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Starting 2 weeks ago at Law & Society, I began participating in a series of conversations that can be boiled down to this:  Artificial Intelligence and the Law. Even the ABA is on to this story, which means it has reached a peak saturation point.  Exciting, scary, confusing, skeptical and a variety of other reactions have been thrown into the conversations across the legal studies gamut from algorithms in parole & criminal sentencing  to its use to generate social credit scores (thank you Nizan Packin for opening my eyes to this application).  In another LSA shout out, I want to highlight to forthcoming scholarship of Ben Edwards at Barry College where he criticizes the conflicts of interest in investment advise channels. One possible work around he explores is relying on robo-advisors:    In the few years since I have looked at digital investment advise, the field has changed, matured, grown!   So much so that FINRA has issued a report on digital investment advise, and is unsurprisingly skeptical of the technology application that poses a significant threat to its members (new release synopsis available here).   For the uninitiated, check out this run down of popular…

One of my two former firms, King & Spalding, is hosting a free interactive web seminar on cybersecurity and M&A on February 25 at 12:30 p.m. Thought the web seminar might be of interest to some of our readers. The description is reproduced below.

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An Interactive Web Seminar

The Opportunities and Pitfalls of Cybersecurity and Data Privacy in Mergers and Acquisitions

February 25, 2016

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM

Over the last several years, company after company has been rocked by cybersecurity incidents. Moreover, obligations relating to cybersecurity and data privacy are rapidly evolving, imposing on corporations a complex and challenging legal and regulatory environment. Cybersecurity and data privacy deficiencies, therefore, might pose potentially significant business, legal, and regulatory risks to an acquiring company. For this reason, cybersecurity and data privacy are becoming integral pre-transaction due diligence items.

This e-Learn will analyze the (1) special cybersecurity and data privacy dangers that come with corporate transactions; (2) strategies to mitigate those dangers; and (3) benefits of incorporating cybersecurity and data privacy into due diligence. The panel will zero in on these issues from the vantage point of practitioners in the deal trenches, and from the perspective of a former computer crime…

I recently listened to a podcast on temptation bundling, featuring the work of Katherine Milkman (Wharton). 

Temptation bundling is explained here and here by Katherine Milkman, who (I believe) coined the term.

In short, temptation bundling is putting something you want to do together with something you should do. 

Temptation bundling can make both activities more enjoyable — you feel better about the want activity because you also accomplished a should activity, and the should activity is less difficult because it is married with a want activity. For example, temptation bundling is what I have been doing with podcast listening; I only listen to podcasts (want) when I workout (should).

Below are a few temptation bundles that might work for professors:

  • Drinking caffeinated drinks only while researching;
  • Listening to your favorite music only while grading; and
  • Eating chocolate only when in faculty meetings.

Amazon Prime Now has debuted in Nashville. Amazon Prime Now offers free two-hour delivery on many items for Prime members. The service is amazing and is already changing the way I shop. I really dislike shopping malls, especially during the busy holiday season, but I also dislike waiting weeks (or even days) for shipments to arrive, so Amazon Prime Now is a perfect solution.

With Amazon Prime Now expanding, I imagine even more brick and mortar retailers will be headed to bankruptcy unless they find a way to differentiate their companies and add more value.

Brick and mortar retailers may find differentiation through community building services. I already see some retailers attempting this. Running footwear and apparel stores are offering free group runs starting from their storefronts and/or group training programs for a fee. Grocery stores are offering group cooking classes. Book stores are offering book clubs. The list goes on.

These brick and mortar retailers are finding it more and more difficult to compete with e-retailers on price and convenience. With the rise in technology, however, face to face community seems to be increasingly rare. Brick and mortar retailers that aid in community building may…

Recently, a number of the sports media outlets, including ESPN, the Pac-12 Network, and Fox Sports featured a company called Oculus that makes virtual reality headsets used by Stanford University quarterback Kevin Hogan, among other players, to prepare for games.

In 2012, Oculus raised about $2.4 million from roughly 9,500 people via crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Following this extremely successful crowdfunding campaign, Oculus attracted over $90 million in venture capital investment. In mid-2014, Facebook acquired Oculus for a cool $2 billion. 

Oculus is only one example, but it caused me to wonder how many companies are using crowdfunding to attract venture capital, and, if so, whether that strategy is working. This study claims that 9.5% of hardware companies with Kickstarter or Indigogo campaigns that raised over $100,000 went on to attract venture capital. Without a control group, however, it is a bit difficult to tell whether this is a significantly higher percentage than would have been able to attract venture capital money without the big crowdfunding raises. 

If I were a venture capitalist (and I was raised by one, so I have some insight), I would see a big crowdfunding raise as potentially useful evidence…

For many businesses a good online reputation can significantly increase revenue.

Kashmir Hill, who I know from my time in NYC, has done some interesting reporting on businesses buying a good online reputation.

Earlier this week Kashmir posted the results of her undercover investigation into the problem of fake reviews, followers, and friends. When asking questions as a journalist, those selling online reviews insisted they only did real reviews on products they actually tested.

