Recent Posts
Thought Leadership
PAGA Arbitration post-Adolph and pre-Election
September 01, 2024 - Twenty years ago, California lawmakers enacted one of the state’s most impactful pieces of legislation. The Private Attorneys General Act – La...
Thought Leadership
Do women judges judge differently?
March 01, 2024 - When Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981, it was as if the tectonic plates of justice had shifted. Never before h...
Thought Leadership
Don’t let a liquidated-damages clause nullify your settlement agreement
August 28, 2023 - When legal matters are settled by disputing parties through mediation outside of the courtroom, it is generally cause for celebration. Instead of...
Thought Leadership
Mandatory settlement conferences are not mediations
August 21, 2023 - While the primary goal of both a mediation and a mandatory settlement conference (MSC) is the same – to settle a case – there are important di...
Thought Leadership
Arbitrator Disclosure Requirements, Failures, and Disqualifications
August 14, 2023 - Arbitration has historically been the bete noir of alternative dispute resolution, but this censure is largely undeserved. True, the grounds for ...
Thought Leadership
What Behavioral Economics Tells Us About Decision-Making At Mediation
August 01, 2020 - August 2020 Journal of Consumer Attorneys Associations for Southern California Predictably irrational WHAT BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS TELLS US ABOUT DECI...
Thought Leadership
Insurance Issues In Settlement Discussions
September 18, 2019 - So, it’s time to try to settle a lawsuit? Where does an insurer fit in the process? Does it matter whether it’s an informal discussion, a settlem...
Thought Leadership
The Ninth Circuit rules that Dynamex applies retroactively
August 25, 2019 - On May 2, 2019, the Ninth Circuit unanimously decided Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc. No. 17- 16096 (9th Cir. 2019), a putative cl...
Thought Leadership
A multi-door ADR future. A practical guide to unlocking the full potential of ADR in its many forms
September 01, 2015 - Next April will mark the 40th anniversary of the birth of the modern mediation movement. In April 1976, Harvard Law Professor Frank Sander shared his...
Thought Leadership
Put me in, coach. Coaching the stages of mediation in nine innings
September 01, 2013 - Mickey Mantle had enormous talent. Had I not been raised in San Francisco in the 1960s, I might have believed him to be the most naturally gifted bas...
Thought Leadership
Death to Rambo: How focusing on your client’s interests can lower your blood pressure and make you a more effective problem solver
October 01, 2008 - October 2008 Issue Greg Derin Death to Rambo: How focusing on your client’s interests can lower your blood pressure and make you a more effec...