The Arbitrator as Judge . . .
and Judge of Jurisdiction

Professor Larson, a Senior Fellow at Hamline's Dispute Resolution Institute, teaches Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR and Technology, Torts, Employment Discrimination Law, Employment Law, and Labor Law. Professor Larson focuses on employment discrimination law, employment law, & labor law (including international & comparative), ADR (arbitration & online dispute resolution), torts (medical malpractice). He was the founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment (CCH Inc.), served as an arbitrator for the Omaha Tribe, was a hearing examiner for the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, and currently is an independent arbitrator.

Professor Larson has published more than 50 articles and book chapters and has made more than 120 professional presentations in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, England, Ireland, Sweden and the United States. His recent articles have focused on technology mediated dispute resolution. He has been a leader in the American Bar Association and his many assignments include vice chair for the Section of Dispute Resolution, Law School Education and Dispute Prevention Committee and vice chair for the International Law and Practice Section, Employment Law Committee.
 

Professor Amy Schmitz, Colorado University Law School

Amy Schmitz is a tenure-track associate professor of law at the Colorado Law School, where she focuses on Arbitration, Contracts, Contract Theory, Consumer Empowerment, Service Learning, and Secured Transactions. Professor Schmitz joined the Colorado Law School faculty in 2000, leaving private legal practice with Faegre & Benson LLP, in its Minneapolis office, and the Seattle office of Stoel Rives LLP. Her practice in Stoel Rives' Construction and Design Group focused on commercial issues, and included representation of a variety of parties in litigation, arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution processes. Her current research project focuses on analysis and enforcement of contractual promises to participate in private dispute resolution processes not governed by statute.

Her involvement with the Colorado Bar Association committee in revising Colorado's version of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code has ended with the enactment of revised Art. 9. Professor Schmitz is currently the advisor for Women's Law Caucus (WLC) and co-advisor for the Construction and Real Estate Law Association (CREALA). She is also involved with CU's Service Learning program and Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement.  

Professor Thomas Stipanowich, Pepperdine University School of Law

Thomas J. Stipanowich is the William H. Webster Chair in Dispute Resolution and Professor of Law at Pepperdine University, as well as academic director of the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. The Straus Institute was ranked number one among academic dispute resolution programs each of the last five years by U.S. News & World Report. He is co-author, with Ian Macneil and Richard Speidel, of the groundbreaking five-volume treatise Federal Arbitration Law: Agreements, Awards & Remedies Under the Federal Arbitration Act, cited by the Supreme Court and many other federal and state courts, which was named Best New Legal Book by the Association of American Publishers. He also co-authored Resolving Disputes: Theory, Law and Practice, a law school course book supplemented by many practical exercises and illustrations on video; the second edition was just published. He has twice won the CPR Institute's First Prize for Professional Articles (1987 and 2009), most recently for "Arbitration: The 'New Litigation.'" In 2008, he was given the D'Alemberte/Raven Award, the ABA Dispute Resolution Section's highest honor, for contributions to the field.

Professor Stipanowich has extensive experience as a commercial and construction arbitrator, mediator, facilitator and special master, with emphasis on large and complex cases. He is a neutral with JAMS, and was among the inaugural members of the new JAMS Construction and Engineering Group of neutrals. He has often served on panels for the American Arbitration Association (AAA), the International Center for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR), often as chair. He has trained arbitrators or mediators for the AAA, CPR, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Straus Institute; has facilitated internal and inter-organizational problem-solving and consensus-building efforts; and has helped develop corporate programs for avoiding or resolving disputes. 

Attorney Robert Davidson, Executive Director of JAMS Arbitration Practice

Robert B. Davidson, Esq. is a full-time arbitrator and mediator, and the executive director of JAMS Arbitration Practice. He has sat in over 150 domestic and international arbitrations as sole arbitrator and as a member of tripartite panels in both institutional and ad hoc settings. Cases arbitrated have involved complex commercial and financial business issues, including contract actions, disputes under APA and SPA agreements, construction, insurance and reinsurance claims, oil and gas disputes, securities, tax, construction, real estate, intellectual property, employment disputes, and sports matters.

Over the course of his career as a litigation partner at a major international law firm, Mr. Davidson acted as counsel for clients in numerous arbitrations involving a variety of disputes, including serving as lead counsel in domestic and international arbitrations, including 11 cases before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal (more than any other lawyer), cases before the U.N. Compensation Commission (established to determine claims against Iraq arising out of the first Gulf war), cases before domestic panels, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Netherlands Arbitration Institute, and ad hoc panels. Mr. Davidson has also mediated numerous commercial disputes involving securities, intellectual property, tax, employment, construction, real estate, aircraft leasing, and other commercial matters. 

Professor Michael Foreman, Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law

Professor Michael Foreman's professional and scholarly focus has centered primarily on civil rights issues and employment discrimination. He directs Penn State's Civil Rights Appellate Clinic that has, since its inception in 2008, served as counsel on several briefs filed with the United States Supreme Court (including a brief on one of the Symposium cases, Rent-a-Center v. Jackson, 130 S.Ct. 2772 (2010)), filed a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court, and prepared testimony for a Senate Committee on the impact of some of these recent Supreme Court decisions.

Prior to joining Penn State Law, Professor Foreman was deputy director of Legal Programs for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where he supervised litigation in employment discrimination, housing, education, voting rights, and environmental justice matters. He continues to work closely with the Lawyers' Committee and other national civil rights organizations on appellate issues with the Penn State Civil Rights Appellate Clinic. He was recently selected by Harvard Law School to serve as a Wasserstein Fellow, which recognizes dedicated service in the public interest. 

Attorney Brian White, Partner in King & Spalding, Atlanta Office

Attorney Brian White is a partner in King & Spalding’s Business Litigation and International Arbitration Practice Groups.  He is based out of the firm’s Atlanta office. He focuses on complex litigation matters, representing clients in international and domestic arbitrations, as well as in lawsuits at the trial and appellate levels in the state and federal courts in the United States. 

Mr. White has represented clients in arbitration disputes under the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Chamber of Commerce, the CAM Santiago, the International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Chamber, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce, the AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society (U.K.), the American Arbitration Association’s International Centre for Dispute Resolution, the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment disputes and UNCITRAL.  Mr. White has also litigated cases in state and federal courts throughout the United States. 

Mr. White’s experience with corporate transactions includes disputes involving merger and acquisition agreements, joint venture agreements, and technology licensing agreements for domestic and international clients; alleged Federal RICO violations; consumer class action litigation; employment disputes; and a variety of business torts.  His experience with real estate transactions includes disputes involving contracts for the purchase and sale of real property; securitization agreements; and commercial leases.  In addition, he has represented both condemnors and condemnees in numerous eminent domain proceedings.