The first installment of the Fifth Annual International Arbitration Symposium: Bridging the Common and Civil Law Chasm, entitled “Settlement Promotion by International Arbitrators—Convergence of Systems or the Eternal Divide?” was held on March 17, 2021, with 160 attendees from 50+ countries attending. Professor Klaus Peter Berger of the University of Cologne in Germany gave the keynote address and Second Annual Dorothy Nelson Lecture.

Professor Berger is a Professor for Domestic and International Civil and Business Law, Comparative and Private International Law and Director of the Institute for Banking Law and Center for Transnational Law (CENTRAL) at the University of Cologne.

Judge Dorothy Nelson, is a Senior Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where she has served since 1979. She is the former dean of Gould (1969-1979) and was a professor of law at the law school (1957-1979). Judge Nelson founded the Western Justice Center in 1987 and continues to be instrumental in its growth and considerable success. She is a true pioneer in the field of mediation and ADR.

Richard Chernick, Mediator and Arbitrator with JAMS in Los Angeles, and Symposium Chair for the USC Gould Center for Dispute Resolution Advisory Board, gave opening remarks. Nathan O’Malley, Partner and Head of International Litigation and Arbitration with Musick Peeler in Los Angeles, and Lecturer in Law at Gould, moderated a panel including Grant Kim, Partner with LimNexis in San Francisco, Rogier Schellaars, Partner with Van Doorne in Amsterdam, and Nhu-Hoang Tran Thang, Senior Associate with Peter & Kim in Geneva.

The recording and materials from that webinar are available here.

The second installment, “You’ve Got to Have (Good) Faith — Or Do You? The Arbitrator’s Approach to Contract Interpretation Issues: Civil vs. Common Law Perspectives,” will be held April 14, 2021, with a keynote address by Chiann Bao, Arbitrator and Mediator with Arbitration Chambers in Singapore, with Maria Chedid, Partner with Arnold & Porter in San Francisco moderating a panel including Lorraine Brennan, Moderator and Arbitrator with JAMS in New York, Kathleen Paisley, Partner with Ambos Lawyers in Brussels, and Laurence Shore, Partner with Bonelli Erede in Milan.

The third installment, “International Mediation and the Singapore Convention — The Future of International Mediation,” will be held on May 19, 2021. Howard B. Miller, FCIArb, Mediator and Arbitrator with JAMS in Los Angeles, will moderate a panel including Hiro Aragaki, FCIArb, Mediator and Arbitrator with JAMS in Los Angeles, among others.

The Entertainment ADR Symposium: Is There Still No Business Like Show Business? – ADR Challenges and the Evolution of New Media, will begin May 26, 2021, with an additional webinar to follow in June.

The first installment, “Managing Risk in the Era of New Media,” will feature a keynote address on “The Brave New World of Entertainment” by Jeffrey Cole, research professor and Director of the Center for the Digital Future with USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Patricia L. Glaser of Glaser Weil will moderate a panel discussing the keynote and how to identify and manage risk in new media era, including Mr. Cole, Dan Nabel of Riot Games, Stephanie Abrutyn (former WarnerMedia/HBO counsel), Tammy Brandt of Dreamscape Immersive, entertainment/media insurance expert Cassandra Franklin, and Linda Burrow of Netflix.

For the second installment, “Drafting Skills in New Media – Recognizing and Minimizing Risk,” Richard Chernick will recap the prior webinar and moderate a panel including Kelly Klaus of Munger Tolles & Olson, Bob Cohen (formerly 20th Century Fox/Disney counsel), Scott Edelman of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Courtney Braun, deputy general counsel for Endeavor WME Deputy GC.

Please email Sherman Humphrey at shumphrey@jamsadr.com to join our mailing list for these events. For sponsorship opportunities, please email Preston Ascherin at pascherin@law.usc.edu.

In Spring 2021, the Center again offered its ADR Speaker Series. This series of intimate, informal conversations includes experts in youth conflict resolution education, administrators with prominent arbitration providers, and several Gould ADR alumni.

Joseph Jeong (LLM in ADR 2018) and Brooke Cavanaugh (LLM in ADR 2020) who currently apply the knowledge they gained from USC at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), spoke about how they help parties in securities disputes navigate the arbitration or mediation process. Seth Chavez of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) discussed the association’s fee arbitration program and offered insight into how attorneys and clients navigate such disputes and available opportunities for ADR graduates to contribute.

Coming up, the Center will host Julie Ware, private mediator and Assistant Manager for the downtown Los Angeles Resolution Center of JAMS, Inc, who will offer unique insights as a mediation practitioner and arbitration administrator. Trojan alum Valerie Harragin will also join the Series to discuss her years of experience as a Federal Mediator dealing with labor and employment disputes,

Later in April, students will speak with Gould Lecturer and ADR alum Justin Hoyt. In addition to teaching ADR Clause Drafting and Arbitration in the U.S. at Gould, Justin maintains a private practice as an arbitrator, discovery referee, and mediator of commercial, employment and personal injury disputes. Finally, Shaune Gatlin and Arturo Magaña from the Western Justice Center will speak with students about their work overseeing youth conflict resolution programs and education in LA-area middle schools, as well as internship opportunities for students.

