Today, the United States Supreme Court granted a cert petition in Stolt-Nielsen S.A., et al., v. Animalfeeds International Corp., 548 F.3d 85 (2d Cir. 2008). The Court agreed to decide the question originally presented but ultimately not decided in Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Bazzle, 539 U.S. 444 (2003) — whether imposing class arbitration on parties whose … Continue reading Supreme Court grants cert in another FAA-related case
On Tuesday, NPR’s afternoon news show All Things Considered aired a piece on arbitration. The piece is interesting, but not favorable. It shares several compelling stories – a female Halliburton employee who was raped by co-workers in Iraq and has to arbitrate her claims against the company, the Public Citizen study where consumers lost 94% of the … Continue reading NPR Story on the “Arbitration Debate”
Yesterday, as reported here, President Obama appointed Kenneth Feinberg as the official in charge of determining limits to executive compensation at companies receiving federal bailout money. Mr. Feinberg is no stranger to making compensation determinations involving large sums of money, as he was in charge of determining payouts to families from the September 11 Victim’s … Continue reading Obama’s Executive Compensation “Czar” is ADR Savvy
Over the weekend I read a fascinating account of what life is like for international development workers in Iraq (in an email from a colleague). I learned about the dreary living conditions, severe restrictions due to security, and the need to carry around personal protection gear. But, I was most fascinated by the account of … Continue reading Does email contribute to conflict in Iraq?
I’m furiously working on an article and thought I’d seek some input on my line of reasoning about one’s “bottom-line” in negotiations. The ABA’s standing ethics committee has two opinions stating that the “bottom line” is a material fact under Rule 4.1, and as a result, you cannot lie about what your bottom line (and … Continue reading Negotiation Ethics and Lying about Your Bottom-Line
I am delighted to post the following announcement from Bob Mnookin. Bob will be hosting this year’s Works-in-Progress conference at Harvard. Our first two conferences have been informative, helpful and lots of fun. I am sure that pattern will continue! Dear Colleague, I’m pleased to announce that this fall the Program on Negotiation at … Continue reading Third Annual Dispute Resolution Works-In-Progress Conference at Harvard this fall–Call for Papers
This is a posting courtesy of Lisa Bingham–thanks for sending it along! Last week, I was on a conference call with senior White House officials in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (Beth Noveck, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Open Government, and Greg Nelson, Associate Director White House Office of Public Engagement). I write to share … Continue reading Obama Open Government Initiative
Russ Bleemer at CPR just sent me a very interesting link regarding Judge and Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s arbitration jurisprudence. I’d taken a brief look at this myself and concluded that she seems to follow the general philosophy that enforcing arbitration agreements and awards is part of the national federal policy favoring arbitration. I … Continue reading Sotomayor’s Arbitration Jurisprudence
Since her nomination, I have been wondering what impact The Honorable Sonia Sotomayor would have on the law of dispute resolution if she were confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. While I could find no opinions she authored during her time on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals related to mediation law, I have read … Continue reading Judge Sotomayor and Arbitration Law
No formal announcement from Vanderbilt yet, but Brian Leiter posted the news earlier today, and Chris confirmed it to me in an email this evening. Vanderbilt is a lucky, lucky school. I look forward to watching the law school under Chris’s leadership. Michael Moffitt
