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Posts Tagged ‘Karl Bayer’

LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group is now over 3,660 Members Strong!

July 2nd, 2014 ADR Social Media, Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Comments Off on LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group is now over 3,660 Members Strong!

On May 19, 2009 the Loree Reinsurance and Arbitration Law Forum, Karl Bayer’s Disputing blog, Don Philbin Jr., Robert Bear and others formed a LinkedIn group called the Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group. On May 21, 2009 we reported (here) that the group had “29 members with diverse backgrounds, all of whom are interested in commercial and industry ADR.” On October 28, 2010, we reported that the group was “now 1,008 members strong and is growing by the week.  Many different industries are represented, including the insurance and reinsurance industry.  The group enables members to share information; discuss and debate issues.  .  .; and network with others in the domestic and international ADR community.” (See here.)

Today the group has more than 3,660 members, and continues to discuss actively issues pertaining to domestic and international ADR, and continues to feature a distinguished and internationally-diverse membership of arbitrators, mediators, business people, attorneys, law professors, students, and other persons interested in ADR.

The group is co-managed by Don Philbin, Jr.Karl Bayer, Robert Bear and Philip J. Loree Jr. We welcome new members, and encourage (but do not require) active participation. The only requirement for membership is a bona fide interest in ADR.  The group is not a forum for, and does not permit, advertising or blatant self-promotion, so our members need not be concerned about being subject to sales pitches and the like.

If you are already a member of LinkedIn, please click here to apply for membership in the group.  If you are not a LinkedIn member, click here, and you will be guided through the process of creating a profile (which does not need to be completed in one step).  Once your profile is started, and you have a user name and password, you can apply for membership in the group (which entails no more than clicking on a button).  Joining LinkedIn is free, as is joining the group.

We hope you’ll join up!

 

AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepcion: What Would Cousin Vinny Have to Say About The Ninth Circuit’s Interpretation of the Equal Footing Principle?

December 10th, 2010 Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Practice and Procedure, California State Courts, Class Action Arbitration, Class Action Waivers, Practice and Procedure, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, United States Supreme Court Comments Off on AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepcion: What Would Cousin Vinny Have to Say About The Ninth Circuit’s Interpretation of the Equal Footing Principle?

One of my favorite scenes from the movie My Cousin Vinny (1992) is Vincent Laguardia Gambini’s (a/k/a “Vinny’s”) opening statement in the criminal trial of his cousin and cousin’s friend, both of whom were arrested and mistakenly charged for murder and robbery while driving through Alabama.  Vinny (played by Joe Pesci) — a native New Yorker who is as out of place in a rural Alabama courtroom as I suppose anyone could be — dozes off during the prosecution’s opening statement only to be jarred awake by his cousin — who is facing the death penalty — so that he can deliver an opening statement.  He saunters over to the jury, and says, gesturing at the prosecutor, “Everything that guy just said is bull$#!+.  Thank you.”  Then he returns to the defense table.  (Watch the scene here, which begins approximately three minutes and 33 seconds into the clip.)     Continue Reading »

Oral Argument to be Held Tomorrow in SCOTUS AT&T Mobility Class Waiver Case

November 8th, 2010 ADR Social Media, Arbitration Agreements, Arbitration Practice and Procedure, Class Action Arbitration, Class Action Waivers, Guest Posts, Practice and Procedure, United States Supreme Court Comments Off on Oral Argument to be Held Tomorrow in SCOTUS AT&T Mobility Class Waiver Case

The United States Supreme Court will hear oral argument in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, No. 09-893, tomorrow, November 9, 2010.  (Read about the case here, here, here and here.)  If you are interested in reading the transcript, you should be able to access it here by approximately 4:00 p.m. tomorrow.  

Earlier this morning the Disputing blog published the first installment of a multi-part guest post we are writing, entitled “AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion:  Can Discover Bank Withstand Stolt-Nielsen Scrutiny?”  (Read it here.)  Our focus in that post will be how Stolt-Nielsen bears on the Federal Arbitration Act preemption questions before the Court, and in particular, what (if anything) we can glean from the upcoming oral argument about those questions.  

