This article originally published on NYLJ.com. It is published here with permission. Click here for the PDF. As the impacts of our changing climate become more apparent, litigation has emerged as one of the primary tools for holding fossil fuel companies and governments accountable when legislative efforts fall short. The complexities of such lawsuits, however,… Read more »
The American Bar Association recently issued Formal Opinion 518 addressing the ethical obligations of lawyers serving as third-party neutral mediators. While the Model Rules of Professional Conduct have long included provisions governing lawyer-mediators, Opinion 518 interprets those existing rules to address, and even prohibit, certain mediation practices. But, contrary to concerns voiced by some critics,… Read more »
The SEC now allows mandatory arbitration in IPOs, reshaping litigation risk for public issuers, raising governance and insurance questions, and making expert, well-structured arbitration crucial for fair, efficient resolution of securities disputes. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s September 2025 policy shift allowing companies to include mandatory arbitration clauses in their IPO registration statements seeks… Read more »
Experienced lawyers are creatures of habit. They sometimes overlook that clients have the freedom at any time to design dispute resolution procedures that work best for them. If they didn’t pay attention to their dispute resolution clause when they originally entered into an agreement, they can modify it. Even when businesspeople have no contractually prescribed… Read more »
In complex disputes, mediators sometimes fall into the trap of rushing too quickly toward numbers—talking demands, offers, and bottom lines before the mediation has even had a chance to breathe. In my experience, that’s the fastest way to push parties into their corners, where they get entrenched and start treating the process as just another… Read more »
In this essay for the Democracy Project, FedArb panelist David F. Levi looks back on his time mediating a dispute for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant permit in New Mexico. He shares how citizen groups, government officials and contractors worked together to reach a unanimous agreement. A couple of years ago, I was asked to… Read more »
Mediating every case requires digging into the case, active listening to the parties, good communication and sensitivity on the part of the mediator. But the billion-dollar case or even those involving multiple hundreds of millions of dollars are often company-threatening cases that require particularly special attention. Here are some suggestions for billion-dollar cases: Present and… Read more »
When I began practicing securities litigation nearly 40 years ago, the landscape was vastly different. Accounting fraud dominated the headlines, plaintiffs’ firms were relatively few and far between, repeat plaintiffs were common, class actions were quickly filed with little pre-suit investigation and derivative actions were generally manageable and often resolved swiftly. Today, the practice is… Read more »
August 27, 2025 – FedArb is pleased to announce that Steven M. Greenspan, Esq. has joined its panel. Based in Connecticut, Mr. Greenspan specializes in Complex Litigation, Class Actions, Corporate Governance, Employment and Labor Law, Environmental and Regulatory, Product Liability and Toxic Tort Litigation and Securities disputes. Mr. Greenspan’s extensive experience in both the private… Read more »
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming de rigueur in the legal community, with law firms and lawyers independently utilizing a variety of AI resources to streamline research, formulate documents and digest discovery, exhibits, depositions and fee details. In arbitration, AI may expedite proceedings and assist in analysis of large data sets, resulting in cost savings. AI… Read more »
July 23, 2025 – FedArb, a leading provider of ADR services and known for its elite panel of experts and former federal judges, is pleased to announce a significant ownership transition. Kennen D. Hagen, the company’s current CEO, will assume full ownership and control, as the company undergoes a strategic recapitalization. This move enables Mr…. Read more »
By John M. Delehanty Reaching a settlement in mediation is a big accomplishment—but it’s not the finish line. Ideally, once there’s a meeting of the minds, the parties should draft and sign a formal settlement agreement right away. But in reality, especially after long hours of negotiation, most parties and their counsel opt to draft… Read more »
Recently Judge Susan G. Braden, retired Chief Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims and a FedArb panelist, met with the American Bar Association and the following delegation from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Commercial Arbitration Centre: Majed M Garoub, Chairman of the Advisory Committee; Dr. Kamal Al-Hamad, a Member of the… Read more »
Mass arbitrations are an important new way for customers to protect their legal rights. Unfortunately, arbitration was designed for individualized disputes—not mass actions involving thousands of nearly identical claims. Yet legacy ADR providers keep trying to force mass arbitrations into an individualized approach that it was never built to support. The result? Massive filing fees,… Read more »
A successful mediation requires sensitivity and attention to the needs of each side, but mediating executive or key employee disputes requires some specific considerations and alertness to sensitivities that merit discussion. It’s a Person’s Career After All! First, and foremost, we are dealing with a person’s career –the place where the person has spent a… Read more »
Arbitration is intended to be an expeditious, cost-effective, and streamlined way of resolving disputes. Parties can avoid the delays and expenses that come with resolving a dispute in a courtroom. Court dockets contain hundreds of cases with a single trial judge, who is contending on a daily basis with multiple motions, hearings, orders to show… Read more »
One of the great joys of my professional career is the 21 years that I spent as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court Commercial Division. The work was challenging and required a great deal of creativity and effort and sometimes extraordinary patience, but the rewards were always beyond measure. It gave me… Read more »
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