Washington Partner Pens Two Articles
Washington partner Merril Hirsh had his article (co-authored with ADR practitioners Jim Rhodes and Karl Bayer) published on May 11 in Disputing. The article is the thirteenth in a series that discusses the role of Special Masters in complex litigation and how litigants can best use them to improve their litigation experience. “In Part Twelve, we suggested harnessing the motivation that has led courts to refer cases to settlement conferences or to insist on private mediation in favor of an alternative – a plan regularly to refer cases sufficiently complex to benefit from active case management for oversight by a special master,” the trio state. “So how do we make sure cases are overseen and not just the victim of oversight?” To find out, read more here.
Merril also had his article “ Getting It Right: The Other Challenge for Arbitration” published in the D.C. Bar’s Litigation Section’s May 2015 Newsletter. In it, he discusses the challenges of arbitration as Fortune 1000 companies are tired of the expense and inefficiency of the process – or at least the way arbitrations used to be handled. “Fortunately, the ultimate irony of arbitration is also its strength: arbitration is what you make it,” he contends. “Parties can craft arbitration clauses and select arbitrators with a view towards balancing quality, efficiency, and finality. Perhaps most important, parties can choose arbitrators whose laudable desire to get the parties a final decision is matched by the desire to get the decision right and to keep the expenses reasonable.”