Peter Kaskell died on December 12, 2019. He was a dear friend whom I met at the CPR Institute and who taught me not just the delicate arts of demand-led commercial dispute management, but the even more delicate arts of humility, service and attention to others' needs. At the age...
I have been teaching negotiation for nine years now, and the gratification never ends. For the past several years, I've made a final assignment called the "Blue Paperclip Exercise," brought to my attention by Hal Abramson, in which a student is given a paperclip and assigned to increase initial value...
The twisted course of arbitration jurisprudence in New Jersey has taken yet another peculiar detour. In the most recent development, it is hard not to infer a judicial bias against arbitration reminiscent of the 19th century. In Itzhakov v. Segal (A-2619-17T4, August 28, 2019), the mid-level Appellate Division reviewed the...
The Swiss Chambers' Arbitration Institution (SCAI) has revised its Rules of Mediation, effective July 1, 2019. The text of the new Rules is available here. The new Rules revise those that have been in effect since 2007. Of particular interest are Articles 16 and 17, which provide for the...
Prof. David Horton of the University of California, Davis, School of Law has posted a provocative article scheduled to be published by the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Titled "Infinite Arbitration Clauses," it collects and comments upon purported arbitration "agreements" pursuant to which one party seeks to obligate another...
New Jersey Governor Murphy has signed into law P.L.2019, c.39, which declares unenforceable any "provision in any... settlement agreement which has the purpose or effect of concealing the details relating to a claim of discrimination, retaliation, or harassment." Moreover, the new law provides that every settlement agreement addressing such claims...
At the 26th convening of the UIA World Mediation Forum in Zurich on March 5-6, 2019, a panel on whether mediation should be compulsory, among representatives of France, the US, Switzerland, and Italy, wrestled with intriguing philosophical considerations. Is compulsory court annexed ADR inconsistent with the principle of judicial access? ...