Fair Outcomes, Inc. is a corporation based in Boston and organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We provide parties involved in disputes or difficult negotiations with access to newly developed proprietary systems that allow fair and equitable outcomes to be achieved with remarkable efficiency. Each of these systems is grounded in mathematical theories of games and fair division.

Our founders and staff include game theorists, computer scientists, and practicing attorneys with extensive experience in designing and administering such systems. Biographical information concerning our founders and board members is set forth below, following a brief description of four of our systems. Requests for further information about our systems and our company can be directed to info@fairoutcomes.com.

Our systems include:

I. Fair Proposals

In cases in which one party is seeking money or other concessions from another party, such as in a lawsuit, a purchase or sale of an asset (such as real estate or an ownership interest in a business) or any similar form of exchange, this patented system allows each party to propose an outcome that it deems fair in a manner that is credible but nonprejudicial. The system can be used by mutual agreement or, by virtue of its asymmetrical structure, can be initiated and used by one party without having to first secure the other party’s cooperation.

Further information about this system, and access to a fully automated online version that can be used to manage and resolve virtually any sort of a claim for money, is provided at https://www.fairproposals.com.

II. Fair Division

In cases in which two parties must divide up multiple items of property or resolve multiple issues that are in dispute, the patented Adjusted Winner system enables them to do so in a fair and efficient manner. It embodies a bidding process that guarantees each party at least 1/2 of what that party considers to be the total value of all of the items or issues in question - and usually allows each party to receive between 2/3 and 3/4 of that value - facilitating a win-win outcome. This outcome uniquely satisfies the properties of efficiency, equitability, and envy-freeness.

Adjusted Winner has been applied to conflicts ranging from divorce to international border disputes; it is based on some of the most important research that has been done in fair division and game theory in recent decades. The system has already been the subject of numerous articles and two books, one academic and the other popular. The popular book, The Win-Win Solution: Guaranteeing Fair Shares to Everybody, has been translated into six languages.

In-depth information about this system, and access to an automated, online procedure that includes illustrative examples and that can be used by the public to run free tests, may be obtained by clicking on the following link: http://www.nyu.edu/projects/adjustedwinner/https://www.fairproposals.com.

To find out more about Adjusted Winner, or to discuss a potential use of the system, give us a call or send us an e-mail using the Contact Information appearing on this website: https://www.fairproposals.com/contact-us.

III. Fair Buy-Sell

Fair Buy-Sell is a patented system that can be used by joint owners of property - such as business partners, joint venturers, shareholders, and married couples - to bring their joint ownership to an end in a fair, efficient, and legally enforceable manner. The system provides each party with an opportunity to enter data into the system under an escrow arrangement, including confidential data specifying a monetary value for the property at which that party would be willing either to sell its share to the other side or buy out the other side's share (similar to the proposal made by the initiating party under a traditional "buy-sell" arrangement). The system compares the values entered by the parties and announces a sale to the party that specified the higher value. However, the sale price is set at the midpoint between the two values.

The use of the system by the involved parties always produces a full and complete resolution, and it always provides each party - whether the buyer or seller - with a resolution that is equal to or more favorable to it than the one that it had proposed. The system can be used pursuant to a prior agreement between the parties, but it is configured so that it can also be initiated unilaterally by one party, allowing that party to either achieve an outcome that equals or exceeds what that party considers to be acceptable or - if the other party declines to use the system - to demonstrate, without having to reveal its own proposed valuation, that the other party had walked away from a fair and reasonable solution.

The Fair Buy-Sell system can also be configured so as to allow for multiple rounds, with feedback in between rounds, and can be used to transfer interests in properties that are not jointly owned. This relatively simple but powerful new system provides an excellent introduction to some of the basic game-theoretic principles that underlie the other systems offered by our company. To find out more about this system, or to discuss a potential use, give us a call or send us an e-mail using the Contact Information appearing on this website: https://www.fairproposals.com/contact-us.

IV. Fair Reputations

In cases where a transaction has given rise to a dispute that may result in damage to a party's reputation, such as where an online transaction on an e-commerce site has resulted in negative feedback adversely affecting a party's online reputation, this patented system allows that party to demonstrate that it has provided the other party with access to a full and fair resolution of the underlying dispute. The initiation of the Fair Reputations system serves to justify a removal or discount of any negative feedback generated by the other party in connection with the transaction, regardless of whether or not the party that generated that negative feedback elects to take advantage of the opportunity to seek and obtain a fair outcome. This system is a simplified variant of our Fair Proposals system, but it also includes additional features, including an option involving final-offer arbitration.

