hiring, increase Avvo brand awareness through marketing initiatives, and expand its product offerings. The latest financing round brings the total venture investment in Avvo to $132 million. In the last...
