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Transfers: Poaching Law Students
March 14, 2015
According to Inside Higher Education, the student transfer market is heating up: Law schools across the country are fighting for transfer students in a testy cat and mouse game that involves some questionable practices. In cities with multiple law schools -- like Jacksonville, Phoenix and Washington -- the transfer market has lately exposed the contentious underbelly of legal education. The transfer market has become particularly active in recent years as overall law school enrollment has fallen...
March 14, 2015
According to Inside Higher Education, the student transfer market is heating up: Law schools across the country are fighting for transfer students in a testy cat and mouse game that involves some questionable practices. In cities with multiple law schools -- like Jacksonville, Phoenix and Washington -- the transfer market has lately exposed the contentious underbelly of legal education. The transfer market has become particularly active in recent years as overall law school enrollment has fallen...
Why I Make Robots the Size of a Grain of Rice
March 14, 2015
By studying the movement and bodies of insects such as ants, Sarah Bergbreiter and her team build incredibly robust, super teeny, mechanical versions of creepy crawlies … and then they add rockets. See their jaw-dropping developments in micro-robotics, and hear about three ways we might use these little helpers in the future.
March 14, 2015
By studying the movement and bodies of insects such as ants, Sarah Bergbreiter and her team build incredibly robust, super teeny, mechanical versions of creepy crawlies … and then they add rockets. See their jaw-dropping developments in micro-robotics, and hear about three ways we might use these little helpers in the future.
Odds Of Getting EEOC To File Suit For You? Not Much Better Than Odds Of Getting Struck By Lightning
March 13, 2015
EEOC has issued its 2014 Performance Report and the big news everyone announced was that the number of charges dropped. What I found disturbing when I read the summary was that there were 88,778 charges filed nationwide, and of those EEOC only filed 133 "merit" suits, that is, suits where they found cause and decided to sue on behalf of an individual or group of employees. So the odds of having EEOC sue on your behalf are .1% (133/88778=.001), or about 1 in 1000. Now, when I'm telling clients...
March 13, 2015
EEOC has issued its 2014 Performance Report and the big news everyone announced was that the number of charges dropped. What I found disturbing when I read the summary was that there were 88,778 charges filed nationwide, and of those EEOC only filed 133 "merit" suits, that is, suits where they found cause and decided to sue on behalf of an individual or group of employees. So the odds of having EEOC sue on your behalf are .1% (133/88778=.001), or about 1 in 1000. Now, when I'm telling clients...
People Quicker to Dismiss Evidence From Psychology Than Neuroscience
March 13, 2015
Imagine a politician from your party is in trouble for alleged misdemeanours. He's been assessed by an expert who says he likely has early-stage Alzheimer's. If this diagnosis is correct, your politician will have to resign, and he'll be replaced by a candidate from an opposing party. This was the scenario presented to participants in a new study by Geoffrey Munro and Cynthia Munro. A vital twist was that half of the 106 student participants read a version of the story in which the dementia expert...
March 13, 2015
Imagine a politician from your party is in trouble for alleged misdemeanours. He's been assessed by an expert who says he likely has early-stage Alzheimer's. If this diagnosis is correct, your politician will have to resign, and he'll be replaced by a candidate from an opposing party. This was the scenario presented to participants in a new study by Geoffrey Munro and Cynthia Munro. A vital twist was that half of the 106 student participants read a version of the story in which the dementia expert...
Big Data Analytics Uncovers Form in Unstructured Legal Data
March 13, 2015
The concept of “Big Data” may conjure up images of a distant future where intelligent databases make predictions that dictate how we work and live. But that future may be far closer than you think. A wide range of industries have already adopted Big Data advancements, and the legal space is poised to adopt predictive technologies that facilitate critical processes such as discovery, venue selection and case strategy. While the Big Data revolution is being driven by multiple factors, upstarts...
