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Federal Circuit Rejects Negotiation Privilege for Non-Mediated Discussions
May 27, 2013
In a case of first impression involving patent royalty settlement talks, the Federal Circuit in In re MSTG, Inc., 675 F.3d 1337 (Fed. Cir. 2012) has rejected a “settlement negotiation privilege,” at least for non-mediated communications. This holding conflicts with Sixth Circuit precedent that protects settlement negotiations in general and casts doubt upon several district court cases that have found such a privilege. Brief History of the “Settlement Negotiation” Privilege Evidentiary...
May 27, 2013
In a case of first impression involving patent royalty settlement talks, the Federal Circuit in In re MSTG, Inc., 675 F.3d 1337 (Fed. Cir. 2012) has rejected a “settlement negotiation privilege,” at least for non-mediated communications. This holding conflicts with Sixth Circuit precedent that protects settlement negotiations in general and casts doubt upon several district court cases that have found such a privilege. Brief History of the “Settlement Negotiation” Privilege Evidentiary...
Have you heard about the ReInvent Law Lab?
May 26, 2013
The ABA Journal Blog's "New Normal" column today features a profile of two Michigan State law profs who have founded something...
May 26, 2013
The ABA Journal Blog's "New Normal" column today features a profile of two Michigan State law profs who have founded something...
Yale Law School Wine Team Knows Their Subject
May 26, 2013
Why do lawyers all love Bordeaux? I'm convinced that attorneys make up at least half of all buyers of classified growths. (Those are, of course, some of the best wines of Bordeaux.) Sometimes the bond is formed later in life, and sometimes it begins as early as law school. That's where it started for the four members of the Yale Law School wine team, who took to the wines so naturally that they're on their way to a competition in Bordeaux next month. That competition, formally known as the Left...
May 26, 2013
Why do lawyers all love Bordeaux? I'm convinced that attorneys make up at least half of all buyers of classified growths. (Those are, of course, some of the best wines of Bordeaux.) Sometimes the bond is formed later in life, and sometimes it begins as early as law school. That's where it started for the four members of the Yale Law School wine team, who took to the wines so naturally that they're on their way to a competition in Bordeaux next month. That competition, formally known as the Left...
Conspire Analyzes Your Inbox to Help Strengthen Relationships
May 26, 2013
Conspire wants to strengthen the relationships with people in your inbox. Alex Devkar and Paul McReynolds, both lawyers with computer science degrees from Stanford, set out to harvest the intelligence in the inbox by analyzing the strength of relationships among a person’s contacts. Email, the world’s largest social network, can provide a lot of information on the strength of a person’s network and how to maintain and improve relationships.
May 26, 2013
Conspire wants to strengthen the relationships with people in your inbox. Alex Devkar and Paul McReynolds, both lawyers with computer science degrees from Stanford, set out to harvest the intelligence in the inbox by analyzing the strength of relationships among a person’s contacts. Email, the world’s largest social network, can provide a lot of information on the strength of a person’s network and how to maintain and improve relationships.
Lisa Damon: The Evolution of Business Analytics at Seyfarth Shaw
May 26, 2013
Lisa J. Damon is a member of Seyfarth Shaw’s Executive Committee. LEAN. Lean is “a way to think” at Seyfarth. They use it for their high-end work and in their commodity work. They use it to increase efficiency and quality so they can charge less while delivering more. Data is Ridiculously Powerful! The challenge for lawyers and law firms is to understand the value and power of data. This will require moving beyond their natural discomfort with numbers and discomfort with messy data....
May 26, 2013
Lisa J. Damon is a member of Seyfarth Shaw’s Executive Committee. LEAN. Lean is “a way to think” at Seyfarth. They use it for their high-end work and in their commodity work. They use it to increase efficiency and quality so they can charge less while delivering more. Data is Ridiculously Powerful! The challenge for lawyers and law firms is to understand the value and power of data. This will require moving beyond their natural discomfort with numbers and discomfort with messy data....