To find out more about Fair Reputations, or to discuss a potential use of the system, give us a call or send us an e-mail using the Contact Information appearing on this website: https://www.fairproposals.com/contact-us.

OUR FOUNDERS AND BOARD MEMBERS

- Steven J. Brams

Steven J. Brams is a founder and the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Fair Outcomes, Inc. Dr. Brams is a game theorist and political scientist at New York University’s department of politics, and is best known for his work on applying game theory to voting systems and to systems involving fair division. Dr. Brams is one of the independent discoverers of approval voting and was, along with Alan Taylor, a co-discoverer of the first envy-free solution to the n-person cake-cutting problem. The Brams-Taylor solution to the cake-cutting problem solved what had been one of the most important open problems in contemporary mathematics. With Taylor, he is a co-inventor of the “Adjusted Winner” system, a patented fair-division procedure now being offered by Fair Outcomes, Inc. He is also, along with James F. Ring, a co-inventor of the patented “Fair Buy-Sell” system that is currently being offered by the company. He is the author or co-author of fifteen books, the most recent being Game Theory and the Humanities: Bridging Two Worlds (2011).

Dr. Brams earned his B.S. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Politics, Economics, and Science in 1962. In 1966, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in Political Science at Northwestern University. He worked briefly in U.S. federal government positions before taking an Assistant Professor position at Syracuse University in 1967. He moved to New York University in 1969, where he is a professor in the Department of Politics. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, and was President of the Peace Science Society in 1990-1991 and the Public Choice Society in 2004-2006.

- John McGann

John McGann is an attorney and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Advisory Board of Fair Outcomes, Inc.  He has devoted a substantial portion of his career to improving claims management practices and is a founding member of (and served as General Counsel for) the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance ("CLM"), an organization that is dedicated to modernizing and improving such practices. He has held executive-level positions for major insurers and has worked as a partner at national law firms, focusing on improving efficiencies through the use of innovative technology.  He was one of the earliest adopters of electronic invoicing technology within the legal field, which allows clients to aggregate invoice and performance metrics data, generate litigation management reports, evaluate the effectiveness of outside counsel, implement cost-reduction strategies and evaluate internal staffing choices.

After completing a clerkship for a Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Mr. McGann entered private practice and concentrated on the defense of architects and engineers. After leaving private practice he held a variety of legal positions with national insurers in the areas of environmental coverage and litigation management, including serving thirteen years as Chief Claims Counsel for OneBeacon, where he had responsibility for staff counsel, panel counsel, coverage counsel, environmental and extra-contractual litigation. In 2010 he re-entered private practice as a partner with a national defense firm where he concentrated on national program management, insurance coverage and general liability litigation. He currently serves as Head of Litigation and Vendor Management for insurer XL Catlin.

An attorney for more than thirty years, Mr. McGann is "AV" rated by Martindale and is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and the University of New Hampshire Law School, and has completed management training programs at the Wharton School of Business and the London Business School. He was the 2008 Chair of the ACC Insurance Staff Counsel Committee and, in addition to having served on the CLM's Board of Advisors for more than a decade, also currently serves on the Board of Advisors for WoltersKluwer's ELM Solutions.

- James F. Ring

James F. Ring is a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Fair Outcomes, Inc. He is a game theorist with more than thirty-five years of experience as a practicing trial attorney. He was a co-founding partner of the Boston law firm of Chu, Ring & Hazel LLP, which was established in February of 1995 and was combined with the law firm of Prince Lobel Tye LLP in January of 2020. Over the course of his legal career Mr. Ring focused on serving as an advocate and advisor for clients involved in formal legal proceedings, crisis management, contractual negotiations and events involving a substantial risk of litigation. He has devoted a substantial portion of his career to the study of conflict, strategy, and non-cooperative bargaining behavior, and has extensive experience in the design and administration of simple and complex bargaining systems. He is the inventor of the Fair Proposals and Fair Reputations systems and is a co-inventor, along with Steven J. Brams, of the Fair Buy-Sell system.

