Another interesting case from the Daily Labor Report: Fifth Circuit 2-1 Affirms Lower Court Ruling Some KBR Injury Claims Were Not Arbitrable A former employee of Halliburton Co. who alleges that she was raped by other employees while working for the defense contractor in Iraq is not required by her employment contract to arbitrate claims … Continue reading Fifth Circuit Decides Arbitration Clause Scope Issue →

The Works-in-Progress conference is still accepting abstracts and I want to strongly encourage everyone to think about adding this to their agenda for the fall.  The announcement is below and feel free to email me with any questions:    Call for Papers and Abstracts Works in Progress Conference AALS Dispute Resolution Section November 13-14, 2009 … Continue reading Works in Progress Conference at Harvard →

About an hour ago,a federal judge struck down the proposed settlement between Bank of America and federal regulators over bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives.  The online version of the New York Times runs the story, “Judge Rejects Settlement Over Merrill Bonuses.”  I have pasted the text of the article below, and the twelve page … Continue reading Judicial Scrutiny of Settlements →

The good folks at Penn State are holding a symposium in March 2010 focused on the Supreme Court’s recent Ashcroft v. Iqbal decision.  I am confident the actual title of their symposium will be more professional-sounding than the tagline for this blog entry, but I think I’ve pretty well captured the basic tone of many … Continue reading What’s Icky About Iqbal? →

I am reproducing here an e-mail announcement from ADR Prof Nancy Welsh that came across the ADR listserv earlier today: Dear Colleagues:   On Friday, March 26, 2010, Penn State will hold a symposium addressing the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal.  There will be three panels:  *     One panel will address Iqbal‘s implications … Continue reading Symposium at Penn State →

I’ve been a subscriber to the National Arbitration Forum’s ADR Law & Policy Update for a couple of years now, and I have to say that I miss my weekly (or so) emails.  I’m guessing that the Update is a casualty of the NAF’s difficult summer (see here and here among other places), and that’s … Continue reading ADR Law & Policy Update – Where Have You Gone? →

Imagine a race for District Attorney where the lead candidates  talk about alternative ways to handle criminal cases, including problem solving courts, and are not simply competing to see who will be “tougher” on crime. This seems to be happening in New York City. The three contenders for District Attorney in next week’s Democratic primary … Continue reading “Meting out justice with sympathy”: The race for NY District Attorney →

James Surowiecki had an interesting piece in last week’s New Yorker describing the endowment effect and the status quo bias and applying them to the current health care debate.  In looking at the endowment effect (when you own something you tend to overvalue it) Surowiecki states: “What [the endowment effect] suggests about health care is … Continue reading Can Bias Help President Obama in the Health Care Debate? →

Earlier this week I criticized an article in the last month’s ABA Journal saying that there’s work to be had as an ADR neutral due to the economic downturn.  You can see the post here.  Since then a colleague brought an article that backs up my assertions about the difficulties of entering the profession and … Continue reading Where the Work Is – Cont’d →

The International Ombudsman Association has announced its first student writing competition, inviting law students and other graduate students to submit articles arguing for a statutory privilege for organizational ombudsmen.  More information can be found here. For a short preview, here’s the call of the question: For this article, assume that you are advising the legislature … Continue reading International Ombudsman Association Writing Competition →