Last week I had the honor of joining my colleague Janine Geske on her regular journey to Green Bay Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison reminiscent of the prison in Shawshank Redemption. The prisoners at Green Bay run the gamut of serious crimes from sexual assault to drug distribution to armed robbery to homicide. Janine … Continue reading Go to Prison
Since I’ve been posting about hiring in the legal academic market this year, I’d be remiss if I failed to plug the Aspiring Law Professors Conference that we’re hosting here at Arizona State on Saturday October 17th. The conference is designed for those who are going on the teaching market and will focus on issues … Continue reading Aspiring Law Professors Conference
Another case in the line of cases holding parties to their commitments to mediate before filing suit. Earlier this month, in Adams v. Newport Crest Homeowners Association, 2009 WL 2875361, (Cal.App. 4 Dist., 2009), a California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a case on the grounds that the plaintiff failed to pursue mediation prior … Continue reading Contractual Agreements to Mediate
Another interesting case from the Daily Labor Report: Fifth Circuit 2-1 Affirms Lower Court Ruling Some KBR Injury Claims Were Not Arbitrable A former employee of Halliburton Co. who alleges that she was raped by other employees while working for the defense contractor in Iraq is not required by her employment contract to arbitrate claims … Continue reading Fifth Circuit Decides Arbitration Clause Scope Issue
The Works-in-Progress conference is still accepting abstracts and I want to strongly encourage everyone to think about adding this to their agenda for the fall. The announcement is below and feel free to email me with any questions: Call for Papers and Abstracts Works in Progress Conference AALS Dispute Resolution Section November 13-14, 2009 … Continue reading Works in Progress Conference at Harvard
The Daily Labor Report states: “Court Must Decide Unconscionability, Not Arbitrator, Ninth Circuit Rules 2-1 A former account manager for a rent-to-own company in Nevada is entitled to have a court decide whether the arbitration agreement he signed as a condition of employment is unconscionable under state contract law, even though the agreement specifies that … Continue reading Ninth Circuit Has Interesting Ruling on Unconscionability
About an hour ago,a federal judge struck down the proposed settlement between Bank of America and federal regulators over bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives. The online version of the New York Times runs the story, “Judge Rejects Settlement Over Merrill Bonuses.” I have pasted the text of the article below, and the twelve page … Continue reading Judicial Scrutiny of Settlements
The good folks at Penn State are holding a symposium in March 2010 focused on the Supreme Court’s recent Ashcroft v. Iqbal decision. I am confident the actual title of their symposium will be more professional-sounding than the tagline for this blog entry, but I think I’ve pretty well captured the basic tone of many … Continue reading What’s Icky About Iqbal?
Teaching really does have its rewards. Last week I emphasized to the students in my Mediation & Arbitration class that one question they should ask themselves throughout the semester is whether the dispute resolution process used in any particular dispute is appropriate for that dispute. A few days later a student in that class brought this article to … Continue reading Mediating family religious disputes?
From Sharon Press at the Association for Conflict Resolution: Hopefully many of you already know about Conflict Resolution Day which is an annual event sponsored by the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) to: promote awareness of mediation arbitration, conciliation and other creative, peaceful means of resolving conflict; promote the use of conflict resolution in schools, families, … Continue reading Conflict Resolution Day