After graduating cum laude from Suffolk University Law School in 1983 and completing a judicial clerkship, Mr. Ring joined the law firm of Bingham, Dana & Gould (later known as Bingham McCutchen LLP) as an associate in that firm’s litigation area, where he began working with his long-term partners, John H. Chu and William A. Hazel. He left Bingham, Dana & Gould in 1989 to develop his own law practice, co-founding Chu, Ring & Hazel LLP in 1995. In 2006, he and his partners co-founded Fair Outcomes, Inc. in order to provide on-line access to game-theoretic bargaining systems and promote further collaboration between game theorists, computer scientists, and practicing attorneys.

Mr. Ring is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and the Boston Bar Association and is admitted to practice before all Massachusetts State Courts, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He has served as a speaker to groups of economists, game theorists, lawyers, law school faculty and students, and has given formal testimony in court proceedings, on strategic issues relating to the management of conflict and crisis. He is also the author of several articles on such subjects.

- John H. Chu

John H. Chu is a founder and the Chief Financial Officer of Fair Outcomes, Inc. Mr. Chu was also a co-founder and managing partner of Chu, Ring & Hazel LLP, which was combined with the law firm of Prince Lobel Tye LLP in January of 2020. He began his legal career as an associate at a major Wall Street law firm active in takeovers and mergers and acquisitions. After that, and before forming Chu, Ring & Hazel LLP, he became associated with and was named partner of one of Boston’s largest major law firms and in due course concentrated his activities in that firm’s entrepreneurial services group.

Over the course of his legal career Mr. Chu has represented scores of private and public companies in connection with a range of legal matters, including founder and shareholder arrangements, employment agreements, equity financing, including seed round, private placements, venture capital financings, overseas offerings and initial public offerings, securities law compliance, acquisitions and divestitures, development agreements, joint ventures and strategic corporate partnerships of various kinds. His legal clients have included major business enterprises and individuals engaged in a variety of undertakings. Many of his legal clients are technology oriented – biotechnology, biomedical, internet, semiconductor, medical device, software and telecommunications – while others are involved in the development, manufacture and sale of more traditional products or services.

Mr. Chu graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Anthropology and he earned his J.D. at the Columbia University Law School. He began his legal career as an associate at Freid, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and then McGarrahan & Heard (now part of Arent Fox) both in New York City.

Mr. Chu is a member of several national and local bar organizations and currently serves on the Board of Discovering Justice, a Boston-based civic and justice educational non-profit organization. He has also served as a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Judicial Nominating Commission and has served as a director or advisory board member of several start-up companies and as a trustee of the Wang Center.

- William A. Hazel

Will Hazel is a is a founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Fair Outcomes, Inc. He is also an attorney and was a co-founding partner of the law firm of Chu, Ring & Hazel LLP, which was combined with the law firm of Prince Lobel Tye LLP in January of 2020. Mr. Hazel’s background includes providing tax planning advice, transactional analysis, and the development of escrow-based solutions for a wide variety of transactions, ranging from real estate transactions to business acquisitions and divestitures and tax-free exchanges under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. Mr. Hazel also has substantial experience representing clients in tax controversies against the Internal Revenue Service and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

After earning his J.D. at the Boston College Law School (magna cum laude), Mr. Hazel served a term as a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, the highest appellate court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Upon the conclusion of that clerkship, he worked as an associate at Bingham McCutchen LLP, where he became a partner in the Tax Department. He also served as an attorney for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, and was appointed and served as the Department’s Acting General Counsel and First Deputy Commissioner during 1996.

Mr. Hazel has lectured extensively on tax issues and on the utilization of escrow-based systems to facilitate simple and complex transactions.

- Christopher Taylor

Christopher Taylor is a founder of Fair Outcomes, Inc. and serves as the company’s Chief Technical Advisor.  He is a computer scientist and software engineer and played an instrumental role in the original development and implementation of the various online bargaining mechanisms offered by the company.  Dr. Taylor’s thorough comprehension of the game-theoretic and legal principles underlying all of the company’s various mechanisms enabled him to envision, develop and implement a set of design principles that underlie the company’s existing systems as well as additional systems currently under development. He continues to provide highly valuable insights and assistance in the overall operation of the company’s affairs.