Unlike other transitions taking place across the country these days, I am pleased to report that the AALS ADR Section has successfully, peacefully and without tweet transitioned its leadership from fellow blogger and Academic Dean Cynthia Alkon (Texas A&M) to me (Jill Gross, Pace).  On behalf of the Section, thank you Cynthia for your service and leadership.  You are a tough act to follow!  

Congratulations are also in order to Ellen Deason (Ohio State) who was unanimously elected as our new Chair-Elect!  I look forward to working with her this coming year on Section activities.
It was great to see many friendly faces at our Section’s program yesterday on Comparative Commercial Arbitration.  I learned a tremendous amount about commercial arbitration in Latin America from Manuel Gomez (FIU), in India from Hiro Aragaki (Loyola-LA) and in Hong Kong, mainland China and other countries in East Asia from Shahla Ali (U Hong Kong).  It was interesting and eye-opening to hear that the U.S. commercial arbitration landscape is fairly irrelevant to those countries/regions, and the many controversies facing arbitration domestically do not exist in those areas.  We should learn more from those examples.

Here’s to other smooth transitions!