I leave on Friday for Ghana for a conflict resolution training that Fordham and St. John’s are conducting in conjunction with the Catholic University College of Ghana. Sponsored by the Giving to Ghana Foundation, this training will serve as the inaugural mediation training for a new Conflict Resolution Center. It will train neutrals to serve as court-connected … Continue reading Conflict Resolution in Ghana →

London and Paris are generally regarded as the primary forums for international arbitration in the trade networks built around the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, with major international cities such as New York, The Hague, and Rome also figuring prominently. But this article in the AmLaw Daily highlights the growing importance of Stockholm as a … Continue reading Sweden’s Rise as International Arbitration Forum →

Mediation and arbitration have long served as lucrative retirement gigs for former judges. Today, the New York Times reports that Mel Weiss, the disgraced, disbarred, and finally incarcerated former securities class action overlord, has hung out his shingle as a mediator. Weiss can no longer practice law, so he has evidently decided his true calling … Continue reading The Ex-Con Mediator →

Last year, UNCITRAL established a Working Group to develop a global online dispute resolution system for the resolution of low-value cross-border disputes, both B2B and B2C. (Former Indisputably blogger Nancy Welsh and my St. John’s colleague Elayne Greenberg have been participating and poked me on this one.) The Working Group published a set of draft … Continue reading UNCITRAL Cross-Border ODR Initiative →

The Supreme Court has vacated a Second Circuit decision refusing to enforce an arbitration agreement that included a class action waiver, remanding the case for further consideration in light of AT&T v. Concepcion. In the case, Fensterstock v. Affiliated Computer Services, a law school graduate, Joshua Fensterstock, was the lead plaintiff in a class action … Continue reading Concepcion Fallout →

The Supreme Court has dismissed Stok & Assocs. v. Citibank, a routine step triggered by the settlement of the case. Stok had raised the issue of whether a party waives its right to compel arbitration of a dispute by participating in related litigation, even where no prejudice to the party resisting arbitration can be shown. … Continue reading Stok Dismissed After Settlement →

Like many states, Minnesota is facing a budget crisis. Its Democratic Governor, Mark Dayton, and the Republican legislature cannot agree on a budget; they face a government shut-down as of July 1. Dayton recently suggested that the sides engage a mediator—or two mediators, one selected by each side—to help broker a deal. This seems to … Continue reading Budget Mediation: An Idea Whose Time Has Not Yet Come →

For those who coach or advise dispute resolution competition teams, the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution and FINRA will host the third annual Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon at St. John’s University’s Manhattan campus on October 15-16, 2011. This competition is unique in that it requires students to negotiate, mediate, and arbitrate in one … Continue reading Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon – Early Bird Deadline June 1 →

LimeWire was the most recent file-sharing service to incur the wrath of the recording industry. The industry sued and pursued its outrageous claims (it originally sought more than one trillion dollars in damages) to trial. Midway through trial, the parties settled the case for $105 million following a successful mediation. What’s interesting about that is … Continue reading Recording Industry Can Use ADR After All →

My St. John’s colleague Adam Zimmerman has published two new articles addressing the growing use of large funds to compensate groups of victims. In Distributing Justice, 86 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 500 (2011) (http://ssrn.com/abstract=1827082) he explores the procedural concerns that arise when regulatory agencies like the SEC, FTC, or FDA, mimic private aggregate settlements by collecting … Continue reading Zimmerman on Mass Settlements →