Rhetoric and flattery
Bryan Garsten, Yale professer of Political Science, wrote a book in 2006 on rhetoric — Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment — and in it said this:
Aristotle argued that when citizens sat as jurors, they listened with an ear for gratification . . . and let their own
On May 11, 2016, the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 took effect. The effect of its effectiveness? Almost all new trade secrets cases will either start in federal court, or they will wind up there once the defendant removes it from state court. Key parts of the new law include these:
Cause of action.
The Contingency will return to regular Monday posts on May 9.
The trial that has kept me busy getting ready for during the last several weeks settled last night.
A great deal has happened in other corners of the world of high stakes business disputes during the hiatus, and I look forward to jumping back
And now, my notes from trial lawyer Jim Perdue’s talk on “Winning with Stories”, with light editing.
Continue Reading Winning with Stories
And, now — the second half of my Tips on Working with Me memo.
Continue Reading Tips on Working with Me, Part 2
For many years, I have written a memo for lawyers, paralegals, and support staff who work on trial teams that I lead at Susman Godfrey. I call it Tips on Working with Me. Check it out to see whether you’d benefit from writing your own — or getting one from people who head teams that you work on.
Continue Reading Tips on Working with Me, Part 1
Survey says
Since January 1, 2007, I’ve surveyed decisions by the 13 U.S. courts of appeals almost every working day.
The experience has highlighted for me a range of quirks — from their highly variable websites to their peculiar schedules for releasing opinions to the small-bore or high-caliber of the disputes they decide to the great range of writing talent.
I’ve also learned that they vary a lot in their openness. That trait manifests itself most obviously in the seemingly mundane information they provide (or withhold) in the captions of their opinions about the cases they decide.
Today I finally took a look at how transparently these geographically, culturally, and philosophically diverse courts deal with facts that can aid people like you and me in assessing how well they do their jobs.
[See examples from all 13 of the courts at the end of this post.]Continue Reading The Least Transparent Courts of Appeals
If you’ve read, enjoyed, forwarded, or benefited from posts on The Contingency, you may want to nominate it for the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 list.
As you can see from the picture at the end of this post, the ABA Journal folks have made the process astonishingly undemanding both time-wise and information-wise.
To
Economic theory
The D.C. Circuit confirmed in Osborn v. Visa Inc., No. 14-7004 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 4, 2015), that plaintiffs alleging a price-fixing conspiracy may rely on debatable economic theory to plead an adequate basis for antitrust injury.
The case involved claims that Visa, MasterCard, and several banks conspired to force ATM operators not
Welcome to The Contingency — a new law blog that will offer insights on sharing risk in high-stakes business disputes.
Reasons to read
The Contingency will tell you things you need to know if you: