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Mobile interaction research at Google
March 9, 2013
Google takes a hybrid approach to research - research happens across the entire company, and affects everything we do. As one example, we have a group that focuses on mobile interaction research. With research backgrounds in human-computer interaction, machine learning, statistical language modeling, and ubicomp, the group has focused on both foundational work and feature innovations for smart touchscreen keyboards. These innovations help us make things like typing messages on your Android device...
March 9, 2013
Google takes a hybrid approach to research - research happens across the entire company, and affects everything we do. As one example, we have a group that focuses on mobile interaction research. With research backgrounds in human-computer interaction, machine learning, statistical language modeling, and ubicomp, the group has focused on both foundational work and feature innovations for smart touchscreen keyboards. These innovations help us make things like typing messages on your Android device...
Plaintiff Lawyers Seek Their Cut On Virtually All Big Mergers, Study Shows
March 9, 2013
A new study by Cornerstone Research shows that plaintiff lawyers challenged 96% of all public-company mergers and acquisitions worth more than $500 million last year, lobbing an average of 5.4 suits per merger and suing an average of two weeks after each one was announced. It’s not plausible that directors violated their duties to investors in virtually every large merger last year, said Robert Daines of Stanford Law School, a co-author of the report. Many of the suits were obviously without...
March 9, 2013
A new study by Cornerstone Research shows that plaintiff lawyers challenged 96% of all public-company mergers and acquisitions worth more than $500 million last year, lobbing an average of 5.4 suits per merger and suing an average of two weeks after each one was announced. It’s not plausible that directors violated their duties to investors in virtually every large merger last year, said Robert Daines of Stanford Law School, a co-author of the report. Many of the suits were obviously without...
Most Big M&A Deals Faced Legal Challenges in 2012
March 9, 2013
It was a rare merger or acquisition deal in 2012 that escaped legal challenges from shareholders, according to a study released Thursday by Cornerstone Research, which specializes in analyzing financial issues in commercial litigation and regulatory proceedings. Some 96 percent of M&A deals valued over $500 million and 93 percent of those valued over $100 million engendered suits, according to “Shareholder Litigation Involving Mergers and Acquisitions” [PDF]. The report was co-authored...
March 9, 2013
It was a rare merger or acquisition deal in 2012 that escaped legal challenges from shareholders, according to a study released Thursday by Cornerstone Research, which specializes in analyzing financial issues in commercial litigation and regulatory proceedings. Some 96 percent of M&A deals valued over $500 million and 93 percent of those valued over $100 million engendered suits, according to “Shareholder Litigation Involving Mergers and Acquisitions” [PDF]. The report was co-authored...
Baker & Swedloff on Regulation by Liability Insurance
March 8, 2013
Tom Baker (Penn) and Rick Swedloff (Rutgers-Camden) have posted to SSRN Regulation by Liability Insurance: From Auto to Lawyers Professional Liability. The abstract provides: Liability insurers use a variety of tools to address adverse selection and moral hazard in insurance relationships. These tools can act on insureds in a manner that can be understood as regulation. We identify seven categories of such regulatory activities: risk-based pricing, underwriting, contract design, claims management,...
March 8, 2013
Tom Baker (Penn) and Rick Swedloff (Rutgers-Camden) have posted to SSRN Regulation by Liability Insurance: From Auto to Lawyers Professional Liability. The abstract provides: Liability insurers use a variety of tools to address adverse selection and moral hazard in insurance relationships. These tools can act on insureds in a manner that can be understood as regulation. We identify seven categories of such regulatory activities: risk-based pricing, underwriting, contract design, claims management,...
Update From The Commercial Mediation Group: Taking Matters Forward
March 8, 2013
You may have seen a post on 17 April 2012 exploring the thinking behind the Commercial Mediation Group, an affiliation that...
March 8, 2013
You may have seen a post on 17 April 2012 exploring the thinking behind the Commercial Mediation Group, an affiliation that...
