A recent U.S. District Court opinion has tested the ethical rules barring mediators from representing a party in a subsequent matter that is "identical" or "substantially related" to the mediated matter. It found that, at least in the case before the court, that test had not been satisfied and the...
Two recent court decisions have bubbled through the cyber-community of ListServes and blogs. Both address attorney disqualification -- one in the context of a mediation and the other in the context of an arbitration. The latter is featured here and the former will be described in a subsequent posting. In Northwestern...
The irrepresible Michael Leathes is a collector of quotes. Little does he know that one of the early walks I had with him produced a quote of his own that I have always kept pinned on the corkboard of my mind: "It costs no more to think big than to...
Prof. Thomas J. Stipanowich of Pepperdine University School of Law has come out with a smashingly responsible analysis of the most recent Supreme Court arbitration cases. In his article, forthcoming in the American Review of International Arbitration, Stipanowich suggests that the three recent cases -- Stolt-Nielsen, Rent-A-Center and AT&T Mobility...
In New Jersey, the Superior Court Appellate Division recently approved for publication a decision in which a party to a mediation successfully sought to enforce a settlement agreement reached orally but not commited to writing during the mediation. The objecting party had claimed that (a) the New Jersey Rule pursuant...
At its recent meeting in Toronto, the ABA House of Delegates approved the Resolution on Public Civility, first proposed by the Section on Dispute Resolution, calling for civility in public discourse and urging state bar groups to take the lead in advocating respectful and attentive civil dialogue. Comes now Sara...
Here's a great title for a panel at the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto: "How Arbitrators Think and What You and They Can Do About It: A Journey Into the Minds of Arbitrators." Hey, I'm an arbitrator. And like Derek Jeter I always want to improve my game every time I...