Kashmir then created a make-believe mobile karaoke business, Freakin’ Awesome Karaoke Express (a/k/a F.A.K.E), and found how easy it was to artificially inflate one’s online reputation. She writes:

For $5, I could get 200 Facebook fans, or 6,000 Twitter followers, or I could get @SMExpertsBiz to tweet about the truck to the account’s 26,000 Twitter fans. A Lincoln could get me a Facebook review, a Google review, an Amazon review, or, less easily, a Yelp review.

All of this for a fake business that the reviewers had, obviously, never frequented. Some of the purchased fake reviews were surprisingly specific. In a time when many of us rely on online reviews, at least in part, this was a sobering story. It was somewhat encouraging, however…

Bridget Crawford (Pace Law) has posted an extensive list of law school professors on Twitter that is available here.

Previously, I compiled a list of business law professors, in both business schools and law schools, but to avoid overlapping with Bridget’s list, I am only including business school legal studies professors in this updated list.

I will update the list from time to time. Updated: August 8, 2020.

Thomas Baker III (Georgia) – @DrTab3

Perry Binder (Georgia State) – @Perry_Binder

Jody Blanke (Mercer) – @JodyBlanke

Liz Brown (Bentley) – @proflizbrown

Seletha Butler (Georgia Tech) – @ProfSButler

Kabrina Chang (Boston University) – @ProfessorChang

Peter Conti-Brown (Penn/Wharton) – @PeterContiBrown

Greg Day (Georgia) – @gregrrday

Laura Dove (Troy) – @LauraRDove

Marc Edelman (CUNY) – @MarcEdelman

Leora Eisenstadt (Temple) – @LeoraEisenstadt

Adam Epstein (Central Michigan) – @AdamEpstein

Kevin Fandl (Temple) – @kfandl

Jason Gordon (Georgia Gwinnett) – @JMGordonLaw

Nathaniel Grow (Indiana) – @NathanielGrow

Enrique Guerra-Pujol (Central Florida) – @lawscholar

Lori Harris-Ransom (Caldwell) – @HarrisRansom

Laura Pincus Hartman (DePaul) – @LauraHartman

John Holden (Oklahoma State) – @Johnsportslaw

David Jess (Michigan) – @ProfessorHess

Lindsay Jones (UGA) – @profsainjones

Debbie Kaminer (CUNY) – @dkaminer2

Kathryn Kisska-Schulze (Clemson) – @ KKisska13

Mike Koval (Salisbury) – @MikeKoval123

Jeremy Kress…

Over the past few weeks I have posted extensively on how gambling laws treat commercial NCAA Tournament pools.  However, March Madness pools are not the only form of online sports gaming proliferating on the Internet.  Indeed, play-for-cash “daily fantasy sports” contests have recently become big business.  Even the National Basketball Association is now a shareholder in one of these ventures (FanDuel).

With the legal status of “daily fantasy sports” still relatively unsettled, it is my pleasure to announce the online publication of sections 1-4 of my newest law review article “Navigating the Legal Risks of Daily Fantasy Sports: A Detailed Primer in Federal and State Gambling Law.”   This article explores the legal status of “daily fantasy sports” in light of both federal and state gambling laws, and explains why the legal status of such contests likely varies based on both contest format and states of operation.

The full version of this article will be published in the January 2016 edition of University of Illinois Law Review.  In the interim, I welcome any thoughts or comments.

This Sunday, the NCAA will announce the 68 basketball teams that are scheduled to participate in this year’s men’s basketball tournament.  Then, the true “madness” begins.  

At many schools, one or more professors will likely organize an NCAA Tournament pool.  The pool will likely include entry fees and prize money. The pool’s rules and standings will often appear on a public website.

All of this may sound like innocuous fun — especially during the anxiety-ridden days of waiting for ExpressO and Scholastica acceptances to arrive.  However, law professors playing in online, pay-to-enter NCAA Tournament pools technically are acting in violation of several federal laws — albeit, laws that are rarely enforced,

One federal law that seems to prohibit online, pay-to-enter NCAA Tournament pools is the Interstate Wire Act of 1961.  This act disallows individuals from “engaging in the business of betting or wagering [through the knowing use of] a wire communication for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce.”  According to various recent court decisions, the Wire Act applies to contests hosted via the Internet, as well as those hosted over the phone.  And even though the act was originally passed to crack down on organized crime, even “upstanding” individuals…

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Via an Ethan Mollick (Wharton) tweet, I was recently introduced to Startup Stash.

Startup Stash is a beautifully simple set of curated resources for entrepreneurs. The categories of resources range from Naming to Hosting to Market Research to Marketing to Legal to Human Resources to Finance. And more.

As a law professor, I was obviously most curious about the legal resources. The list has the controversial and well-known Legal Zoom, but also has some relatively unknown resources. For example, UpCounsel (“get high-quality legal services from top business attorneys at reasonable rates”) was new to me. You can see the full list of legal resources here.

As previously stated, the Startup Stash list is curated, so there are only 10 legal resources, all of which look interesting, if also potentially dangerous for those without legal training. As I tell my business students, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and consulting with a knowledgeable attorney early in the start-up process can be invaluable.