March 13, 2015
The concept of “Big Data” may conjure up images of a distant future where intelligent databases make predictions that dictate how we work and live. But that future may be far closer than you think. A wide range of industries have already adopted Big Data advancements, and the legal space is poised to adopt predictive technologies that facilitate critical processes such as discovery, venue selection and case strategy. While the Big Data revolution is being driven by multiple factors, upstarts...
How To Open Up People’s Minds to Change
March 12, 2015
Now, research has found that focusing on values that are personally important — such as helping a family member — can help people act on advice they might otherwise find too threatening. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, scanned people’s brains as they were given typical advice about exercise you might get from any doctor (Falk et al., 2015). Before receiving the advice, though, some were led through a self-affirmation exercise, which simply involves...
March 12, 2015
Now, research has found that focusing on values that are personally important — such as helping a family member — can help people act on advice they might otherwise find too threatening. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, scanned people’s brains as they were given typical advice about exercise you might get from any doctor (Falk et al., 2015). Before receiving the advice, though, some were led through a self-affirmation exercise, which simply involves...
Mediations Are Supposed to be Confidential… but Are They Really?
March 12, 2015
Either as a participant in a mediation or as the mediator, we have all learned the cardinal rule that mediations are confidential...
March 12, 2015
Either as a participant in a mediation or as the mediator, we have all learned the cardinal rule that mediations are confidential...
Social Media Postings in Sexual Harassment Litigation
March 12, 2015
Sexual harassment litigation typically involves accusations of unwelcome sexual conduct or comments in the workplace. Sometimes allegations are simply denied. More often, however, defendants assert that plaintiff either welcomed or wasn’t offended by the alleged conduct or comments. Increasingly, an important evidentiary weapon in this battle comes from social networking postings, such as tweets, Facebook status posts, private messages, etc. At some point in the mutual mud-slinging, counsel find...
March 12, 2015
Sexual harassment litigation typically involves accusations of unwelcome sexual conduct or comments in the workplace. Sometimes allegations are simply denied. More often, however, defendants assert that plaintiff either welcomed or wasn’t offended by the alleged conduct or comments. Increasingly, an important evidentiary weapon in this battle comes from social networking postings, such as tweets, Facebook status posts, private messages, etc. At some point in the mutual mud-slinging, counsel find...
Drobac & Goodenough on Consent
March 11, 2015
Jennifer Ann Drobac and Oliver R. Goodenough (Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and Vermont Law School) have posted Exposing the Myth of Consent (Indiana Health Law Review, 2015, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Consent, a critical concept for law, often rests upon the ability of people to create binding changes of legal status, rights, and obligations. The law typically presumes complete and un-buffered adult capacity for binding legal consent. However, the realities...
March 11, 2015
Jennifer Ann Drobac and Oliver R. Goodenough (Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and Vermont Law School) have posted Exposing the Myth of Consent (Indiana Health Law Review, 2015, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Consent, a critical concept for law, often rests upon the ability of people to create binding changes of legal status, rights, and obligations. The law typically presumes complete and un-buffered adult capacity for binding legal consent. However, the realities...
New Firm Combines Wearables And Data To Improve Decision Making
March 11, 2015
Humanyze, a unique new firm spawned in the MIT Media Lab, has developed a system that uses a smart employee badge to collect employee behavioral data, which it links to specific metrics with the goal of improving business performance. It announced $1M in seed funding today. * * * Humanyze president Ben Waber says while sports teams have done a great job of using data to evaluate their employees (players), business to this point has not used data effectively to measure the productivity of its workers....
March 11, 2015
Humanyze, a unique new firm spawned in the MIT Media Lab, has developed a system that uses a smart employee badge to collect employee behavioral data, which it links to specific metrics with the goal of improving business performance. It announced $1M in seed funding today. * * * Humanyze president Ben Waber says while sports teams have done a great job of using data to evaluate their employees (players), business to this point has not used data effectively to measure the productivity of its workers....
