The economics of television
I was forced to watch my first episode of “Two and a Half Men” last week. Family members drugged me unconscious and then bound and gagged me, locked my head in the direction of the television and taped my eyelids open. The most horrible moment came when I realized that this was neither satire nor ... The economics of television
Friday at Iowa: The Future of Legal Education
At this symposium I will be joining (as virtually the only simple professor) a distinguished group of judges, deans, and former deans to discuss the above subject. Predictably, given my role, I’m going to defend the continuing role of theory (or at least particular sorts of theory) in the constrained future of legal education. My ... Friday at Iowa: The Future of Legal Education
Schools for Misrule
Walter Olson journeyed to Illinois yesterday to discuss his new book Schools for Misrule. There was a good turnout and a lot of deserved buzz for this very interesting book. Walter describes law schools as essentially the hatcheries of bad ideas that have led to the sort of excessive litigation that Olson has chronicled in ... Schools for Misrule
Angelo’s escape
So Mozilo won’t be criminally prosecuted for Countrywide. Holman Jenkins writes in today’s WSJ: The incentive to bring a case against a vilified public figure, of course, is huge. Weighed against this, however, must be the chance of being humiliated by a judge, possibly censured, now that the legal system has started blowing the whistle ... Angelo’s escape
A nation of lawyers and judges
Doing just about anything in the U.S. today involves seeing a lawyer. Congress, the states and administrative agencies have passed a vast network of laws spreading over all aspects of life — not just business transactions, but family relationships, personal finance, the workplace, birth and death. Lawyers are expensive. Good lawyers are very expensive. Want ... A nation of lawyers and judges
Lawyers as sponges and thieves
Andy Kessler writes in Thursday’s WSJ: With a heavy regulatory burden, payroll taxes and health-care costs, employing people is very expensive. * * * Tellers, phone operators, stock brokers, stock traders: These jobs are nearly extinct. Since 2007, the New York Stock Exchange has eliminated 1,000 jobs. And when was the last time you spoke ... Lawyers as sponges and thieves
Unconscionability for corporate law
So you thought unconscionability was for furniture stores? Larry Cunningham has news for you: This Article explains why and how traditional contract law’s theory of unconscionability should be used to create a modicum of judicial scrutiny to strike obnoxious pay contracts and preserve legitimate ones. Under this proposal, pay contracts that are the product of ... Unconscionability for corporate law
Lawyers in Jeopardy
The WSJ reports: In a nationally televised competition, the Watson computer system built by International Business Machines Corp. handily defeated two former “Jeopardy” champions. * * * To emulate the human mind, and make it competitive on the TV quiz show, Watson was stuffed with millions of documents—including dictionaries, anthologies and the World Book Encyclopedia. ... Lawyers in Jeopardy
Death to insider traders
NY U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara testified today at the U.S. Sentencing Commission for stiffer insider trading penalties. He said “[t]he guidelines as they stand may be letting some defendants in some cases off with lighter sentences than they deserve” because stock market moves unrelated to the inside information reduced or eliminated profit on their trades. ... Death to insider traders
The Airgas decision
So Chancellor Chandler, in deciding Airgas, preserved the board’s power to decide when to sell the company. If a company’s shareholders don’t like it, they need to replace the board. If shareholders generally don’t like it they need to change the Delaware statute. In upholding the board’s power, and confirming what most astute observers knew ... The Airgas decision
Borders’s lessons for lawyers
So Borders is headed to bankruptcy. According to the WSJ: Borders’s finances crumbled amid declining interest in bricks-and-mortar booksellers, a broad cultural trend for which it offered no answers. * * * Its online struggles proved critical as consumers became accustomed to getting books mailed to their doorsteps or downloaded to handheld electronic devices. * ... Borders’s lessons for lawyers
Lawyers behaving badly: offering discounts!
PoL invited “Truth on the Market bloggers” to tackle this one. How could we resist? It seems that while the NC bar is apparently unfazed by 40% contingency fees, they’re right on the case when it comes to a law firm offering consumers a discount on services through Groupon. According to the ABAJ: [T]he Law ... Lawyers behaving badly: offering discounts!
