Loyola Law School Sends Inaugural Team to the International Mediation Competition in Paris

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), located in Paris, France, has for the past thirteen years organized an annual International Commercial Mediation Competition that draws students and practitioners from all corners of the globe. For the first time this year, Loyola Law School sent a team of four students—Josh Genzuk (3L), Nate Pezeshki (3E), Nidya Gutierrez (2L), and Patricia Martinez (2L)—to compete in Paris alongside 66 other schools from 32 different countries. The team was coached by Adjunct Professor Cindy Pasternak (LLS ‘76) and Professor Hiro Aragaki, and was assisted by Visiting Scholar Federico Ferraris, who teaches at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan, Italy.

From February 2-7, 2018, students competed in around 150 mock sessions to resolve international business disputes through mediation in accordance with the most current version of the ICC Mediation Rules. Unlike other ADR competitions where students take the role of the neutral mediator, in the ICC Competition students act as mediation advocates representing a client. The competing teams were supported by more than 130 professionals from around the world who were experienced in resolving cross-border disputes, some of whom acted as mock mediators and others of whom took the role of judges. The students were evaluated on their negotiating and problem-solving skills, their ability to make good use of the mediator, and their ability to bridge cultural differences.

The Competition is the ICC’s biggest educational event of the year and provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for young, talented students and experienced professionals alike to forge relationships, build skills, and share best practices. “I had an unbelievable experience,” 3L student Josh Genzuk said of his participation in the inaugural team. “The training that we received on negotiation theory and human communication theory in general, was one of the greatest learning experiences that I have ever been a part of. I do not believe that this level of learning and interaction would have been attainable in any other law school class.”

Reflections on Epic Systems v. Lewis

By Professor Hiro Aragaki

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court decided three consolidated cases, styled Epic Systems Corp. v Lewis, Nos. 16–285, 16–300, 16–307, 584 U.S. __ (2018), that all raised the issue of whether a class arbitration wavier in various employment contracts was enforceable, given the potentially conflicting mandates of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).  In a 5-4 majority opinion authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Court held that there was no conflict between the two federal statutes and that both were consistent with enforcing the class arbitration wavier.  Justice Ginsburg, writing for the dissent, also found no conflict but believed that both statutes were consistent with the opposite conclusion—namely, that the class arbitration wavier was illegal and should not be enforced.  In the alternative, the dissent reasoned that even if there were a conflict, the waiver was still unenforceable. 

The basic facts of these consolidated cases were that certain employees sought to bring a putative class action against their employers even though their employment contract contained a class arbitration waiver—that is, a clause that not only requires the employee to arbitrate rather than sue in court, but that also prohibits the employee from bringing a class arbitration on behalf of similarly situated employees.  The employees argued that the waiver was illegal and thus unenforceable, because NLRA section 7 had been construed by the National Labor Relations Board to give employees an absolute, non-waivable right to band together in a class when suing their employers.  See D. R. Horton, 357 N. L. R. B. 2277 (2012).  The employers countered that under the FAA section 2, class arbitration waivers must be enforced strictly according to their terms, in some cases even if those terms are otherwise illegal. 

These cases therefore raised the specter of a conflict between two federal statutes: The NLRA, enacted in 1935, and the FAA, enacted in 1925.  Under traditional conflict of laws principles, in the event of an unavoidable conflict between coequal statutes the later-enacted statute controls (in this case, the NLRA).  In Epic Systems, that would translate into a victory for the employee.  So the employers had to hang their hat on the argument that there was no inherent conflict between the FAA and the NLRA. 

DirecTV v. Imburgia

By Professor Hiro Aragaki
Originally published on Indisputably

On Monday, the Court handed down DirectTV v. Imburgia, which now succeeds AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 131 S. Ct. 1740 (2011) as the latest substantive decision from the Court on Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preemption. The case is interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it makes it increasingly clear that the core logic of FAA preemption is one of antidiscrimination.

DirecTV held that the California Court of Appeal’s construction of a condition precedent in the parties’ arbitration agreement was preempted by the FAA. Writing for the majority, Justice Breyer clearly believed that the California appellate court had gotten its own state’s law of contract construction wrong. But he conceded—as he had to—that a federal court cannot sit in judgment of a state court decision on state law. So it was not enough simply to say that the decision was irrational and just plain wrong (which it was in my opinion as a contracts professor). There had to be a reason why the decision conflicted with the FAA.

Loyola professors conduct ADR training in Bangladesh

The Loyola Law School Center For Conflict Resolution (CCR) partnered with the South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS) and the Judicial Administration Training Institute (JATI) of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh to present a training program on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Bangladesh from July 16-22, 2011. Clinical Professor Mary B. Culbert, director of the Center For Conflict Resolution, and Associate Professor Hiro N. Aragaki provided 30 hours of mediation training to 25 judges and 12 attorneys in Bangladesh. They also met with other high ranking member of the Bangladesh legal system to discuss ways to create an ADR culture and to better utilize ADR to reduce the backlog in their court system, including the minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Barrister Shafique Ahmed, and the chief justice of Bangladesh, Mr. Justice Md. Muzammel, and other justices of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Professors Culbert and Aragaki also met with various law schoosl to discuss the integration of skills training in to their curriculum.