Travelers Casualty Settled Reinsurance Dispute With Excalibur Reinsurance
March 8, 2013
Travelers and runoff reinsurer Excalibur have settled Traveler’s suit for reinsurance benefits allegedly owed to Travelers for asbestos claims coverage reinsured by three facultative certificates. Travelers had filed suit in federal court for breach of contract and account stated, seeking $451,809.66 in allegedly unpaid claims made in 2011 and 2012. The reinsurance claims were based on benefits Travelers paid to its insured, Zurn Industries, Inc., further to a settlement entered into in 2003....
March 8, 2013
Travelers and runoff reinsurer Excalibur have settled Traveler’s suit for reinsurance benefits allegedly owed to Travelers for asbestos claims coverage reinsured by three facultative certificates. Travelers had filed suit in federal court for breach of contract and account stated, seeking $451,809.66 in allegedly unpaid claims made in 2011 and 2012. The reinsurance claims were based on benefits Travelers paid to its insured, Zurn Industries, Inc., further to a settlement entered into in 2003....
New Patent Dispute Protocol from CPR Institute
March 8, 2013
CPR’s Patent Mediation Task Force released its Effective Practices Protocol today endorsing the use of alternative dispute...
March 8, 2013
CPR’s Patent Mediation Task Force released its Effective Practices Protocol today endorsing the use of alternative dispute...
The Real Economic Impact of Product Liability Tort Reform
March 7, 2013
Via Overlawyered and TortsProf, I saw that a new law review article came out last week in the Vanderbilt Law Review, “Products Liability and Economic Activity: An Empirical Analysis of Tort Reform’s Impact on Businesses, Employment, and Production” by Joanna Shepherd. As a products-liability lawyer (and an armchair economist), I was excited, so I printed out a copy, sat down with my highlighter, and, unfortunately, didn’t even make it past the third page without gnashing my teeth in frustration: Specifically,...
March 7, 2013
Via Overlawyered and TortsProf, I saw that a new law review article came out last week in the Vanderbilt Law Review, “Products Liability and Economic Activity: An Empirical Analysis of Tort Reform’s Impact on Businesses, Employment, and Production” by Joanna Shepherd. As a products-liability lawyer (and an armchair economist), I was excited, so I printed out a copy, sat down with my highlighter, and, unfortunately, didn’t even make it past the third page without gnashing my teeth in frustration: Specifically,...
Shepherd on Products Liability and Economic Activity
March 7, 2013
Joanna Shepherd (Emory) has published Products Liability and Economic Activity: An Empirical Analysis of Tort Reform's Impact on Businesses, Employment, and Production (pdf available for download from Vanderbilt Law Review's website). The abstract provides: For decades, advocates of tort reform have argued that expansive products liability stifles economic activity by imposing excessive and unpredictable liability costs on businesses. Although politicians aspiring to create jobs, attract...
March 7, 2013
Joanna Shepherd (Emory) has published Products Liability and Economic Activity: An Empirical Analysis of Tort Reform's Impact on Businesses, Employment, and Production (pdf available for download from Vanderbilt Law Review's website). The abstract provides: For decades, advocates of tort reform have argued that expansive products liability stifles economic activity by imposing excessive and unpredictable liability costs on businesses. Although politicians aspiring to create jobs, attract...
6 Negotiation Mistakes
March 7, 2013
Men's Health writer Kasey Panetta share's ten tips that according to a recent research study in the Journal in Experimental Social Psychology, you should avoid when negotiating. Don’t pretend you’re pissed. Faking anger in a negotiation only results in demands from your opponent, while genuine anger will get you concessions, according to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. You’re way too literal about deadlines. You concentrate on what you want, not what...
March 7, 2013
Men's Health writer Kasey Panetta share's ten tips that according to a recent research study in the Journal in Experimental Social Psychology, you should avoid when negotiating. Don’t pretend you’re pissed. Faking anger in a negotiation only results in demands from your opponent, while genuine anger will get you concessions, according to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. You’re way too literal about deadlines. You concentrate on what you want, not what...