The first installment briefly describes the preemption issues and comments on the uncertainty surrounding implied preemption because of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas’ rejection of that doctrine in his Wyeth v. Levine, 555 U.S. ___, 129 S. Ct. 1187 (2009), concurring opinion, see 129 S. Ct. at 1205 (Thomas, J., concurring), and the deference he accords state law in Federal Arbitration Act cases which (unlike AT&T Mobility) are brought in state court.  See, e.g., Buckeye Check Cashing, Inc. v. Cardegna, 546 US 440 (2006) (Thomas, J., dissenting) (“[I]n state-court proceedings, the FAA cannot be the basis for displacing a state law that prohibits enforcement of an arbitration clause contained in a contract that is unenforceable under state law.”).

The first installment also poses some examples of the types of Stolt-Nielsen-related questions Justices might ask the Concepcions’ counsel at the argument.  It will be interesting to see whether the Court asks questions of this type, and, if so, what the Concepcions have to say in response.     

The number of future installments will depend on what transpires at the argument.  We suspect that there will be at least two.  

We would like to thank Karl Bayer and Beth Graham of the Disputing blog for featuring us as an AT&T Mobility  guest blogger.

LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Surpasses the 1,000 Member Mark!

October 28th, 2010 ADR Social Media, Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Comments Off on LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Surpasses the 1,000 Member Mark!

As regular readers know, we own and co-manage with Don Philbin, Jr., Karl Bayer, and Robert Bear LinkedIn‘s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group.  The group actively discusses issues pertaining to domestic and international ADR, and features a distinguished and diverse membership of arbitrators, mediators, business people, attorneys, law professors, students, and other persons interested in ADR.  Our members hail not only from the United States, but many other countries as well. 

The group, which was formed in May 2009, is now 1,008 members strong and is growing by the week.  Many different industries are represented, including the insurance and reinsurance industry.  The group enables members to share information; discuss and debate issues; directly access numerous excellent ADR-related blogs; and network with others in the domestic and international ADR community. 

The group welcomes new members, and encourages (but does not require) active participation.  The only requirement for membership is a bona fide interest in ADR.  The group is not a forum for, and does not permit, advertising or blatant self-promotion, so our members need not be concerned about being subject to sales pitches and the like. 

If you are already a member of LinkedIn, please click here to apply for membership in the group.  If you are not a LinkedIn member, click here, and you will be guided through the process of creating a profile (which does not need to be completed in one step).  Once your profile is started, and you have a user name and password, you can apply for membership in the group (which entails no more than clicking on a button).  Joining LinkedIn is free, as is joining the group. 

We hope you’ll join up!

LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group is 900 Members Strong and Growing!

August 23rd, 2010 ADR Social Media, Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group, Mediation, Reinsurance Mediation Comments Off on LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group is 900 Members Strong and Growing!

As regular readers know, we own and co-manage with Don Philbin, Jr., Karl Bayer, Robert Bear, and Victoria VanBuren  LinkedIn‘s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group.  The group actively discusses issues pertaining to domestic and international ADR, and features a distinguished and diverse membership of arbitrators, mediators, business people, attorneys, law professors, students, and other persons interested in ADR.  Our members hail not only from the United States, but many other countries as well. 

The group, which was formed in May 2009, is now 900 members strong and is growing by the week.  Many different industries are represented, including the insurance and reinsurance industry.  The group enables members to share information; discuss and debate issues; directly access numerous excellent ADR-related blogs; and network with others in the domestic and international ADR community. 

The group welcomes new members, and encourages (but does not require) active participation.  The only requirement for membership is a bona fide interest in ADR.  The group is not a forum for, and does not permit, advertising or blatant self-promotion, so our members need not be concerned about being subject to sales pitches and the like. 

If you are already a member of LinkedIn, please click here to apply for membership in the group.  If you are not a LinkedIn member, click here, and you will be guided through the process of creating a profile (which does not need to be completed in one step).  Once your profile is started, and you have a user name and password, you can apply for membership in the group (which entails no more than clicking on a button).  Joining LinkedIn is free, as is joining the group. 

We hope you’ll join up!

LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group is More than 800 Members Strong and Growing!

June 26th, 2010 ADR Social Media, Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Comments Off on LinkedIn’s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group is More than 800 Members Strong and Growing!

As regular readers know, we own and co-manage with Don Philbin, Jr., Karl Bayer, Robert Bear, and Victoria Van Buren  LinkedIn‘s Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group.  The group actively discusses issues pertaining to domestic and international ADR, and features a distinguished and diverse membership of arbitrators, mediators, business people, attorneys, law professors, students, and other persons interested in ADR.  Our members hail from not only the United States, but many other countries as well. 

The group, which was formed in May 2009, is now more than 800 members strong and is growing by the week.  Many different industries are represented, including the insurance and reinsurance industry.  The group enables members to share information; discuss and debate issues; directly access numerous excellent ADR-related blogs; and network with others in the domestic and international ADR community. 

The group welcomes new members, and encourages (but does not require) active participation.  The only requirement for membership is a bona fide interest in ADR.  The group is not a forum for, and does not permit, advertising or blatant self-promotion, so our members need not be concerned about being subject to sales pitches and the like. 

If you are already a member of LinkedIn, please click here to apply for membership in the group.  If you are not a LinkedIn member, click here, and you will be guided through the process of creating a profile (which does not need to be completed in one step).  Once your profile is started, and you have a log-in name and password, you can apply for membership in the group (which entails no more than clicking on a button).  Joining LinkedIn is free, as is joining the group. 

We hope you’ll join up!

The LinkedIn Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Reaches 700 Member Mark

April 27th, 2010 ADR Social Media, Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Comments Off on The LinkedIn Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Reaches 700 Member Mark

On May 21, 2009 Disputing and the Loree Reinsurance and Arbitration Law Forum announced the formation of the LinkedIn Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group (post available here), an open forum for the discussion of industry and commercial ADR.   At that time the group was 29 members strong, and if someone had told me that there was even a chance the group might reach the 700 member mark in a year or less, then I probably would have burst out laughing.  But my amusement would have been sorely misplaced, because yesterday the group reached the 700 member mark after being in existence for just over eleven months.  And we expect it will continue to grow.       

Some LinkedIn groups are a little dull, featuring little or no meaningful discussion and plenty of shameless self promotion.  But this group is a lively one that enjoys debating issues and sharing information and experiences.  Discussions have been frequent and spirited, the group is internationally and professionally diverse, and group members have access to several ADR blog feeds, as well as articles posted by other group members.  It is an excellent networking and learning opportunity for anyone interested in commercial and industry ADR.

The Group is co-managed by Don Philbin, Jr., Karl Bayer, Robert Bear, Victoria Van Buren and me.  Sharing the burden of group management makes it easier to keep up a steady flow of discussion and interaction. 

But the Group’s greatest strength is its membership, which is bright, talented, accomplished, friendly and willing to share to insights and information concerning arbitration, mediation, negotiation and other forms of dispute resolution.  It is a fine example of how social media can foster excellent professional networking communities.    

Membership in the group is recommended to those interested in keeping abreast of current events pertinent to arbitration (including consumer and international arbitration), tracking judicial and legislative developments relevant to arbitration law, learning more about the subject, or simply sharing information.  We are proud to have as members a number of commercial and industry arbitrators, attorneys, law professors, industry people and arbitration professionals.   

Membership is also recommended if you are a mediator, a business person who utilizes mediation to resolve disputes, an attorney who represent clients in mediation or a person interested in learning about mediation or sharing information on the subject.  The group’s membership features a number of highly-accomplished mediators, dispute resolution professionals, ADR bloggers and professors.  Not being a mediator myself, I have learned much about mediation simply through group discussions.      

We welcome new members both from the United States and other countries.  The only requirement for membership is a bona fide interest in ADR.  The group is not a forum for, and does not permit, advertising or blatant self-promotion, so our members need not be concerned about being subject to sales pitches, and the like. 

If you are already a member of LinkedIn, please click here to apply for membership in the group. If you are not a LinkedIn member, click here, and you will be guided through the process of creating a profile (which does not need to be completed in one step).  Once your profile is started, and you have a log-in name and password, you can apply for membership in the group (which entails no more than clicking on a button).  Joining LinkedIn is free, as is joining the group. 

We hope you’ll join up!

Some New and Useful Resources for Arbitration and Mediation Fans Courtesy of Don Philbin and Victoria Pynchon

January 17th, 2010 ADR Social Media, General, Twitter 2 Comments »

Our friends Victoria Pynchon and Don Philbin recently contributed to the ADR blogosphere some excellent, new resources.  First, Victoria has transferred stewardship of her IP ADR Blog  — which focuses on arbitration, mediation and negotiation issues pertinent to intellectual property disputes — to our friend Professor Eric van Ginkel, and started a new blog with a broader scope:  the Commercial ADR Blog.  The blog’s tag line is “Business Solutions to Justice Issues,” and, as its title suggests, it covers the entire spectrum of  issues pertinent to commercial ADR.  You can visit it here, or access it via our blogroll. 

