I read with interest the transcript of today’s oral argument in the highly anticipated American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant case, No. 12-133. As I suspected, though, following oral argument, it would seem unlikely that the Court will decide in the merchants’ favor. Instead, the likely outcome is that the Court will hold that merhcants … Continue reading American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant Oral Argument Report →

Congratulations to Cardozo School of Law, the 2013 host of the Seventh Annual Works-in-Progress Conference! The AALS ADR Section Executive Committee was very impressed with Cardozo’s proposal and we are all looking forward to the event. More details, including dates, coming soon.

FINRA’s Office of Hearing Officers issued its decision today in Dep’t of Enforcement v. Charles Schwab & Co, an enforcement action in which FINRA alleged that Schwab’s class action and joinder waiver language in its customer agreement violated FINRA rules that preserved the judicial class action remedy for investors and empowered arbitrators to consolidate non-class though … Continue reading FINRA Hearing Panel Concludes that FAA Preempts Enforcement of FINRA Rules Barring Class Action Waiver in Broker-Dealer’s Customer Agreement →

I am delighted to report that Friend-of-the-Blog Jennifer Gerarda Brown has been named Dean of the Quinnipiac University School of Law.  The official announcement can be found here.  Suffice it to say that we are enthusiastic supporters and confident that Jennifer will do a great job.  Congrats to both Jen and Quinnipiac!

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act empowered the SEC to study the use of mandatory arbitration in the securities industry and consider whether to ban regulated firms from imposing mandatory arbitration on customers.  To date, the SEC has not launched any such study, presumably because Dodd-Frank was loaded with so many regulatory mandates to the SEC that … Continue reading Mass. Securities Regulator Urges SEC to Ban Investment Advisers from Imposing Mandatory Arbitration →

There is no good way to put this up on the blog and we also knew that Lisa and Terry’s many colleagues and friends would want to know.  They were in an accident while in London, hit by a bus, and both in critical condition in medically induced comas.  More information about the accident and their … Continue reading Lisa Bingham & Terry Amsler in Accident in London →

The message below is from Alan Kirtley (U of Washington), the current Chair of AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education.  Not surprisingly he is heavily involved in this year’s AALS Clinical Conference.  More info about the conference is here, so I’ve taken the liberty to edit the parts of his message about the general conference.  Warning – I will be sending … Continue reading ADR Clinicians Wanted – Working Group Leaders at the AALS Clinical Conference →

Ok, maybe profiled is the wrong word, but at least our Indisputably colleague is quoted in the most recent NYT article on the difficulties facing legal education and the Task Force on the Future of Legal Education.  You can read the entire piece here, and his quotes are below. At the University of Oregon, Michael Moffitt, … Continue reading Michael Moffitt Profiled in the New York Times →

On February 22, Penn State is hosting an ADR symposium entitled The Role of the Courts: Judicial Review of Arbitral Awards and Mediated Settlement Agreements.  Information here.  I do not know the details, but Nancy Welsh tells me that it will be available via webcast for those of us who can’t make it to Pennsylvania. … Continue reading Watch (if you can’t go to) the Upcoming Penn State Symposium Online →

Sean Nolon (Vermont) posted his most recent article on SSRN.  The title is: Second Best Practices?: Addressing Mediation’s Definitional Problems in Environmental Siting Disputes.  The article looks at two environmental case studies where interested parties served mediative functions and explores the implications for the concept of mediator neutrality.  Professor Nolon proposes that this practice has value, but … Continue reading S. Nolon on Mediator Role Confusion in Siting Disputes →