In Dallas last week, a court overturned a $22 million (!) arbitration decision because the arbitrator had failed to disclose that he had socialized with one of the lawyers.  As the Wall Street Journal law blog reported: Arbitration awards, as most litigators know, are very difficult to overturn on appeal. That’s why a Dallas appellate court’s … Continue reading Arbitrator’s Social Life Overturns Award →

I have recently learned of two books that seem interesting: ANNOYING: The Science of What Bugs Us by Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman (thanks to Natalie Fleury!); and It’s Always Personal: Emotion in the New Workplace by Ann Kraemer. The New York Times gave a review of the Annoying book at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/health/26zuger.html The Washington Post … Continue reading Annoying Emotions →

My local NPR station recently ran a program on collaborative law that I missed the first time it aired. It is a good one hour conversation between three local (North Texas) collaborative law practitioners: a lawyer, an accountant, and a therapist. I thought it was particularly interesting to listen to the perspectives of the non-lawyer … Continue reading Collaborative Law Summer Re-run →

Arizona State has launched a national search for Dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of  Law.  The Dean Search Committee, of which I am a member, had an organizational meeting last week and we’re rearing to go.   ASU is an energetic university with a very active and engaged law school.  We’re a law school going places both figuratively and literally, … Continue reading Dean Search Announcement at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University →

The ABA Dispute Resolution Section has just posted its request for proposals for the annual Spring Conference.  This year’s conference takes place in Washington D.C. on April 18-21, 2012, and proposals are due on September 12, 2011.  This year’s conference has a new set presentation possibilities, poster presentations.  You may have seen poster presentations at other … Continue reading Request for Proposals – ABA DR Section Conference →

John Lash recently posted a brief essay on the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.  It won’t take more than five minutes to read, and it’s well worth your time.  The first sentence of the article (“In 1985, at the age of 18, I was sentenced to life in prison for murder.”) and the last sentence of … Continue reading Restorative Justice: An Interesting Perspective →

Rick Bales (Northern Kentucky) at the Workplace Prof Blog, via a hat tip to the Law Librarian Blog, via the Chronicle of Higher Education (boy, that’s a lot of “vias”!) describes a lower court’s recent application of Concepcion to a motion to compel arbitration of a student’s claim against Westwood College for misrepresenting its tuition … Continue reading Concepcion Applied to Students’ Claims Against College →

CPR, one of the leading ADR organizations in the country, just requested nominations for their annual awards program.  Specifically the request states: The focus is on scholarship, which addresses the resolution, prevention or creative management of major disputes involving public or business institutions, such as those between corporations, between government and corporations, or among multiple … Continue reading CPR Awards – Request for Nominations →

Over the past few weeks, I have attended two separate, equally fabulous conferences focusing on legal education pedagogy and practice (the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning conference at New York Law School entitled “Engaging and Assessing our Students” and the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education Conference in Seattle entitled “Learning for Transfer”).  I … Continue reading Teaching Problem-Solving →

In the shameless art of self-promotion category, I am announcing that registration is open for PLI’s annual continuing legal education program on Securities Arbitration, which I am chairing. I am posting here the formal announcement: In the past year, FINRA sought SEC approval of major rule changes empowering customers to choose an all-public panel in … Continue reading Annual PLI Securities Arbitration Program →