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Solomon on Civil Juries & Social Norms
September 16, 2014
Jason M. Solomon (Stanford Law School) has posted Juries, Social Norms, and Civil Justice (Alabama Law Review, Vol. 65, No. 5, 2014)...
September 16, 2014
Jason M. Solomon (Stanford Law School) has posted Juries, Social Norms, and Civil Justice (Alabama Law Review, Vol. 65, No. 5, 2014)...
Second Circuit Holds Forum Selection Clause Trumps FINRA Arbitration Requirement
September 16, 2014
Today, the Second Circuit followed an April 2014 decision by the Ninth Circuit in Goldman Sachs & Co. v. Reno (described here) — and rejected an opposite holding by the Fourth Circuit — and held that a forum selection clause in a contract supersedes a broker-dealer’s obligation to arbitrate disputes with a customer under FINRA Rule 12200. The Court of Appeals, in a single opinion, resolved two cases: Goldman Sachs & Co. v. Golden Empire Sch. Fin. Auth., No. 13-797-cv (2d Cir. Aug. 21, 2014)...
September 16, 2014
Today, the Second Circuit followed an April 2014 decision by the Ninth Circuit in Goldman Sachs & Co. v. Reno (described here) — and rejected an opposite holding by the Fourth Circuit — and held that a forum selection clause in a contract supersedes a broker-dealer’s obligation to arbitrate disputes with a customer under FINRA Rule 12200. The Court of Appeals, in a single opinion, resolved two cases: Goldman Sachs & Co. v. Golden Empire Sch. Fin. Auth., No. 13-797-cv (2d Cir. Aug. 21, 2014)...
Debut of the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution
September 15, 2014
The first issue of the new International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution has been released, and it’s incredible! There’s...
September 15, 2014
The first issue of the new International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution has been released, and it’s incredible! There’s...
Ahead of the Curve: Three Big Innovators in BigLaw
September 15, 2014
It is time to put down the broad brush used to paint BigLaw as inefficient and out of touch. At least for me, that is the big takeaway from the 2014 International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference, which took place this past week at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville and included nearly 2,000 lawyers, administrators, staff, and vendors from around the world. My takeaway is based on what I saw during the presentation session for the ILTA Most Innovative Law Firm Award. The three...
September 15, 2014
It is time to put down the broad brush used to paint BigLaw as inefficient and out of touch. At least for me, that is the big takeaway from the 2014 International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference, which took place this past week at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville and included nearly 2,000 lawyers, administrators, staff, and vendors from around the world. My takeaway is based on what I saw during the presentation session for the ILTA Most Innovative Law Firm Award. The three...
Seventh Circuit Finds Tribal Arbitration Is Unreasonable and Unconscionable
September 15, 2014
In a victory for advocates who worry that the odds are impossibly stacked against consumers in some arbitral fora, the Seventh Circuit found that a class of borrowers did not have to proceed with arbitration conducted by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (“Tribe”) in South Dakota “because the arbitral mechanism specified in the agreement is illusory.” Jackson v. Payday Financial, LLC, __ F.3d __, 2014 WL 4116804 (7th Cir. Aug. 22, 2014). The plaintiffs had each borrowed money through a website...
September 15, 2014
In a victory for advocates who worry that the odds are impossibly stacked against consumers in some arbitral fora, the Seventh Circuit found that a class of borrowers did not have to proceed with arbitration conducted by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (“Tribe”) in South Dakota “because the arbitral mechanism specified in the agreement is illusory.” Jackson v. Payday Financial, LLC, __ F.3d __, 2014 WL 4116804 (7th Cir. Aug. 22, 2014). The plaintiffs had each borrowed money through a website...
Sunstein on Choosing Not to Choose
September 15, 2014
Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard Law School) has posted Choosing Not to Choose on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Choice can be an extraordinary benefit or an immense burden. In some contexts, people choose not to choose, or would do so if they were asked. For example, many people prefer not to make choices about their health or retirement plans; they want to delegate those choices to a private or public institution that they trust (and may well be willing to pay a considerable amount for such delegations)....
September 15, 2014
Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard Law School) has posted Choosing Not to Choose on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Choice can be an extraordinary benefit or an immense burden. In some contexts, people choose not to choose, or would do so if they were asked. For example, many people prefer not to make choices about their health or retirement plans; they want to delegate those choices to a private or public institution that they trust (and may well be willing to pay a considerable amount for such delegations)....
Judge Chastises Attorneys for Claiming Mediator Bias
September 15, 2014
In the Detroit bankruptcy case, one of the creditors claimed that the mediators – one of whom is the Chief US District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan – were biased in favor of some philanthropic creditors. According to this article the creditors claimed: The plain truth is that the mediators in this case acted improperly by orchestrating a settlement that alienates the city’s most valuable assets for the sole benefit of one creditor group. Yowza !! Now that’s a charge. According...
September 15, 2014
In the Detroit bankruptcy case, one of the creditors claimed that the mediators – one of whom is the Chief US District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan – were biased in favor of some philanthropic creditors. According to this article the creditors claimed: The plain truth is that the mediators in this case acted improperly by orchestrating a settlement that alienates the city’s most valuable assets for the sole benefit of one creditor group. Yowza !! Now that’s a charge. According...
LinkedIn Law School Rankings?
September 14, 2014
LinkedIn is one of several players in a growing market: the business of aggregating data about career outcomes for prospective...
September 14, 2014
LinkedIn is one of several players in a growing market: the business of aggregating data about career outcomes for prospective...
A Framework for Advancing Negotiation Theory: Implications from a Study of How Lawyers Reach Agreement in Pretrial Litigation
September 14, 2014
The prevailing negotiation theory tries to fit lots of square pegs into just two round holes - adversarial or cooperative bargaining. In the real world, negotiation comes in many different shapes, not just circles and squares. Analyzing law school textbook definitions of the traditional models, this article demonstrates that the two “round holes” in current negotiation theory are poorly defined. It also presents empirical accounts of actual pretrial negotiations to demonstrate that the theoretical...
September 14, 2014
The prevailing negotiation theory tries to fit lots of square pegs into just two round holes - adversarial or cooperative bargaining. In the real world, negotiation comes in many different shapes, not just circles and squares. Analyzing law school textbook definitions of the traditional models, this article demonstrates that the two “round holes” in current negotiation theory are poorly defined. It also presents empirical accounts of actual pretrial negotiations to demonstrate that the theoretical...
Does the Endowment Effect Justify Legal Intervention? The Debiasing Effect of Institutions
September 14, 2014
"Does the Endowment Effect Justify Legal Intervention? The Debiasing Effect of Institutions" JENNIFER ARLEN, New York University School of Law STEPHAN W. TONTRUP, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods We claim that the endowment effect rarely justifies legal intervention in private ordering. To our knowledge, we present the first theory to explain how institutions inhibit the endowment effect without altering people’s rights to their entitlements. The endowment effect...
September 14, 2014
"Does the Endowment Effect Justify Legal Intervention? The Debiasing Effect of Institutions" JENNIFER ARLEN, New York University School of Law STEPHAN W. TONTRUP, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods We claim that the endowment effect rarely justifies legal intervention in private ordering. To our knowledge, we present the first theory to explain how institutions inhibit the endowment effect without altering people’s rights to their entitlements. The endowment effect...
