In a per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court today reversed three consolidated decisions by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals refusing to enforce pre-dispute arbitration agreements in nursing home contracts where a claim alleges negligence or wrongful death. The West Virginia high court had held that “as a matter of public policy under West Virginia … Continue reading Supreme Court Rejects West Virginia Rule Barring Nursing Home Arbitration →

On Saturday, Feb. 25, the Harvard Negotiation Law Review is sponsoring a symposium entitled “Does ADR Work? Evaluating the Effectiveness of Alternative Dispute Resolution.”  Here is the symposium announcement: Saturday, February 25th Check-in at 9:30 AM • Reception to Follow at 5:00 PM 1515 Massachusetts Avenue • Cambridge, MA 02138 • Austin Hall, North Classroom  Keynote … Continue reading Harvard Negotiation Law Review Symposium on ADR Effectiveness →

On Wednesday, Feb. 22, Penn State Law will host a symposium entitled “U.S. Arbitration Law in the wake of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion.”  Here is the announcement: The 2011 Supreme Court decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion last year has potentially changed the legal landscape in a number of areas including class actions and arbitration … Continue reading Penn State Law Symposium on AT&T Mobility →

My Negotiation Workshop colleague, Joanne Lipo Zovic, is the alumni blogger of the month for Marquette and posted her non-scientific survey on lawyering skills.  Her findings support much of what we teach in dispute resolution and I particularly liked the wordle she created from the results.  As she writes: I got 38 responses back (thanks to all of … Continue reading Lawyering Skills →

At last spring’s ABA Legal Educators’ Colloquium, I led a panel with Nancy Welsh and Jennifer Brown on teaching distributive negotiation. The papers that developed out of that panel, along with an additional piece by Michael Wheeler, have now been published in the new issue of the Negotiation Journal. Mike leads off by making the case … Continue reading Wheeler, Brown, Kirgis, and Welsh on Negotiation Pedagogy →

The National Law Journal ran a story recently describing the recent appeal of the $3.4B settlement of the contested Native American trust litigation.  (Story here.)  I have not been following the details of this case closely enough to hold any opinion about the merits of this appeal.  But given the magnitude of the settlement and … Continue reading $3.4B Class Action Settlement (and the contest thereof) →

As the LEAPS Panels and website are now in place, I thought it might be interesting to share this experience. Yesterday I had the pleasure of joining a colleague of mine in his first year property class. He was using, for the first time, a commercial lease negotiation exercise in his class. This particular colleague … Continue reading Such a Joy! →