The New York Times just ran an article (full text below) describing the more careful examination some judges are providing to possible settlements related to financial institutions’ misdeeds.  The role of judicial review of settlements is not new, as anyone familiar with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 knows.  The public scrutiny of that judicial … Continue reading Assessing Settlements – Judicial Deference, the Feds, & the Banks →

Until this evening, I had no familiarity with the Bell Labs study, examining predictors of high levels of performance in the workplace.  Their study suggested that it wasn’t grades, or other kinds of academic success, and it wasn’t even IQ or other typical academic-success predictors.  Instead, after some years of study, they named at least … Continue reading High-Performance in the Workplace →

The AALS Dispute Resolution Section’s Executive Committee is seeking a host for the 5th Annual Works-in-Progress Conference to take place in the fall of 2011.  The RFP is in its entirety below.   And don’t forget that this year’s WIP Conference will be taking place at the University of Oregon School of Law and promises to be … Continue reading Request for Proposals – 2011 AALS ADR Section Works-in-Progress Conference →

Robert Axelrod, surely familiar to most of us who teach dispute resolution, co-authored an Op-Ed in the New York Times shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision in Holder v Humanitarian Law Project.  (Available here, and reproduced below.) Somehow, I missed this article when it first came out.  Tip of the hat to Jen Reynolds for … Continue reading Axelrod on the Humanitarian Law Project Opinion →

Today is the first day of Orientation for our incoming 1Ls, and it gives me time to reflect on the faculty roster changes in the ADR field.  Here are those that I’ve been able to come up with so far.  If I have missed one that you know about, please list that change in the comments below. Good luck … Continue reading ADR Faculty Roster Changes →

In a development likely to reduce the number of matrimonial disputes going through acrimonious litigation in New York, Governor David Patterson finally signed into law yesterday an amendment to New York’s domestic relations law adding “irreconcilable differences” as a valid ground for divorce.  New York was the only state remaining in the country to require proof … Continue reading New York last state in the country to finally add a no-fault divorce provision →

Gina Brown and Jean Sternlight have announced the winner of the 2010 Boskey Essay contest:  Flora Go, a student at Harvard Law School, for her essay, “Mediation as Practiced in Criminal Law: The Present, the Pitfalls, and the Potential.” Formal announcement appears here. And the essay itself is available here. MM

Kent Syverud, Dean of the Washington University School of Law, has been named one of two trustees for the $20 billion Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust.  As trustee, Dean Syverud will be administering the trust, which presumably means he’ll be signing off on the paying of monies that Kenneth Feinberg and his group award to spill victims. … Continue reading Kent Syverud named BP Fund Trustee →

Earlier this summer, I attended a talk by David Brooks at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.  (Quick aside: The Chautauqua Institution is as close to heaven as any place I have ever found.  How’s that for an endorsement?)  During his talk, David Brooks told the audience that there are, apparently, more Americans who own … Continue reading Ferrets, Fox News, and Framing →

Herbert Kritzer has posted The Antecedents of Disputes: Complaining and Claiming on SSRN. The article is a compendium of empirical research into the “naming, blaming, and claiming” process that leads to disputes. (See Felstiner, Abel, and Sarat, The Emergence of Disputes: Naming, Blaming, Claiming . . .) It goes much deeper than the usual disputing … Continue reading Kritzer on Complaining & Claiming →