In considering the debates raging about the enforceability of class action waiver provisions in arbitration clauses, I have always assumed that the arbitration clause was there just as a vessel to hold the class action provision. That is, I thought that there was no vehicle to waive class actions outright....
The ABA Business Law Section has about 50 substantive committees, many of which include subcommittees addressing dispute resolution in their field. In the past several months, many members of these various entities undertook a collaborative effort to "cut across the solos." The result is a unique new volume titled ADR...
The Union International des Avocats have hosted the World Forum of Mediation Centres since 2002, and I have attended all but three of their meetings. It is a convivial crowd of well-informed, deeply committed and sociable folks who tend to meet at interesting (mostly European) venues. The meeting scheduled for Luxembourg...
Hanging around my notebook are musings and questions waiting for an iron to get hot enough to strike. Well, the iron hasn't and it being August we might as well just lay them down there, unconnected but I hope not worthless....
At the IBA in Dubai last week, a three-hour session was held on "The Rise of Multiculturalism and Resulting Challenges of Managing Diversity in the Workplace." While the subjects discussed were fascinating, the subjects not discussed might have been even more so. ...
A reader has brought my attention an obituary that appears in today's New York Times. Eric Schmertz died on Saturday, December 18, 2010. His life, as summarized by Dennis Hevesi for the Times, is quite a lesson for dispute resolvers....
Hans Peter Frick, General Counsel of Nestlé, once offered this guidance for business mediators: You can either make what you think is a good candy bar and convince people that they "ought to" buy it, or you could go out and ask people what kind of candy bar they want, and...
