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Texas Chief Justice Outlines Plan for Affordable Fee Study
March 17, 2015
The Texas Supreme Court plans to launch a new initiative to find ways that attorneys might lower their rates so that middle-class Texans can afford them. Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht recently announced that the high court would launch a study group to focus on ways to close the "justice gap." Justices are still working on an order to launch the initiative, and they have not yet named the members of the group. Texas Lawyer emailed Hecht questions about the need for the study...
March 17, 2015
The Texas Supreme Court plans to launch a new initiative to find ways that attorneys might lower their rates so that middle-class Texans can afford them. Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht recently announced that the high court would launch a study group to focus on ways to close the "justice gap." Justices are still working on an order to launch the initiative, and they have not yet named the members of the group. Texas Lawyer emailed Hecht questions about the need for the study...
Q&A With Litigation Financier Chris Bogart
March 17, 2015
Five years ago, technology investor and former Time Warner Inc. General Counsel Chris Bogart and Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Molot founded the litigation financing firm Burford Capital. The concept had obvious appeal. To corporate CFOs, a winning verdict is an asset that can only be realized at some point in the future, while its associated costs — legal fees — are incurred in real time. So rather than spend cash every month to pursue a speculative, far-off asset, Burford...
March 17, 2015
Five years ago, technology investor and former Time Warner Inc. General Counsel Chris Bogart and Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Molot founded the litigation financing firm Burford Capital. The concept had obvious appeal. To corporate CFOs, a winning verdict is an asset that can only be realized at some point in the future, while its associated costs — legal fees — are incurred in real time. So rather than spend cash every month to pursue a speculative, far-off asset, Burford...
Hired Hackers Aided Corporate Lawsuits
March 17, 2015
Two private detectives in California are accused in a federal indictment of hiring computer hackers to obtain information from litigants in civil lawsuits. Private detectives Nathan Moser of Menlo Park and Peter Siragusa of Novato are accused of hiring computer experts to hack into computers, email and Skype accounts. In one case, the indictment (PDF) says, hackers installed a keylogger to record the keys struck on a keyboard. The San Jose Mercury News and a press release summarize the allegations.
March 17, 2015
Two private detectives in California are accused in a federal indictment of hiring computer hackers to obtain information from litigants in civil lawsuits. Private detectives Nathan Moser of Menlo Park and Peter Siragusa of Novato are accused of hiring computer experts to hack into computers, email and Skype accounts. In one case, the indictment (PDF) says, hackers installed a keylogger to record the keys struck on a keyboard. The San Jose Mercury News and a press release summarize the allegations.
Ninth Circuit Rescues Gambling Las Vegas Arbitrator
March 16, 2015
Here in the United States, where most otherwise-retired lawyers, and a fair number of late-career pastry chefs and insurance sellers, seek to reinvent as commercial arbitrators, the warning to aspiring arbitrators “not to give up [their] day job[s],” at least not without a healthy sustaining pension, is often heard. But one arbitrator in Las Vegas heeded this warning a bit too seriously, causing enough “evident partiality” havoc in the federal district court there to move the 9th Circuit...
March 16, 2015
Here in the United States, where most otherwise-retired lawyers, and a fair number of late-career pastry chefs and insurance sellers, seek to reinvent as commercial arbitrators, the warning to aspiring arbitrators “not to give up [their] day job[s],” at least not without a healthy sustaining pension, is often heard. But one arbitrator in Las Vegas heeded this warning a bit too seriously, causing enough “evident partiality” havoc in the federal district court there to move the 9th Circuit...
Tax Boards Use An Online System To Resolve Disputes
March 16, 2015
As a proving ground for online dispute resolution, there is no better venue than eBay. Transactions there give rise to some 60 million disputes a year. Virtually all are handled through eBay's own ODR process. Ninety percent of the disputes are resolved through the software alone, without a need for human intervention. Of course, eBay and ODR are a natural fit. Buyers and sellers make their deals entirely online, so it makes sense for them to handle their disputes there. But what about brick-and-mortar...
