Digital Commons Network^™

Correlation Versus Causality: Further Thoughts On The Law Review/Law School Liaison, Ronen Perry

Ronen Perry

This Essay is the third in a series of articles discussing the relative value of American law reviews, and a response to Professor Alfred Brophy's elaboration of my initial study of the high mathematical correlation between law review quality, as manifested in citation-based measures, and law school reputation. Given my prior interest in the relative value of American law reviews, I have used the abovementioned correlation as a means to explain some of the variance in quality among law reviews. Brophy's empirical findings overlap mine, yet the extent of his analysis, as well as his interpretation and utilization of the …

The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: Refinement And Implementation, Ronen Perry

Ronen Perry

This Article complements a recently published paper in which I discussed the theoretical and methodological aspects of law review rankings. The purpose of this Article is twofold: refinement of the theoretical framework, and implementation. It proposes, defends, and implements a complex ranking method for general-interest student-edited law reviews, based on a judicious weighting of normalized citation frequency and normalized impact factor. It then analyzes the distribution of journals’ scores, and the diminishing marginal difference between them. Finally, it examines the correlation between law schools’ positions in the U.S. News & World Report 2006 ranking and their flagship law reviews’ positions …

The Relative Value Of American Law Reviews: A Critical Appraisal Of Ranking Methods, Ronen Perry

Ronen Perry

Ranking law reviews is not a novel initiative. Data regarding the relative value of legal periodicals was first published in 1930, in an article primarily concerned with the overall contribution of legal periodicals to the development of positive law. Since then many attempts have been made to rank American law reviews by various criteria. This Article, however, focuses not on actual rankings but on ranking theory and methodology. It offers an introductory discussion of the goals of law review rating, and the essential attributes of reliable and beneficial ranking methods, followed by a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the advantages …

“Statistical Dueling” With Unconventional Weapons: What Courts Should Know About Experts In Employment Discrimination Class Actions, William T. Bielby, Pamela Coukos

ExpressO

When statistical evidence is offered in a litigation context, the result can be bad law and bad statistics. In recent high profile, high-stakes employment discrimination class actions against large multinationals like UPS, Wal-Mart, and Marriott, plaintiffs have claimed that decentralized and highly discretionary management practices result in systematic gender or racial disparities in pay and promotion. At class certification, plaintiffs have relied in part on statistical analyses of the company’s workforce showing companywide inequality. Defendants have responded with statistical presentations of their own, which frequently demonstrate widely varying outcomes for members of protected groups in different geographic areas of the …

Short Term Time Off: The Current State Of Play, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center

Memos and Fact Sheets

Many people think of workplace flexibility as flexibility that is provided on a long term, regular basis — for example, flexibility provided through alternative work schedules, compressed workweeks, or part time positions. Under Workplace Flexibility 2010’s conceptualization, however, workplace flexibility also includes the ability to address day-to-day life needs on a short term basis.

Short term needs for flexibility are numerous: to recover from an illness; take care of a sick child; attend a school conference, funeral or medical appointment; wait for a repair person; or appear in court. Some needs may be anticipated; others will arise unexpectedly.

Flexible Work Arrangements: The Overview Memo, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center

Memos and Fact Sheets

Many employees today have ongoing, predictable demands on their time outside of work. These demands may include dependent children, an ill family member, a long commute, a desire for increased education, or a commitment to community or religious activities. To meet these demands, and to get a paying job done, such individuals often need to work at a different time or in a different place than the traditional “9 am to 5 pm, five days/week, face time at the workplace” rubric.

In response to employee and employer needs and preferences, some employers provide what we call “Flexible placethat work gets …

Flexible Work Arrangements: Selected Case Studies, Jean Flatley Mcguire, Phyllis Brashler

Memos and Fact Sheets

Employees have shown a great desire for flexible work arrangements (FWAs). National data reveals that nearly 80% of workers say they would like to have more flexible work options and would use them if there were no negative consequences at work. However, most workers do not have access to flexible work arrangements and barriers to their effective implementation persist in many organizations as the following nationally representative employer-based survey data reveals.

Supreme Court Of The United States, October Term 2005 Overview, Georgetown University Law Center, Supreme Court Institute, Rebecca Cady

Supreme Court Overviews

No abstract provided.

The New South Wales Carers’ Responsibilities Act, Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown University Law Center, Georgetown Federal Legislation Clinic

Memos and Fact Sheets

Enacted in 2001, the New South Wales Carers’ Responsibilities Act (“CRA”) prohibits discrimination against employees with caregiver responsibilities and provides access to reasonable flexible work arrangements. Under this law, employees have the right to request accommodations for their carer responsibilities, and employers have an affirmative obligation to consider and grant reasonable accommodations that do not impose an unjustifiable hardship. The affirmative accommodation requirement extends to requests for flexible working hours, working from home (telecommuting), part-time work, and job-share arrangements.

Finding And Using Statistics In Legal Research And Writing, Billie Jo Kaufman

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Article reviews the resources and use of statistics in legal research and writing.

Maiming The Cubs, James J. White

Articles

It is easy to believe that students are made anxious and even depressed by law school and that the anxiety and depression stay with many students throughout school. It is harder to believe that these stresses cause permanent and irreversible change and that the ills of lawyers are traced in any meaningful way to the stresses of the three years of law school.

What We Know, And What We Should Know About American Trial Trends, Margo Schlanger

Articles

More than a few people noticed that the American court system was seeing ever fewer trials before Marc Galanter named the phenomenon.' But until Galanter mobilized lawyers2 and scholars to look systematically at the issue, inquiry was both piecemeal and sparse. Over the past three years, in contrast, Galanter's research 3 and his idea entrepreneurship, crystallized in the "Vanishing Trial" label, has spawned if not a huge literature at least a substantial one. We have now gotten the benefit of sustained scholarly inquiry by researchers of many stripes. Their work has been largely, though not entirely, empirical, and so we …

Vitality Of Voluntary Guidelines In The Wake Of Blakely V. Washington: An Empirical Assessment, The Articles On Guideline Operation Issues, John F. Pfaff

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the extent to which voluntary, non-binding criminal sentencing guidelines influence the sentencing behavior of state trial judges. In particular, it focuses on the ability of such guidelines to encourage judges to sentence consistently and to avoid improperly taking into account a defendant's race or sex. It also compares such guidelines to more-binding presumptive guidelines, which were recently found constitutionally impermissible in Blakely v. Washington. In general, the results indicate that voluntary guidelines are able to accomplish much, though not all, that presumptive guidelines were able to, especially with respect to sentence variation. For example, voluntary guidelines appear …

The Major League Baseball Players Association And The Ownership Of Sports Statistics: The Untold Story Of Round One, J. Gordon Hylton

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Bulls And Bears Of Law Teaching, Sara K. Stadler

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Maiming The Cubs, James J. White

Articles

In the last twenty years much has been written about the deleterious effect that law school has on the mental well-being of law students.' Many have called for "humanizing" law school. In support of their case, the advocates of humanizing cite numerous anecdotes, much scholarly writing in the psychology literature, and even a few rigorous studies of law students. A principal voice is that of Professor Krieger who has done the most careful and elaborate study, a study of students at two law schools.1 You should understand that Professor Krieger and his cohorts do not merely claim that we make …