Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice.

On November 10, 2007, a Harvard law graduate who worked as an arbitrator and mediator, gave a talk in San Francisco on the differences between arbitration and mediation.

In mediation, the parties may be in separate rooms.  If the parties want to submit information to the mediator in confidence, the parties should mark the information as confidential so that the mediator does not disclose the information to other parties.   

In arbitration, there is a disclosure process.  However, in collective bargaining situations there is no disclosure obligation by the arbitrator.  The arbitrator needs to disclose conflicts.  This means disclosing information on whether the arbitrator knows the parties, their relatives, subsidiaries, attorneys, investors.  If the proper disclosures are not made, the award may be vacated.  Then the arbitrator may be sued for not living up to the ethical obligations.  This would mean the arbitrator may need to pay the costs for the parties to go through another arbitration.