A Variational Principle for the Asymptotic Speed of Fronts of the Density Dependent Diffusion--Reaction Equation

We show that the minimal speed for the existence of monotonic fronts of the equation $u_t = (u^m)_{xx} + f(u)$ with $f(0) = f(1) = 0$, $m >1$ and $f>0$ in $(0,1)$ derives from a variational principle. The variational principle allows to calculate, in principle, the exact speed for arbitrary $f$. The case $m=1$ when $f'(0)=0$ is included as an extension of the results.Comment: Latex, postcript figure availabl

Changes in the Role of Lawyers and Corporate Governance in Japan—How Do We Measure Whether Legal Reform Leads to Real Change?

This Essay explores the criteria for judging the significance of change brought about by legal reform through the examination of two significant areas in Japan about which Haley has written in the Heisei article and elsewhere: the role of lawyers and corporate governance

The Brave New World of Lawyers in Japan Revisited: Proceedings of a Panel Discussion on the Japanese Legal Profession after the 2008 Financial Crisis and the 2011 Tōhuku Earthquake

In the United States, the 2008 financial crisis had a serious impact on a legal profession that had been growing strongly for three decades, highlighting fundamental issues concerning the business and educational models of both law firms and law schools. This raises the interesting question of how Japan, with its much shorter history of large law firms and professional law schools, has been affected by the 2008 financial crisis and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor crisis. At a recent conference sponsored by the University of Washington School of Law and the law firm of Perkins Coie, a distinguished group of legal practitioners from the leading Japanese and foreign law firms in Tokyo engaged in a panel discussion on the current state of Japan’s legal profession. The panelists saw both the 2008 financial crisis and the Tōhoku earthquake as “one-time” events that will not have a significant longterm impact. The 2008 financial crisis, although it had a lesser economic impact in Japan, raised fundamental issues similar to those in the United States concerning the appropriate models for large law firms and law schools. Despite a number of current problems, the panelists supported the goals and direction of recent Japanese reforms, which have overhauled the system of legal education and increased the number of lawyers, and they explicitly embraced a new model for the legal profession: rather than the traditional small elite with a narrow societal role, the Japanese bar would be significantly expanded and compete to fill a wide range of law-related roles in societ

My Key Phrase for Understanding Japanese Law: Japan as a Normal Country…With Context

Article published in the Michigan State International Law Review

Elite Law Firm Mergers and Reputational Competition

Although rapid law firm growth has persisted since the 1980s, the acceleration of this trend over the last decade by means of mergers is puzzling. Why would normally conservative law firms embark on a merger strategy that appears to encompass significant risk and uncertain benefits? Is this trend a peculiarly U.S. phenomenon? Most of the popular explanations for law firm mergers focus on a single factor: Law firms everywhere cite strikingly similar reasons based on a presumed client demand for one-stop shopping. This Article contributes to providing a more robust, multi-causal explanation for law firm behavior through a comparative study of reputational competition among elite law firms in selected jurisdictions--the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Japan. It posits that industry consolidation and changing market conditions have intensified law firm competition and that since firm quality is hard to measure, law firms compete largely on the basis of reputation. Due to their risk-averse nature and the fear of losing existing clients, many law firms are thus paradoxically driven to engage in (defensive) mergers to meet the competition. Through an examination of reputational competition, the Article considers circumstances that are likely to lead to mergers, particularly the elements of reputational signaling, herd behavior, and reputational status as first-tier law firms. It identifies rules of the game for firm behavior with respect to international mergers. The Article finds that the impact of a strategic decision, such as a merger, by a first-tier firm is of far greater significance than a similar action by another elite firm and is much more likely to lead to defensive actions, such as mergers, by competitor firms. Thus, which firms engage in merger activity in a given market is an important factor in explaining and predicting both the reaction of competitors and whether mergers will become widespread in that market. This Article further suggests that the common phenomenon of law firm mergers is likely a result of law firms reacting to similar types of changes in their operating environment (i.e., a parallel development), rather than convergence to a U.S. model of the law firm

Development of a theory of the spectral reflectance of minerals, part 4

A theory of the spectral reflectance or emittance of particulate minerals was developed. The theory is expected to prove invaluable in the interpretation of the remote infrared spectra of planetary surfaces