March 16, 2015
As a proving ground for online dispute resolution, there is no better venue than eBay. Transactions there give rise to some 60 million disputes a year. Virtually all are handled through eBay's own ODR process. Ninety percent of the disputes are resolved through the software alone, without a need for human intervention. Of course, eBay and ODR are a natural fit. Buyers and sellers make their deals entirely online, so it makes sense for them to handle their disputes there. But what about brick-and-mortar...
Lawyer Selection Analyzed Using Big Data
March 16, 2015
How do people select the lawyers they work with? How do they choose between associates and partners? What influences their decisions when finding attorneys to represent them in court? Do attorney track records in court truly demonstrate their litigation-based abilities? These are some of the questions answered by a study done using big data by Premonition, a Florida-based artificial intelligence company targeting the legal industry. The group uses big data to analyze trends and outliers in litigation. The...
March 16, 2015
How do people select the lawyers they work with? How do they choose between associates and partners? What influences their decisions when finding attorneys to represent them in court? Do attorney track records in court truly demonstrate their litigation-based abilities? These are some of the questions answered by a study done using big data by Premonition, a Florida-based artificial intelligence company targeting the legal industry. The group uses big data to analyze trends and outliers in litigation. The...
Lawyers See Big Pay Growth After First 10 Years of Career
March 15, 2015
Washington Post, Your Lifetime Earnings Are Probably Determined in Your 20s: A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sends a ... sobering message to millennials: Your first 10 years in the labor market likely shape your lifetime earning potential. ... For the average person ... earnings growth stagnates after the first 10 years of a career. Average earnings growth for the 35-to-55 set is zero, the data shows. ... Workers projected to earn the median lifetime amount will see pay swell...
March 15, 2015
Washington Post, Your Lifetime Earnings Are Probably Determined in Your 20s: A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sends a ... sobering message to millennials: Your first 10 years in the labor market likely shape your lifetime earning potential. ... For the average person ... earnings growth stagnates after the first 10 years of a career. Average earnings growth for the 35-to-55 set is zero, the data shows. ... Workers projected to earn the median lifetime amount will see pay swell...
13 Habits of Exceptionally Likeable People
March 15, 2015
According to Travis Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, here they are: They Ask Questions They Put Away...
March 15, 2015
According to Travis Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, here they are: They Ask Questions They Put Away...
ABA Traveling Exhibit Explains the Magna Carta
March 15, 2015
The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, in cooperation with several other ABA entities, has created a magnificent traveling exhibit on Magna Carta, that most powerful document signed by King John in Runnymeade 800 years ago in 1215. The Magna Carta has been identified as the source of many fundamental freedoms and principles, including: the right to a jury trial, the right to speedy trial, freedom from unlawful imprisonment, protection from unlawful...
March 15, 2015
The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, in cooperation with several other ABA entities, has created a magnificent traveling exhibit on Magna Carta, that most powerful document signed by King John in Runnymeade 800 years ago in 1215. The Magna Carta has been identified as the source of many fundamental freedoms and principles, including: the right to a jury trial, the right to speedy trial, freedom from unlawful imprisonment, protection from unlawful...
America’s New Aristocracy: The Hereditary Meritocracy
March 14, 2015
When the robber barons accumulated fortunes that made European princes envious, the combination of their own philanthropy, their children’s extravagance and federal trust-busting meant that Americans never discovered what it would be like to live in a country where the elite could reliably reproduce themselves. Now they are beginning to find out, because today’s rich increasingly pass on to their children an asset that cannot be frittered away in a few nights at a casino. It is far more useful...
March 14, 2015
When the robber barons accumulated fortunes that made European princes envious, the combination of their own philanthropy, their children’s extravagance and federal trust-busting meant that Americans never discovered what it would be like to live in a country where the elite could reliably reproduce themselves. Now they are beginning to find out, because today’s rich increasingly pass on to their children an asset that cannot be frittered away in a few nights at a casino. It is far more useful...
