Geoff Sharp, whose Mediatorblahblah blog was one of the only things I read with regularity, announced a few days ago that he is bowing out. We as a field are poorer for his departure, but we should all be grateful to him for his thoughtful, self-confessedly “overly opinionated” contributions. With more than a thousands posts … Continue reading Geoff Sharp, Mediatorblahblah, “Bows Out” of blogging
Hofstra Law School will hold a conference on “Collaborative Law: Opportunities, Challenges and Questions for the Future” on November 19 and 20, 2009. The conference announcement states: “The conference will cover topics in Collaborative Law in the context of legal ethics and professional responsibility, mediation, arbitration and other ADR processes, access to justice and vulnerable … Continue reading Collaborative Law Conference and Call for Papers
Today is the first day of training this semester’s crop of students in the Lodestar Mediation Clinic at ASU. It’s a day filled with excitement and questions for both the students and myself. From the teaching side, some of the questions remain the same. What will the personality of the class be? Will we have … Continue reading Game On !!
The deadline for submitting a proposal to present at the ABA’s Dispute Resolution Section’s Annual Meeting is 10 days away – August 24th. The Section is always looking for good programs, so don’t be shy in submitting one. The meeting is scheduled for April 2010 in San Francisco. A copy of the Call for Proposals … Continue reading Upcoming Deadline – ABA DR Section Conference Call for Proposals
In an interesting development, Bank of America announced yesterday that it would remove its pre-dispute arbitration clause from its credit card agreements. See AP report here. This development cannot be a coincidence and surely is tied to the increasing Congressional scrutiny over mandatory consumer arbitration and the National Arbitration Forum’s decision to exit the consumer … Continue reading Bank of America Drops Credit Card Dispute Arbitration Requirement
And by us, I mean people who teach ADR in law schools. I have just completed a year-long data-driven research project looking at the current shape of ADR within the legal academy, along with a look at trends over the past decade. I learned a ton. I was sometimes surprised. Occasionally appalled. Mostly hopeful. Some … Continue reading What Could Possibly Be More Interesting Than Us ?
This week, Time Magazine had a great article on haggling during the recession. (Thanks to Jerry Olivo for sending this along.) Although apparently we don’t usually negotiate retail items, the recession has encouraged plenty of shoppers to dust off those negotiation skills and try to negotiate items that are typically not open for discussion. Think you … Continue reading Recession Haggling
The Pace Law School Investor Rights Clinic, pursuant to a generous grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, has just published the Investor’s Guide to Securities Industry Disputes: How to Prevent and Resolve Disputes with Your Broker. This Guide, which I co-authored with Clinic Staff Attorney Alice Oshins, is designed to help individual investors with modest investment accounts … Continue reading Investor’s Guide to Securities Industry Disputes
As everyone who follows the news of the day knows, there was a little dust-up in Cambridge, Mass. last week. (If you need a primer to catch up, go here). President Obama is scheduled today to meet and have a beer with Cambridge Police Officer, Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard faculty member Henry Louis Gates, … Continue reading President Obama – Mediator in Chief
Here’s another comment, this one by Cliff Palefsky, a San Francisco lawyer with a substantial arbitration practice. Regulation is the price you pay for the elimination of true consent. As the National Academy [of Arbitrators] said, “without volunariness, arbitration lacks moral and legal justification.” Statistics in the end are meaningless. Anyone who truly loves the … Continue reading NAF Commentary – Part II
