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Daily Archives: November 8, 2018

When Does Big Law Work?

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Cable, Abraham, When Does Big Law Work? (September 12, 2018). Marquette Law Review, Vol. 102, 2019. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3248757 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3248757

“Law firms have grown from hundreds of lawyers to thousands of lawyers, and the conventional wisdom is that this trend fuels dissatisfaction among lawyers. This article scrutinizes that conventional wisdom based on interviews with lawyers who joined large firms through law-firm mergers. These lawyers offer a valuable perspective on firm size because they made abrupt changes from small to large firms. Though some interviewees echoed the conventional wisdom, others suggested that larger firm size has limited or even positive effects on professional satisfaction. In one counter-narrative, large law firms are relatively diffuse organizations that have limited influence over individual lawyers. In another counter-narrative, large law firms helpfully insulate lawyers from the business risks of smaller firms. I offer a framework to explain these varied experiences. The framework highlights the importance of: seniority, practice-area compatibility, local office attributes, and the manner and rate of firm growth. These new perspectives can inform future research and improve advice to law students and lawyers.”

How to Grow A Lawyer

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Fruehwald, Edwin S., How to Grow A Lawyer: A Guide for Law Schools, Law Professors, and Law Students (October 8, 2018). How To Grow A Lawyer: A Guide for Law Schools, Law Professors, and Law Students, October, 2018, Create Space; ISBN: 978-1726737760. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3262926 “We live in a world of accelerating change. Yet,… Continue Reading

Amazon’s AbeBooks backs down after booksellers stage global protest

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The Guardian: “After almost 600 booksellers withdrew 3.5m books from the secondhand marketplace in support of countries dropped by the website, it apologises for a ‘bad decision’. An “extraordinary and unprecedented” global protest from antiquarian booksellers has forced the Amazon-owned secondhand marketplace AbeBooks to backtrack on its decision to pull out of several countries. AbeBooks… Continue Reading

Why Social Media’s Misinformation Problem Will Never Be Fixed

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Slate – Facebook and others have gotten more serious about hoaxes, hate speech, propaganda, and foreign election interference. Here’s how it helped in the midterms—and why they aren’t going away. “At first grimace, the role of social media in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections looked a lot like the role it played in the 2016,… Continue Reading

The Kinds of Data Scientist

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Harvard Business Review: “…To hire the right people for the right roles, it’s important to distinguish between different types of data scientist. There are plenty of different distinctions that one can draw, of course, and any attempt to group data scientists into different buckets is by necessity an oversimplification. Nonetheless, I find it helpful to… Continue Reading

An Economist’s Guide to Climate Change Science

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An Economist’s Guide to Climate Change Science. Solomon Hsiang, Robert E. Kopp. NBER Working Paper No. 25189 Issued in October 2018. [h/t Mary Whisner] “Climate change management is a global challenge that requires social science as much as it requires natural science. We provide a brief introduction to the physical science of climate change, written… Continue Reading

Public-Interest Technology Resources

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Public-Interest Technology Resources Maintained by Bruce Schneier. “As technology—especially computer, information, and Internet technology—permeates all aspects of our society, people who understand that technology need to be part of public-policy discussions. We need technologists who work in the public interest. We need public-interest technologists. Public-interest technologists are a diverse and interdisciplinary group of people. Their… Continue Reading