The WSJ’s health blog reports on a study conducted by Columbia’s Carol Liebman and others of medical malpractice mediations in New York City. To the surprise of no one who knows anything about mediation, the study finds the mediation works: it lowers the cost of litigation and can help to reduce medical errors, and that … Continue reading MedMal Mediation Works – But Where Are the Docs? →

Richard Holbrooke, a career diplomat who is perhaps best known for his role in the negotiations that ended the war in Bosnia, died on Monday, December 13, 2010.  At the time of his death Mr. Holbrooke was the special representative for the Obama Administration for Afghanistan and Pakistan.   To read more about his career see … Continue reading Negotiator, Diplomat, Richard Holbrooke →

Carrie Sperling (Arizona State) has posted on SSRN an article (to be published at 60 Catholic U. L. Rev. 1 (2010)), on the role of lawyers’ demand letters in negotiations, arguing that scholars have not integrated negotiation theory and legal writing practice when it comes to pre-negotiation demand letters. Here is the abstract: Lawyers frequently … Continue reading Sperling on the Role of Demand Letters in Negotiations →

Cross-posted from Securities Law Prof Blog (authored by Prof. Barbara Black, Dec. 3, 2010): Judge Jed Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) denied Goldman Sach’s motion to vacate a $20.580 million arbitration award obtained by the Official Unsecured Creditors’ Committee of Bayou Group on Nov. 8, 2010 and promised that a written opinion would follow.  The opinion was filed on Nov. … Continue reading SDNY on arbitration – “the wonderous alternative to the rule of reason” →

Oregon Law announced today that it has appointed Michael Moffitt, the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs, associate director for the Appropriate Dispute Resolution Center, and Orlando J. and Marian H. Hollis Professor of Law, to the post of Dean of the law school, effective July 2011. We here at Indisputably are very proud … Continue reading Congratulations to our very own Michael Moffitt – new Dean at Oregon Law →

Yesterday I taught my final class of the semester in my Mediation & Arbitration course. I have been teaching this class, or a version of it, six years in a row. Each year, I ask students to find and bring in to class a pre-dispute arbitration clause in a consumer or employment agreement to which … Continue reading The decline of unconscionable arbitration clause provisions? →

This was the email subject line from a former student who sent me a link to the recently released dissenting opinion (available here) in Sarei v. Rio Tinto — a case alleging human rights violations in the context of the Papua New Guinea civil war.  There was no majority opinion, just an order referring the … Continue reading Mediating the French Revolution →

Bishop Eddie Long is the pastor of an Atlanta megachurch and a prominent and controversial opponent of gay marriage. Earlier this fall, Long was accused by four young men of coercing them into sexual relationships with him. Their sexual misconduct lawsuit against him is scheduled to go to mediation in February, with a trial date … Continue reading Is Mediation an “End Run” Tantamount to Admission of Guilt? The Bishop Eddie Long Case →

Last week’s Economist published an interesting article about a new book, American Grace, written by Professors Robert Putnam and David Campbell.  According to the Economist, the book discusses religious unity in the United States and why religion does not tend to be a serious point of conflict within the United States despite the fact that we … Continue reading The Aunt Susan Theory →

Proposals for the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association  are due this week, on Wednesday, December 8, 2010.  The meeting will be in San Francisco on June 2-5, 2011.       For more information see:  http://www.lawandsociety.org/ann_mtg/am11/call.htm