TechStars Cloud’s Good.co Matches Workers’ Personalities to the Right Job
May 25, 2013
The TechStars Cloud company, Good.co, wants people to be happy in their jobs. The San Francisco-based company has spent the past three months at Geekdom in the TechStars Cloud accelerator program. Its founders will officially pitch their company during TechStars Cloud Demo Day on Thursday at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre in downtown San Antonio. Good.co is one of 12 TechStar Cloud companies in the 2013 class. The team behind Good.co have created a “professional network and self-discovery...
May 25, 2013
The TechStars Cloud company, Good.co, wants people to be happy in their jobs. The San Francisco-based company has spent the past three months at Geekdom in the TechStars Cloud accelerator program. Its founders will officially pitch their company during TechStars Cloud Demo Day on Thursday at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre in downtown San Antonio. Good.co is one of 12 TechStar Cloud companies in the 2013 class. The team behind Good.co have created a “professional network and self-discovery...
San Antonio-based TrueAbility Pitches at TechStar Cloud Demo Day
May 25, 2013
TrueAbility’s CEO Luke Owen pitched the San Antonio-based company today at TechStars Cloud Demo Day. The company also announced that it has successfully completed its beta program with Rackspace Hosting. TrueAbility has created a cloud-based technical assessment platform that allows companies to assess the technical abilities of their job candidates.
May 25, 2013
TrueAbility’s CEO Luke Owen pitched the San Antonio-based company today at TechStars Cloud Demo Day. The company also announced that it has successfully completed its beta program with Rackspace Hosting. TrueAbility has created a cloud-based technical assessment platform that allows companies to assess the technical abilities of their job candidates.
Daniel Katz: Data Driven Law Practice
May 25, 2013
This session is presented by Daniel Martin Katz, Assistant Professor of Law, Michigan State University & Co-Director, Reinvent Law Laboratory at MSU Law. What’s Driving the Move to Business Analytics? Moore’s Law is happening right in front of our eyes — exponential growth of computing power. Kryder’s Law is showing the exponential decay in the price of data storage. The book, Race Against the Machine, provides more detail on the unrelenting drive to artificial intelligence. Law...
May 25, 2013
This session is presented by Daniel Martin Katz, Assistant Professor of Law, Michigan State University & Co-Director, Reinvent Law Laboratory at MSU Law. What’s Driving the Move to Business Analytics? Moore’s Law is happening right in front of our eyes — exponential growth of computing power. Kryder’s Law is showing the exponential decay in the price of data storage. The book, Race Against the Machine, provides more detail on the unrelenting drive to artificial intelligence. Law...
Future-Proofing Your Law Firm
May 25, 2013
THE FUTURE OF PRIVATE LAW PRACTICE has been a subject of much speculation the last several years. While some law firm partners behave as if they believe things will go back to business as usual, most of those who are paying attention believe we are headed to a “new normal” in our future. Among the factors cited to support this proposition are business clients more engaged in negotiating legal fees, an overexpansion of law schools that has led to more attorneys entering an already packed job market,...
May 25, 2013
THE FUTURE OF PRIVATE LAW PRACTICE has been a subject of much speculation the last several years. While some law firm partners behave as if they believe things will go back to business as usual, most of those who are paying attention believe we are headed to a “new normal” in our future. Among the factors cited to support this proposition are business clients more engaged in negotiating legal fees, an overexpansion of law schools that has led to more attorneys entering an already packed job market,...
Negligence, Strict Liability, and Collective Action
May 24, 2013
An injurer's activity often exposes multiple victims to the risk of harm. We show that under negligence, the tort system's dominant regime, such victims face a collective-action problem in choosing their activity levels. An increase in one victim's activity level confers a positive externality on the other victims because it requires the injurer to take more care. Victims will accordingly choose lower activity levels than those they would choose if they acted collectively. Interestingly, depending...
May 24, 2013
An injurer's activity often exposes multiple victims to the risk of harm. We show that under negligence, the tort system's dominant regime, such victims face a collective-action problem in choosing their activity levels. An increase in one victim's activity level confers a positive externality on the other victims because it requires the injurer to take more care. Victims will accordingly choose lower activity levels than those they would choose if they acted collectively. Interestingly, depending...