The Commercial ADR Blog reflects the high-quality writing and insightful analysis that we have come to expect from Victoria’s Settle It Now blog, and the IP ADR Blog.  It also has a very pleasing layout and uses pictures very effectively — another characteristic of Victoria’s blogs, especially Settle It Now.  In fact, every time I check out Settle It Now or Commercial ADR, I make a mental note to learn how to use effectively the pictures function in WordPress!   (By the way, another blog that uses pictures effectively is Disputing, Karl Bayer’s and Victoria VanBuren’s excellent blog.)  

Few in the ADR business are as indefatigable as Victoria Pynchon, but our friend, and LinkedIn Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group Co-Manager Don Philbin is in her league.  Don’s latest contribution to the world of ADR is the ADR Highlight Reel, which you can read here or access via the link in our blogroll.  Don avidly follows more than 100 blogs, many or most of which touch on ADR, or ADR-related topics, like brain science.  Don traditionally flagged articles that he thought were particularly interesting and distributed copies of them by snail mail, and later, by e mail.  With the advent of Twitter, Don set up a system that allows him to tag articles, which, along with a brief description, are automatically posted on Twitter via an RSS feed.  The ADR Hightight Reel consolidates in a single blog post the links to all of Don’s recommended ADR articles for a given period. 

Don’s is an incredibly valuable resource.  Many of us spend hours surfing the web or plowing through Google Reader to keep abreast of ADR-related developments.  Don does all of that work for us and makes it available in one highly accessible format.  Even if you already follow Don on Twitter, and receive his recommendations on a real time basis, article by article, having those recommendations in one spot is a real big plus. 

I suppose a skeptic might question whether he or she should rely on a third person to cull through the 100s of articles pertinent to ADR regularly posted in the blogosphere.  But I can assure readers that Don casts a very wide net with a fairly narrow mesh (I apologize — Sometimes I simply cannot resist fishing-related metaphors, even so-so ones like this!).  The chances of Don not featuring a truly relevant ADR article in his ADR Highlight Reel are, in my humble opinion and experience, slim to none.

Let us all extend our heartfelt thanks to Victoria Pynchon and Don Philbin for their wonderful, new contributions to the ADR blogosphere.

Stolt-Nielsen Oral Argument Analysis: Part III

December 23rd, 2009 Arbitrability, Authority of Arbitrators, Awards, Class Action Arbitration, Class Action Waivers, Consolidation of Arbitration Proceedings, United States Supreme Court 2 Comments »

On December 9, 2009 the United States Supreme Court held oral argument in Stolt-Nielsen, S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 548 F.3d 85 (2d Cir. 2009), petition for cert. granted June 15, 2009 (No. 08-1198) (oral argument transcript here).  Stolt-Nielsen concerns whether class or consolidated arbitration may be imposed on parties whose contracts are silent on that point, and we have written extensively on it, including an ongoing series of guest-post articles for our friend Karl Bayer’s  Disputing blog.  (Posts available here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.)  

On December 16, 2009 we posted Part II of our analysis of the oral argument (Parts  I, here, Part II, here).   In this Part III we focus on what transpired with respect to the second of four key interrelated issues raised at oral argument and identified in Part I:  What exactly did the arbitrators decide?  Continue Reading »

Disputing Celebrates its Fourth Birthday!

August 24th, 2009 Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group, General Comments Off on Disputing Celebrates its Fourth Birthday!

Today our good friends Karl Bayer and Victoria VanBuren are celebrating Disputing’s fourth birthday.  You can read about it here.   

Disputing is an excellent ADR blog and, on behalf of the Loree Reinsurance and Arbitration Law Forum, we congratulate Karl and Victoria on this special day.  Both of them have made an enormously valuable contribution to the ADR blogosphere, and continue to produce a steady stream of timely, interesting, thoughtful, and well-written posts. And they have a very impressive following, as well.

As co-founders of the LinkedIn Commercial and Industry Arbitration and Mediation Group, they have helped provide an excellent forum to the ADR community for the discussion of issues pertinent to the field.  The group continues to grow, and the discussions keep flowing, even in the dog days of summer!

Karl and Victoria:  Congratulations and keep up the excellent work!