Lawyering in the Shadow of Data

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

I just came across a paper by  Drury D. Stevenson and Nicholas J. Wagoner, called “Lawering in the Shadow of Data”.  They discuss how “big data” can – and indeed should – be used in litigation. The articles opens with O.W. Holmes’ immortal quote: “For the rational study of the law the black-letter man may be the man of the present, but the man of the future is the man of statistics and the master of economics.” The authors’ key argument: Holmes’ future is NOW.

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Germany’s Most Exclusive Bar: New Members, New Challenges

One of my first posts introduced readers to Germany’s most exclusive bar: the lawyers exclusively admitted to the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) in civil matters. It was election time again, and the Federal Ministry of Justice has announced eight new supreme court lawyers (Rechtsanwälte beim BGH). Prior to this year’s appointments, the bar comprised 37 lawyers. As it has become customary, I am inclined to say, this round of appointments also triggered legal challenges to the election process, and ultimately to the monopoly that the supreme court lawyers enjoy.         Continue reading

Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund and the Business Judgment Rule in a Transfer Window

What an approriate post in the run-up to tonight’s Champions League clashes between Arsenal/Dortmund and Chelsea/Schalke: If you were a supporter and/or shareholder (which may or may not be the same thing) of Borussia Dortmund, could you hold the club’s management responsible for not having transferred Robert Lewandowski to Bayern for a hefty fee this season, rather than letting him join the arch-rivals for free next summer? If you though that Bayern München spending EUR 37,000,000 to sign Mario Goetze was madness, would that argument have legs in a court room?  Continue reading

Porsche Plaintiffs’ Tour de Germany: Last Exit Braunschweig?

The hedge funds seeking billions of Euros in damages from Porsche’s failed Volkswagen take-over still have not found a court willing to assume jurisdicton to hear their matter: Having started out in Stuttgart, or even in New York, they have been on a trip that looked as if it had ended in Hannover, when the Braunschweig District Court (Landgericht) transferred the matter to Hannover District Court on the basis that the plantiffs relied on competition law theories. Continue reading