So You Think Your Arbitration Agreement Is "Good Enough"?

Experienced arbitration counsel spend a lot of energy impressing on corporate colleagues and in-house counsel the importance of using arbitration expertise when drafting arbitration agreements. Sometimes it seems we're not taken seriously – that our audience thinks it's "good enough" to just paste some generic arbitration agreement into their contract. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A real life horror story might drive the point home. Names have been omitted, and details fudged, to protect the guilty...I mean innocent. But this is a true story.

Once upon a time, a business and employee negotiated an employment contract. It provided the business would pay the employee about $150,000 per year. It required that disputes between the parties be resolved by arbitration. Each party would appoint one arbitrator and those two would appoint a chair. The arbitral tribunal's award would be final and binding, and could be converted to a court judgment to be enforced.