International Arbitration

Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  Reflections On My 1st Judicial Election Amid Racial Tensions

  

  Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Benham looks back at the racial barriers facing his first judicial campaign in 1984, and explains how those experiences shaped his decades on the bench, why judges should refrain from taking political stances, and why he was an early supporter of therapeutic courts that deal with systemic problems.

• Weighing Litigation Vs. Arbitration Amid Court Disruptions

  

  Parties must determine whether arbitration is better than litigation for their disputes amid pandemic-induced court delays by answering five key questions and understanding the importance of a clearly tailored arbitration clause, say attorneys at Goodwin.

• How Attys Can Guard Against Rising Settle-And-Sue Claims

  

  Certain precautions can help lawyers avoid post-settlement malpractice claims and create a solid evidentiary defense, as settle-and-sue lawsuits rise amid pandemic-induced dispute settlements, say Bethany Kristovich and Jeremy Beecher at Munger Tolles.

• Law Firm Tips For Attracting, Retaining Attys During Pandemic

  

  Steps law firms can take to attract and keep the best lawyers amid the pandemic include diversifying expertise to meet anticipated legal demands, prioritizing firm culture, and preparing for prospective partners' pointed questions, says Brian Burlant at Major Lindsey.

• Perspectives

  Finding A Path Forward To Regulate The Legal Industry

  

  Gerald Knapton at Ropers Majeski analyzes U.S. and U.K. experiments to explore alternative business structures and independent oversight for law firms, which could lead to innovative approaches to increasing access to legal services.

• Series

  Lawyering While Parenting: A Day In A Dad's Pandemic Life

  

  Christopher Jennison shares a view of his life working from home as a Federal Aviation Administration attorney preparing to first-chair a trial while splitting child care responsibilities with his lawyer wife.

• Series

  Lawyering While Parenting: A Day In A Mom's Pandemic Life

  

  Josephine Bahn shares a view of her life working from home as an attorney at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation while splitting child care responsibilities with her lawyer husband.

• 5 Cost-Cutting Strategies For Corporate Legal Departments

  

  To achieve long-term reduction in their legal expenses, companies must look beyond law firm hourly rates and better distribute their legal work among high-cost premier firms, low-cost practitioners and alternative legal service providers, and their own in-house teams, says Nathan Wenzel at SimpleLegal.

• Guest Feature

  Preparing The Next Generation Of Female Trial Lawyers

  

  To build the ranks of female trial attorneys, law firms must integrate them into every aspect of a case — from witness preparation to courtroom arguments — instead of relegating them to small roles, says Kalpana Srinivasan, co-managing partner at Susman Godfrey.

• Guest Feature

  Mentorship Is Key To Fixing Drop-Off Of Women In Law

  

  It falls to senior male attorneys to recognize the crisis female attorneys face as the pandemic amplifies an already unequal system and to offer their knowledge, experience and counsel to build a better future for women in law, says James Meadows at Culhane Meadows.

• Guest Feature

  5 Ways Firms Can Avoid Female Atty Exodus During Pandemic

  

  The pandemic's disproportionate impact on women presents law firms with a unique opportunity to devise innovative policies that will address the increasing home life demands female lawyers face and help retain them long after COVID-19 is over, say Roberta Liebenberg at Fine Kaplan and Stephanie Scharf at Scharf Banks.

• 2 High Court Cases Highlight Comity Principles

  

  High Court decisions in National Bank of Kazakhstan v. Bank of New York Mellon and Riverrock Securities v. Bank of St. Petersburg serve as a useful reminder that the principle of comity may require English courts to exercise judicial restraint, even where their assistance has been sought by foreign courts, say Egishe Dzhazoyan and Kabir Bhalla at King & Spalding.

• Opinion

  Lawyers Must Fight Voter Suppression This Election Season

  

  Lawyers should use their unique skill sets, knowledge and spheres of influence to fight burdensome ID requirements and other voter suppression tactics that may influence the 2020 elections, and to participate in potential post-election litigation, say CK Hoffler and Allyce Bailey at the National Bar Association.

• Why Online Mediation May Be Here To Stay

  

  Videoconferenced mediation offers several advantages and helps cases settle faster and more cordially, making it hard to imagine going back to logistically difficult in-person dispute resolution after COVID-19 restrictions are gone, says Sidney Kanazawa at ARC.

• Employer Arbitration Agreement Pointers From 2 Rulings

  

  While two recent decisions from the New Jersey Supreme Court and Third Circuit address separate employment arbitration agreement enforceability issues, both reaffirm the strong federal policy favoring arbitration and offer some clarity on when a court versus an arbitrator determines whether an agreement exists, says Kirsten Grossman at Nukk-Freeman.