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!
I had a good chuckle at an article that appears in the current issue of Dispute Resolution International, the journal of the Dispute Resolution Section of the International Bar Association. Daniele Cutolo and Mark Alexander Shalaby discuss a case brought in Italy to test whether an Italian statute requiring mediation prior to certain consumer court proceedings violates Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, ensuring access to the courts. The lower court found that it did.
Ya gotta smile.
The International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR Institute) has very seldom taken a position in amicus briefs or on pending legislation. But its Board of Directors recently posted a 22-page letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees “to voice out concern over the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009.” When the Sphinx speaks I guess we’d better listen.
