Consumer Law

Conference on The Future of Arbitration (March 17th and 18th at GWU)

By Deepak Gupta

On March 17th and 18th, Alan Morrison and Roger Trangsrud of George Washington University Law School are hosting a conference on "The Future of Arbitration." 

I'll be speaking (on class-action bans), along with co-bloggers Brian Wolfman and Paul Bland. If you're based in D.C., or if you're in town for the Consumer Assembly, I hope you'll attend. Here's a description of the program:

Over the past several decades, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) has been increasingly used by businesses to divert claims from the courts into the arbitral forum that they consider more favorable to them, which in many cases means that, as a practical matter, the claims will never be brought.  In almost every case, the Supreme Court has upheld the position of the person arguing that unwilling parties who signed agreements containing a mandatory pre-dispute arbitration provision can be required to pursue their claims in arbitration. 

Since the enforceability of such agreements is governed by the FAA, Congress can amend the FAA if it believes that those decisions produce undesirable results. The purpose of this conference is to debate the key policy questions surrounding various aspects of arbitration. The program will not be about what the FAA now permits and requires, but what it should permit and require.

A list of panel discussions and times ????????is below the jump.  All sessions will be held in the Jacob Burns Moot Courtroom.

Thursday, March 17

2-3:30 pm
Panel: Channeling Class Actions into Single Claims Arbitrations

Andrew Pincus, Partner, Mayer Brown
Alan Kaplinsky, Partner, Ballard Spahr
Deepak Gupta, Staff Attorney, Public Citizen Litigation Group
Joshua Civin, Assistant Counsel of the Economic Justice and Education Practices, NAACP Legal Defense Fund

3:30-3:45 pm: Break

3:45-5:15 pm
Panel: Proper Forum for Class Actions - Court or Arbitration?

Eric Tuchmann, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, American Arbitration Association
Brian Wolfman, Visiting Professor of Law and Co-Director, Institute for Public Representation, Georgetown Law
Jay Tidmarsh, Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School

Friday, March 18

8-8:30 am: Breakfast

8:30-10 am
Panel: Procedural Rules or Limits & Federal vs. State Law

Paul Bland, Senior Attorney, Public Justice
Nina Pillard, Professor of Law, Georgetown Law
Thomas Stipanowich, Academic Director, Institute for Dispute Resolution, William H. Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution, and Professor of Law, Pepperdine University 
Christopher Drahozal, John M. Rounds Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development, University of Kansas

10:15-11:45 am
Panel: The Role of Courts in Supervising Arbitrations

George Bermann, Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law, Walter Gellhorn Professor of Law, and Director of European Legal Studies, Columbia Law School
Nancy Welsh, Professor of Law, Penn State Law
Jean Stemlight, Director of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution and Michael and Sonja Saltman Professor of Law, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Noon-1 pm: Lunch

1:15-2:45 pm
Panel: What Should Congress Do Beyond Procedural Reforms?

Kevin Carroll, Securities Industry Association
Elisabeth Stein, American Association for Justice
John Roddy, Partner, Roddy Klein & Ryan
Stephen Burbank, David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice, University of Pennsylvania Law School

There is no charge for the conference, but attendees are asked to register so that the organizers have an accurate count. Here's the registration link.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on March 13, 2011 (boomark / email).