Menu
Blog Archives
Do You Have To Be A Jerk To Be Great?
August 30, 2019
Do you have to be so obsessively focused to be great? The traditional masculine answer is yes. But probably the right answer is no. In the first place, being monomaniacal may not even be good for your work. Another book on my summer reading list was “Range,” by David Epstein. It’s a powerful argument that generalists perform better than specialists. ... He shows the same pattern in domain after domain: People who specialize in one thing succeed early, but then they slide back to mediocrity...
August 30, 2019
Do you have to be so obsessively focused to be great? The traditional masculine answer is yes. But probably the right answer is no. In the first place, being monomaniacal may not even be good for your work. Another book on my summer reading list was “Range,” by David Epstein. It’s a powerful argument that generalists perform better than specialists. ... He shows the same pattern in domain after domain: People who specialize in one thing succeed early, but then they slide back to mediocrity...
Michigan Supreme Court Launches New Online Dispute Resolution Program, MI-Resolve
August 29, 2019
In August, the Michigan Supreme Court launched MI-Resolve, a free online dispute resolution tool. The program is provided by Matterhorn and is currently available for district courts in 17 Michigan counties to use. During the pilot phase of this program, MI-Resolve is limited to cases alleging that money is owed and is being used in small claims, general civil, landlord-tenant, contract, and neighborhood disputes. The goal of MI-Resolveis to make access to legal resources more efficient and affordable...
August 29, 2019
In August, the Michigan Supreme Court launched MI-Resolve, a free online dispute resolution tool. The program is provided by Matterhorn and is currently available for district courts in 17 Michigan counties to use. During the pilot phase of this program, MI-Resolve is limited to cases alleging that money is owed and is being used in small claims, general civil, landlord-tenant, contract, and neighborhood disputes. The goal of MI-Resolveis to make access to legal resources more efficient and affordable...
Hypothetical Questions as Strategic Devices in Negotiation
August 28, 2019
In this article, we analyze the use of hypothetical questions in integrative negotiation. We argue that hypothetical questions are useful devices for advancing implicit proposals and can also provide strategic argumentative support for the acceptance of a particular solution. To explain why negotiators prefer to use hypothetical questions when putting forward implicit proposals and to demonstrate how these questions fulfill negotiators' argumentative purposes, our study uses the pragma‐dialectical...
August 28, 2019
In this article, we analyze the use of hypothetical questions in integrative negotiation. We argue that hypothetical questions are useful devices for advancing implicit proposals and can also provide strategic argumentative support for the acceptance of a particular solution. To explain why negotiators prefer to use hypothetical questions when putting forward implicit proposals and to demonstrate how these questions fulfill negotiators' argumentative purposes, our study uses the pragma‐dialectical...
Robots and AI Threaten to Mediate Disputes Better Than Lawyers
August 27, 2019
Robots and artificial intelligence seem worlds away from the sensitive and nuanced area of international mediation. Here,...
August 27, 2019
Robots and artificial intelligence seem worlds away from the sensitive and nuanced area of international mediation. Here,...
LexisNexis Reengineers CourtLink, Its Docket Research Product
August 26, 2019
LexisNexis Legal & Professional is today unveiling a major reengineering of its CourtLink federal and state docket...
August 26, 2019
LexisNexis Legal & Professional is today unveiling a major reengineering of its CourtLink federal and state docket...
Taylor Swift to Re-record Her First Albums in Contractual Dispute
August 25, 2019
For artists, master recordings — the original recordings of musicians' work — are vital musically, historically and financially. In most situations, labels own those masters. But many musicians, both prominent and independent ones, have tried to hang on to their masters. As Prince famously told Rolling Stone back in 1996, "If you don't own your masters, your master owns you." Taylor Swift is the most recent major artist to want to own her own masters, but can’t because...
August 25, 2019
For artists, master recordings — the original recordings of musicians' work — are vital musically, historically and financially. In most situations, labels own those masters. But many musicians, both prominent and independent ones, have tried to hang on to their masters. As Prince famously told Rolling Stone back in 1996, "If you don't own your masters, your master owns you." Taylor Swift is the most recent major artist to want to own her own masters, but can’t because...
