Beyond the Work Product: A Guide to Relationship-Driven Transactional Lawyering

Beyond the Work Product will prepare business attorneys (and particularly law students and new attorneys) for a successful law practice by providing a framework for effective and efficient lawyering. It emphasizes building relationships and trust with clients so that, despite the existence of less costly alternatives, they will keep coming back for more. The approach is process-focused rather than outcome-focused; it emphasizes every step of the lawyering process, not simply delivering the best work product possible. Whether you are at a big firm, a small firm, or a solo practice, approaching lawyering as a relationship-driven job will help you build a sustainable practice and even increase your enjoyment of your work.https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/faculty-books/1119/thumbnail.jp

Software Components of Digital Health Innovations Raise Unique Questions for Standard University Technology Licenses

Imagine you have spent your graduate school years toiling away in a university research lab developing a groundbreaking digital health innovation. You and another lab worker are convinced that your latest discovery, a smart medical device with embedded software that connects to a mobile app, will forever change diagnostics. Having developed a prototype, including the embedded software and mobile app, you decide to form a company to commercialize the product. You have heard that the university will likely take ownership over all of your intellectual property rights (you do vaguely recall seeing something to that effect in the paperwork you signed when you first enrolled), but will grant you a license on its standard ter

Let Locked-up People Vote: Prisoners Are Still Citizens and Should Be Able to Exert Their Civic Rights

The Constitution does not guarantee all citizens the right to vote. Rather, the right to vote is implied through a patchwork of amendments that restrict how voting rights may be limited. For example, the 15th Amendment reads “[t]he right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged...on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Subsequent amendments added gender, failure to pay poll taxes, literacy, and age over 18 to the list of characteristics for which denying the right to vote may not be based

A Small Change to Save Thousands of Votes

In 2004, then-County Legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins faced off against the nine-term incumbent Nick Spano in an election for state Senate. The race was extremely close, certified in Spano’s favor by 18 votes

State Lawmakers Must Step in to Remedy Supreme Court Voting Rights Blunder

This June, a 6-3 Supreme Court decision further eroded the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by upholding an Arizona law that disqualifies ballots cast by voters at any poll site other than the one assigned — an administrative technicality that has been shown to disproportionately impact minority communities in multiple states

Quickly End NY’s Suppressive Ballot Policy

Earlier this year, with the 2022 midterm elections looming, New York’s Democratic members of Congress sued their own state Board of Elections in federal court for unconstitutional practices that disqualify ballots cast by duly registered voters. Chief among the alleged violations of New Yorkers’ right to vote is the practice of fully disqualifying so-called “wrong church” ballots cast by lost or misdirected voters at poll sites other than the ones to which they are assigned

Impact of New York’s “Wrong Church” Ballot Disqualification Rule in the 2020 General Election

In 2020, more than 13,800 New York voters, eager to cast their ballots in the General Election, walked into a polling place and presented themselves to poll workers, who were unable to locate those voters in the poll book, even though they were registered. Poll workers directed them to vote provisionally by affidavit ballot and each did so. However, as officials determined several days later, these voters had all turned out and cast a ballot at a poll site in their county that was different from the one assigned to them, a fatal technical pitfall under New York’s election law. Although poll workers are required by law to redirect lost voters to their assigned polling place before issuing them a ballot, in practice, that doesn’t consistently occur, leading election officials to reject the voter’s entire ballot at post-election canvass if it was cast at any poll site other than the one assigned. This includes votes for statewide contests that all voters may participate in like U.S. President, Senator, or Governor; as well as offices these voters are usually eligible to vote for, like their Member of Congress, county- or citywide officials, and state legislator

A Way to Guarantee Voting Rights

In 2004, state legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins faced nine-term Republican Nick Spano in a state Senate election. The election was very close, certified in favor of Spano by 18 votes

How Machines Learn: Where Do Companies Get Data for Machine Learning and What Licenses Do They Need?

Machine learning services ingest customer data in order to provide refined, customized services. Machine learning algorithms are increasingly prominent in multiple sectors within the software-as-a-service industry including online advertising, health diagnostics, and travel. However, very little has been written on the rights a company utilizing machine learning needs to obtain in order to use customer data to improve its own products or services. Machine learning encompasses multiple types of data use and analysis, including (a) supervised machine learning algorithms, which take specific data provided in a tagged and classified format to deliver specific predictable output; and (b) unsupervised machine learning algorithms, where untagged data is processed in order to look for patterns and correlations without a specified output. This Article introduces the reader to the types of data use involved in various machine learning models, the level of data retention normally required for each model, and the risks of using personal information or re-identifiable data in connection with machine learning. The paper also discusses the type of license a commercial provider and consumer would need to enter into for various types of machine learning software. Finally, the paper proposes best practices for ensuring adequate rights are obtained through legal agreements so that machines may self-improve and innovate

Smart Contracts, Blockchain, and the Next Frontier of Transactional Law

Smart contracts are an emerging technology that could revolutionize commercial transactions by eliminating inefficiencies and uncertainty created by the current transactional ecosystem of lawyers, courts, regulators, banks, and other parties with divergent interests. However, a lack of consensus around how smart contracts are implemented, uncertainty regarding enforceability, and scarcity of on point statutes and case law means that a stable legal, commercial and technical smart contract landscape has yet to emerge. The implementation of universal legal, technical and commercial standards and best practices will reduce uncertainty and promote widespread adoption and use of smart contracts