The 16th meeting of the World Mediation Forum of the UIA was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on January 27-28, 2012. It was very well attended; Co-President Colin Wall noted that attendees came from 31 countries.
A panel on mandatory mediation brought out some interesting recent developments, including a game-changer in Italy. Read more »
A recent U.S. District Court opinion has tested the ethical rules barring mediators from representing a party in a subsequent matter that is “identical” or “substantially related” to the mediated matter. It found that, at least in the case before the court, that test had not been satisfied and the mediator/attorney was permitted to continue to represent the client. Read more »
Two recent court decisions have bubbled through the cyber-community of ListServes and blogs. Both address attorney disqualification — one in the context of a mediation and the other in the context of an arbitration. The latter is featured here and the former will be described in a subsequent posting.
In Northwestern National Insurance Company v. Insco, Ltd, 11 Civ. 1124 (SAS) (S.D.N.Y. October 3, 2011), the court granted a motion to disqualify the law firm of Freeborn & Peters LLP from continuing to represent its client Insco in an ongoing arbitration. In deciding the motion the court (a) found that it, and not the arbitration Panel, was the proper forum for such relief, and (b) determined that Freeman’s solicitation, receipt, study and use of approximately 130 e-mails between the Panel members, some containing deliberations of the Panel, was an egregious breach of its ethical duties, meriting disqualification. Read more »
A highlight of the 2011 ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto was a session on “Wikileaks, National Security and Free Speech.” Moderated by Devon Chafee, Legislative Counsel for the American Civil Liberies Union, the panel boasted McInnes Cooper partner and privacy expert David T.S. Fraser; Charles D. Tobin of Holland & Knight; Professor Steve Vladeck of American University’s Washington College of Law; and Lee Williams, Assistant General Counsel to the Cable News Network Inc. Read more »