Metaphors Matter: Seeing Our Achievements As “Completing A Journey” Helps Maintain Success
August 24, 2019
Throughout our lives, we set ourselves goals — to pass an exam, run a marathon, lose 10 kilograms of excess weight or gain a promotion. Given the importance of such goals to our physical and psychological wellbeing, it’s not surprising that there’s has been a wealth of research into how best to set, work towards, and achieve them. But let’s say you succeed — what then? Psychologists have paid less attention to people’s behaviour after they’ve achieved their goals....
August 24, 2019
Throughout our lives, we set ourselves goals — to pass an exam, run a marathon, lose 10 kilograms of excess weight or gain a promotion. Given the importance of such goals to our physical and psychological wellbeing, it’s not surprising that there’s has been a wealth of research into how best to set, work towards, and achieve them. But let’s say you succeed — what then? Psychologists have paid less attention to people’s behaviour after they’ve achieved their goals....
Class Action Waivers Are Okay, But Waivers of Public Injunctive Relief Aren’t
August 23, 2019
All three cases address whether a rule articulated by the California Supreme Court in McGill v. Citibank, N.A., 2 Cal.5th 945, 216 Cal. Rptr. 3d 627, 393 P.3d 85 (2017), is preempted by the FAA. Spoiler alert: the Ninth Circuit says the McGill rule isn’t preempted. That’s sure to raise some eyebrows, including by SCOTUS justices. Deep breath! Let’s wade into this. In McGill, the California Supreme Court held that an agreement waving the right to seek...
August 23, 2019
All three cases address whether a rule articulated by the California Supreme Court in McGill v. Citibank, N.A., 2 Cal.5th 945, 216 Cal. Rptr. 3d 627, 393 P.3d 85 (2017), is preempted by the FAA. Spoiler alert: the Ninth Circuit says the McGill rule isn’t preempted. That’s sure to raise some eyebrows, including by SCOTUS justices. Deep breath! Let’s wade into this. In McGill, the California Supreme Court held that an agreement waving the right to seek...
New Clear and Unmistakable Outcome Exception to the Old Clear and Unmistakable Rule? (Part II)
August 22, 2019
Part I of this post discussed how the Second and Fifth Circuits, in Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Bucsek, ___ F.3d ___, No. 17-881, slip op. (2d Cir. Mar. 22, 2019), and 20/20 Comms. Inc. v. Lennox Crawford, ___ F.3d ___, No. 18-10260 (5th Cir. July 22, 2019), suggest a trend toward what might (tongue-in-cheek) be called a “Clear and Unmistakable Outcome Exception” to the First Options Reverse Presumption of Arbitrability (a/k/a the “Clear and Unmistakable Rule”). Under...
August 22, 2019
Part I of this post discussed how the Second and Fifth Circuits, in Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Bucsek, ___ F.3d ___, No. 17-881, slip op. (2d Cir. Mar. 22, 2019), and 20/20 Comms. Inc. v. Lennox Crawford, ___ F.3d ___, No. 18-10260 (5th Cir. July 22, 2019), suggest a trend toward what might (tongue-in-cheek) be called a “Clear and Unmistakable Outcome Exception” to the First Options Reverse Presumption of Arbitrability (a/k/a the “Clear and Unmistakable Rule”). Under...
New Clear and Unmistakable Outcome Exception to the Old Clear and Unmistakable Rule? (Part I)
August 21, 2019
Arbitration law is replete with presumptions and other rules that favor one outcome or another depending on whether one thing or another is or is not clear and unmistakable. Put differently, outcomes often turn on the presence or absence of contractual ambiguity. There are three presumptions that relate specifically to questions arbitrability, that is, whether or not an arbitrator or a court gets to decide a particular issue or dispute: The Moses Cone Presumption of Arbitrability:...
August 21, 2019
Arbitration law is replete with presumptions and other rules that favor one outcome or another depending on whether one thing or another is or is not clear and unmistakable. Put differently, outcomes often turn on the presence or absence of contractual ambiguity. There are three presumptions that relate specifically to questions arbitrability, that is, whether or not an arbitrator or a court gets to decide a particular issue or dispute: The Moses Cone Presumption of Arbitrability:...
