The New York Times reported yesterday on a new trend among companies selling food products — the use of arbitration clauses. General Mills reportedly created an arbitration clause that would bind consumers who engaged in certain kinds of activity on their website, including downloading coupons or liking their products on Facebook. While such clauses may … Continue reading Should I Keep Eating Cheerios? Food Companies Using Arbitration →

  That is the title of an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times written by Carrie Menkel-Meadow and Edwin Chemerinsky.  The op-ed cautions against rushing to fix legal education in ways that may do “more harm than good.”  The full op-ed can be read here .

David White (Seton Hall) was recently named Clinical Professor of the Year at Seton Hall (announcement here) and also accepted a civilian appointment to NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s “Reengineering 2014” team.  The group will critically examine many facets of the NYPD’s day-to-day operations and offer recommendations for process re-design. Bravo David! MM

Have your students ever played an April Fool’s Day prank on you?  I’ve been lucky, but Stephen Barrows at Aquinas College, is not so lucky.  His students pulled one for the ages on him based on his class cell phone policy – if the phone rings you have to answer it on speaker phone.  This … Continue reading An Awesome April Fool’s Prank →

Last week was the whirlwind ABA Section on Dispute Resolution annual conference in Miami. At the conference, I presented an exercise in “critical patience” designed to promote the kind of deep attention and focus that law school and dispute resolution practice require–and that, so often, excessive technology use (skimming, surfing) can degrade. Here was my … Continue reading Followup from ABA Conference: Critical patience and pedagogy →

At a gathering of negotiation teachers held at Marquette late last year, we conducted an exercise which demonstrated wonderfully many different outlooks on negotiation, in a short time and a creative way. We asked all participants to write out their own definition of negotiation effectiveness – in the form of a recipe, relating to ingredients … Continue reading Just what we’ve all been waiting for: A negotiation cookbook! →

Last week, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided two issues important in the field of securities arbitration — one of which I believe flatly ignores the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by Dodd-Frank. The case, Goldman, Sachs & Co. v. City of Reno, __ F.3d __, 2014 WL 1272784 (9th … Continue reading Ninth Circuit, FINRA Arbitration and Exchange Act Commands →

Congratulations to students Alden Anderson and Chelsea Hesla from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, who won the 2014 American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution Representation in Mediation Competition.  The National Finals took place this past week at the Section’s Annual Conference in Miami. As the ABA reported, over 100 … Continue reading Arizona State Law Wins ABA Representation in Mediation Competition →

For those law school ADR Evangelists looking for opportunities to woo colleagues from other doctrinal disciplines, the Anadarko / Kerr-McGee settlement yesterday should have you scrambling to talk with your faculty colleagues in Environmental Law and in Bankruptcy. My short (and admittedly potentially still not as well-informed as it should be) version is this: Kerr-McGee, … Continue reading $5.15B Environmental Settlement in Anadarko / Kerr-McGee →