Moral Bankruptcy: Modeling Appropriate Attorney Behavior in Bankruptcy Cases

This essay discusses how important it is for lawyers, especially senior lawyers, to model appropriate behavior so that the newest lawyers learn how best to behave professionally

Local models of Shimura varieties, I. Geometry and combinatorics

We survey the theory of local models of Shimura varieties. In particular, we discuss their definition and illustrate it by examples. We give an overview of the results on their geometry and combinatorics obtained in the last 15 years. We also exhibit their connections to other classes of algebraic varieties such as nilpotent orbit closures, affine Schubert varieties, quiver Grassmannians and wonderful completions of symmetric spaces.Comment: 86 pages, small corrections and improvements, to appear in the "Handbook of Moduli

Leveraging Legal Analytics and Spend Data as a Law Firm Self-Governance Tool

This paper discusses the advantages that law firms can get by using legal analytics (big data) to analyze how they do their work for their clients (and how their clients can benefit as well). We discuss the external forces that are reshaping the economics of today’s legal industry; the types of decisions, in determining how best to represent a client in a given matter, that tend to drive up costs; the possible reasons for those decisions; how law firms can use data-analytics tools to examine their own choices; and the benefits that stem from a data-driven analysis of those choices

The Client Who Did Too Much

Using Hitchcock\u27s MacGuffin as a theme, I discuss the dynamics between client and lawyer when the client so obsesses over the issue driving him that he persuades (or attempts to persuade) the lawyer to do things that are inadvisable from the lawyer\u27s point of view

Book Review

The jig is up. Countless articles have exposed the disconnect between legal education and legal practice, and countless more have exposed the fibs of some law schools when it comes to reporting certain information to U.S. News and World Report. Whatever we have been doing wrong has finally caught up with us. Among the loudest and bravest voices excoriating law schools is Brian Tamanaha, the William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law at the Washington University School of Law. In this book review, Professor Nancy Rapoport reviews Tamanaha\u27s Book Failing Law Schools

In Praise of Margaret Howard

Professor Nancy Rapoport joins a group of distinguished colleagues in paying tribute to Professor Margaret Howard

TELLING THE STORY ON YOUR TIMESHEETS: A FEE EXAMINER\u27S TIPS FOR CREDITORS\u27 LAWYERS AND BANKRUPTCY ESTATE PROFESSIONALS

This short (approx. 5,000 words) essay, which forms the basis of a keynote address to the Federal Bar Association that I’m doing next month, discusses how much of a lawyer’s embedded assumptions and cognitive errors can come across in something as simple as a time entry on a bill. So much can be revealed about how a lawyer views himself or herself in society and about the lawyer’s relationship with the client that it’s worth examining what we can find when we look at legal bills. One note, though: my writing style is informal and distinctive in that regard (especially when the article forms the basis of a keynote speech), and I like to keep my writing style that way, so if you hate informal writing, my article isn’t likely to be right for you. On the other hand, if you like footnotes that can be amusing, then please read on

Telling the Story on Your Timesheets: A Fee Examiner\u27s Tips for Creditors\u27 Lawyers and Bankruptcy Estate Professionals

This essay discusses how much of a lawyer’s embedded assumptions and cognitive errors can come across in something as simple as a time entry on a bill. So much can be revealed about how a lawyer views himself or herself in society and about the lawyer’s relationship with the client that it’s worth examining what we can find when we look at legal bills