ADR in the Spotlight:  Len Riskin; Pyett Panel Discussion

As part of its ADR in the Spotlight series, the Carey Center will host two events on November 9, 2009.  First, Professor Len Riskin, the Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, will address the St. John's law faculty in a luncheon colloquium discussing his recent work on mindfulness.  That afternoon, the Carey Center will host a panel discussion on the recent Supreme Court decision in 14 Penn Plaza v. Pyett.  The panel will feature the advocates who argued the case before the Supreme Court and will be moderated by noted labor law scholar Gary Minda, Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School.

First Annual Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon

The Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution, in conjunction with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), hosted the first annual Securities Dispute Resolution Triathlon on October 17-18, 2009, at St. John’s University’s Manhattan Campus. The Triathlon was a competition in which student teams from law schools around the country engaged in a negotiation, a mediation, and an arbitration of a securities dispute. Students played the roles of attorneys and clients, with some teams in the role of investor and other in the role of broker-dealer. Experienced arbitrators and mediators from FINRA served as neutrals and judges, evaluating and critiquing the student teams’ negotiation, mediation, and arbitration skills.

The law schools sending teams to the competition included Fordham, Pace, Quinnipiac, South Texas, American (Washington College of Law), Duquesne, Florida, Harvard, New York Law School, Penn State (Dickinson School of Law) and Seton Hall, in addition to St. John’s. Awards were given for top scores in each of the three disciplines—negotiation, mediation, and arbitration—as well as for the overall champion and the “advocate’s choice,” an award given to the team voted by other teams as the one they would most like to work with in the future.  

The winning teams were as follows:

Negotiation: Seton Hall

Mediation:    Florida

Arbitration: New York Law School

Overall Champion: St. John’s

Advocate’s Choice: Penn State

Mindfulness Initiatives

As the stresses of the practice of law increase, law students and attorneys need ways to manage the stress in their lives.  As part of the Carey Center's mindfulness iniative, the School of Law will host a literary conversation with Maureen C. Kessler '76, Co-Author of The Reflective Counselor: Daily Meditations for Lawyers, at 5:30 on Tuesday, October 6, 2009, in the School of Law's Writing Center.  The Carey Center will also host Professor Len Riskin, leading scholar on mindfulness for lawyers, on November 9, 2009.

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Dispute Resolution Society Hosts Negotiation Competition

The St. John's Dispute Resolution Society, the student arm of the Carey Center, hosted the first two rounds of its annual Internal Negotiation Competition on Sunday, October 4, 2009.  The competition finals will be held Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at the School of Law.  Top performing negotiators will be selected to represent St. John's at the ABA Negotiation Competition in November.

Carey Center Co-Hosts Conference on ADR in Bankruptcy

On October 2, 2009, in conjunction with the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review and the Bankruptcy Policy Institute at St. John's, the Carey Center co-hosted scholars from the fields of ADR and bankruptcy in a conference titled "ADR Meets Bankruptcy: Cross-Purposes or Cross-Pollination?"  The conference featured panels on Mediation in Bankruptcy and Arbitration in Bankruptcy.  The conference papers will be published as a symposium issue of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review.

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St. John's Celebrates Launch of Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution

On September 17, 2009, St. John's University celebrated the launch of the Hugh L. Carey Center for Dispute Resolution with a reception at the University's TriBeCa campus.  The event marked an important milestone in the growth of the School of Law's program in dispute resolution.

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