I am not a Tolkien person, whatever that means, but I’ve been reading The Hobbit to my kids out loud (for the second time now). Last night we read the chapter about Bilbo and Gollum’s contest of riddles. They have made a deal: if Bilbo tells a riddle Gollum can’t answer, Gollum will show Bilbo … Continue reading On leaving Gollum alive
From Bob Bordone at Harvard: The Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program is searching for a new Assistant Director to begin on July 1, 2013. We are looking for someone who can be both an innovative teacher and a strong, collaborative administrator with excellent team-building and strategic planning skills. I imagine this position to be … Continue reading Job Posting: Harvard Negotiation & Mediaion Clinical Program
From an opinion piece in this morning’s National Law Journal (article here): … Just as companies can implement a systems-based approach to manufacturing, sales and other business functions, general counsel can implement a system for managing legal cases, with an eye toward avoiding litigation and its attendant costs at the earliest possible juncture. A group … Continue reading 21st Century CPR Pledge
Last week, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that a mandatory arbitration clause in an insurance contract was unenforceable under state law, and the state law was not preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act because of the McCarran-Ferguson Act. In State of Wash. v. James River Ins. Co., Civ. No. 87644-4 (WA Sup. Ct. Jan. … Continue reading Washington State Supreme Court Voids Mandatory Arbitration Clause in Insurance Contract
From Susan Raines at Kennesaw State: Conflict Resolution Quarterly publishes scholarship on relationships between theory, research, and practice in the conflict management and dispute resolution field to promote more effective professional applications. Conflict Resolution Quarterly is sponsored by the Association for Conflict Resolution. Articles may focus on any aspect of the conflict resolution process or … Continue reading CRQ Call for Papers on Organizational DR
FINRA Dispute Resolution announced yesterday that it will launch a pilot program to offer pro bono or reduced-fee telephonic mediation to parties whose dispute has a dollar value $50,000 or less. Kudos to FINRA for devising this low cost option to benefit investors of modest means whose claims are too small to make an arbitration … Continue reading FINRA Dispute Resolution Pilots Telephonic Mediation for Small Claims
Seeking a host institution! This year will mark the seventh anniversary of the AALS ADR Section Works-in-Progress conference. The WIP is often described as a “must attend” and for good reason. It’s great to spend a day and a half sharing drafts and floating ideas and running theories past other ADR scholars. Last November, Ohio … Continue reading Call for Proposals: Hosting the WIP
Thanks to Securities Arbitration Alert 2013-01 from the Securities Arbitration Commentator, I learned that the broker-dealer Charles Schwab has amended the arbitration clause in its customer account agreement to remove one of the provisions that led to disciplinary action against it by FINRA Enforcement. (See my previous blog posts on the subject, here, here and … Continue reading Schwab Amends its Investor PDAA
FINRA has filed with the SEC a proposal to change the definition of “public arbitrator” in its Codes of Arbitration Procedure to “exclude persons associated with a mutual fund or hedge fund from serving as public arbitrators and to require individuals to wait for two years after ending certain affiliations before they may be permitted to … Continue reading FINRA Rule Proposal to Amend Definition of “Public Arbitrator”
When I read news articles on-line I now make a conscious habit of not reading the comments. It turns out this is probably a good thing for more reasons than just that the comments are often annoying. As one commentator noted, “The online peanut gallery can get you so riled up that your ability to … Continue reading The Problem with Comments