SCMA Family Mediation Institute

The Center sponsored USC Gould’s ADR students to attend Southern California Mediation Association’s 4th Annual Family Mediation Institute where they were able to connect and network with professionals across California and the U.S., including attorneys, mediators, family therapists, parenting specialists and financial experts.

This semester we again offered a Building Your Mediation Practice Workshop to the Center's students and alumni. In this live webinar, Wendy Kramer of ADR Services, Inc., taught students how to build a mediation business from the ground up. Students learned how to enhance their professional development, develop tools necessary to market their practices, network to develop clientele, and identify day-to-day mediation business practices.

As a leader in commercial real estate mediation, Jim Sullivan works with organizations such as AIR CRE to resolve disputes involving all aspects and of commercial real estate.

I chose to pursue my MDR at USC Gould to support my goal of starting my own commercial real estate mediation practice. I also wanted to join the Trojan Family to connect with other Gould graduates who were practicing real estate law or involved in commercial real estate in other capacities.

I wasn’t interested in becoming an attorney, but was very interested in how ADR plays a growing role in resolving disputes between professionals and businesses in commercial real estate. I’ve worked in commercial real estate for more than 35 years. I’ve been involved in commercial real brokerage dispute resolution for more than 15 years. A Masters in Dispute Resolution from Gould was the ideal formal educational complement to my experience.

The opportunity to conduct several real-world mediations where the outcomes were legally binding and really mattered to the parties. My MDR degree from USC Gould complements my professional experience with a strong academic foundation and theoretical basis.

Think about how you would like to use your degree. Do you have business, legal or other experience that could be supported/expanded with an ADR degree? You don’t have to be an attorney to be an effective, successful mediator.

As a recognized resource for the most sought-after mediators, arbitrators, and private judges, Judicate West recently welcomed Glick to the neutrals panel.

Jason Harper will be a keynote speaker for the 2021 California ADR Conference. The conference reaches administrators, teachers, and service providers serving K-12th grade in Special Education for the entire state of California.

There will be approximately 1200 attendees for this conference and Jason's keynote is titled "Mindfulness in Contentious Moments."

With changes to the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration due to be published early this year, O'Malley recently published a piece in the IBA covering the manner in which these rules have been interpreted by U.S. courts: The IBA Rules and US courts.

Additionally, O'Malley was recently listed by Who’s Who Legal as a Global Leader.

Some years ago, while developing curriculum for a new course, I came across a chapter in a book authored by Canadian management professor Gervase R. Bushe, titled “Sense Making and the Problems of Learning from Experience: Barriers and Requirements for Creating a Culture of Collaboration.” I was especially intrigued by the author’s description of what he called “interpersonal mush,” a condition frequently infecting organizational communication and obstructing collaborative endeavors.

While I was familiar with the symptoms of this condition, I had never heard it described with such a simple but expressive label. His treatment of this topic made so much sense to me that I have incorporated it in my dispute resolution teaching, training and practice ever since. Bushe describes interpersonal mush as occurring, “…when people’s understanding of one another is based on fantasies and stories they have made up, thinking they are the facts.” It was especially useful in my work as the director of a law school legal clinic where my students and I facilitated dispute resolution between parents and school districts in connection with the education of children with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

This condition is especially prevalent in situations where group members engage in discussions associated with planning and decision making. In such settings, members of a group share and discuss ideas and opinions. Interpersonal mush arises not by what is said but, rather, by what is not said. When participating in discussions, group members rarely say everything they have to say about the topic, and they frequently fail to ask important clarifying questions. There are many reasons for this lack of transparency, some well-intended and some not. One person may hold back for fear of offending the speaker. Another may fail to ask questions, assuming they’ve “got it” based on erroneous automatic assumptions. Someone else may remain silent for fear of being judged. Others may fear that they are out of sync with everyone else. Yet another withholds information out of anger or bad feelings, and on and on.

People are sense-making beings. When exposed to new information, we intuitively try to make sense of it by assessing and attaching meaning and value in order to create and maintain psychological balance. When informational gaps are created people tend, subconsciously, to fill in the gaps with unfounded assumptions that then go unverified and unchecked. We add to what we know with what we don’t know and treat it all as the truth. What we don’t know, but assume to be true, is based on preconceived ideas of what we believe regardless of whether such ideas are supported by objective evidence. “Unfortunately, the stories people make up tend to be more negative than the reality,” Bushe writes. “In a vacuum of information, people tend to assume the worst, and this is particularly true in work organizations.”

An example from my work years ago will help put these ideas in context...

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