The pandemic crisis has hit our judicial system. Courts have had to close their physical doors to protect the judiciary, their personnel and the public. Many are struggling to convert their technological backbones to allow employees to function remotely and to conduct at least emergency matters. During these necessary transitions, another curve is growing, the […]
COVID-19 Resources for Arbitration and Mediation Practitioners
With the onset of the Coronavirus – COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, videoconferencing has taken on new attention and importance for use in technology arbitration proceedings as well as in mediations coming from disputes in technology arbitration or elsewhere. Below are some helpful resources: Advisories Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center Coronavirus Advisory […]
DOJ Sends Merger Challenge to Arbitration
Those of us in law’s antitrust community sometimes wonder if we have silently labored in distant fields, known only to “deep-state intellectuals” in the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission. As arbitrators or mediators, we wait patiently by the phone—happily taking on a wide range of business disputes, but seldom seeing cases in our favored […]
Arbitrators Are Not Judges
When I share with non-lawyers at a cocktail party what I do for a living, their response is often “Oh, like a private judge!” I usually mumble, “Yes, sort of” but the better answer is “Not really, not at all.” The distinction is particularly evident in the technology sector. Here’s why. Judges are appointed […]
Engrossing Discussion at First Annual Law Firm Roundtable
On October 26, 2017, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, PC, hosted SVAMC’s first Law Firm Roundtable: A gathering of 13 senior lawyers from ten of Silicon Valley’s major firms, co-sponsored by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (“CPR”). Chris Compton moderated the program, joined by SVAMC’s Chairman Gary Benton, CEO Les Schiefelbein […]
Dispute in Space–Arbitrate!
Google’s Street View has taken flight with a new feature that allows users the feeling of being in outer space. Street View is a technology feature in Google Maps and Google Earth that functions as an interactive virtual map. Street View displays panoramas across all seven continents and in late July introduced a new location […]
Controlling the costs of arbitration: “Fixed Fees for Arbitrators”
One of the most vibrant and intricate issues in international arbitration is unquestionably the costs that go along with this mechanism to solve disputes. Service providers and users across the globe seem unable to find a satisfactory framework to a binomial “cost & time-efficient” procedure with excellence. It is true that arbitral institutions are constantly […]