In preparation for next week’s Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association, I have been delighted to get to know a group of judges who will be offering a program on Saturday afternoon, August 7, on the use of ADR in Business Courts. One of them, Judge Steven I Platt of Maryland, maintains an interesting blog to which he has recently contributed a thoughtful article on the “why” of dispute resolution in business courts. Read more »
Monday, July 12, is the cut-off date for Early Bird Registration for the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. I will be speaking on a panel on arbitration, with such luminaries as Mark Trachtenberg, Deborah Rothman and Rob Friedman, who argued Jackson v. Rent-a-Center before the Supreme Court. (Honestly, sometimes I really am amazed at the clubs who will let in the likes of me!)
But a specially interesting panel is one that Lawrence D.W. Graves has assembled as Chair of the Dispute Resolution Committee of the Business Law Section: “ADR in Business Courts.”
The panel will be moderated by Chief Judge Ben Tennille of the North Carolina Business Court. Speakers include Judge Steven I. Platt of Maryland; Judge Ira B. Warshawsky of the Commercial Division, New York Supreme Court; Robert E. Margulies, who designed the 15-year old Complementary Dispute Resolution program for the Superior Courts of the State of New Jersey; Judge Elizabeth Stong of the United Stated Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York; and Vice Chancellor Don Parsons of the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Listening to these ladies and gentlemen discuss the court’s interest in clearing its docket, and their own commitment to helping commercial parties to resolve their disputes, should be a rare and valuable opportunity. Be there!
A recent article has been making the rounds of ADR professionals. The current issue of the American Psychological Association’s publication Psychology, Public Policy and Law (Vol. 16, No. 2, at 133-57) features a report of a study conducted by a group of scholars from Australia, Sweden and the United States. The group canvassed 481 American attorneys – in civil and criminal cases, both plaintiffs/prosecutors and defense – and found that lawyers are prone to overconfidence. That is, they predict outcomes of their cases that are not only erroneous, but generally too optimistic.
I’m wondering why this is news. I think that we mediators have known this all along; in fact, that’s why we’re hired. Read more »
Frederic Luskin, Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects, reminded a packed house at the ABA Dispute Resolution meeting in San Francisco that a 2-yr old who is told “no” screams and yells when she doesn’t get what she wants, but then eventually stops and moves on to the next thing. By contrast, a 40-year old who doesn’t get what he wants can persist in expressing his anger and indignation for many, many years; in some cases, he will never stop. In this lies the attraction, for some, of the American civil judicial system.
Dispute resolution professionals often encounter people whose wound has morphed into an attribute of their very life. Who they are is fundamentally tied with the claim. They are no longer wife or butcher or brother or son; they are The One Who Was Wrongly Dealt With. Dr. Luskin asked us whether we might consider not just helping that person to ”resolve” the dispute, but facilitating the removal of the conflict as a central mechanism of the relationship. Might we help to guide wounded people past their wound? Read more »