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9 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 43 (2014-2015)
The Influence of Arbitrator Background and Representation on Arbitration Outcomes

handle is hein.journals/valbr9 and id is 51 raw text is: 












VIRGINIA LAW & BUSINESS REVIEW

VOLUME 9                         FALL   2014                         NUMBER I


THE INFLUENCE OF ARBITRATOR BACKGROUND
       AND REPRESENTATION ON ARBITRATION
                                OUTCOMES

             Stephen  J. Choi,  Jill E. Fisch, and  A.C. Pritchardt

             We   studj  the  role of arbitrator background  in  securities
         arbitration. We find that several aspects of arbitrator background are
         correlated with arbitration outcomes. Specifically, industy experience,
         prior experience as a regulator, and status as a professional or retired
         arbitrator are correlated with statisticaly signjicant dfferences in
         arbitration awards. The impact of these characteristics is affected by
         whether the arbitrator in question serves as the panel chair and bj
         whether the parties to the arbitration are represented bj counsel.
             Our  findings offer some preliminay insights into the debate over
        possible arbitrator bias. On the one hand, they suggest that the party
        selection process is relativey effective in screening for bias. The Financial
        IndustU  Regulatog Association has imposed increasingly more agorous
        qualication  requirements, specifically with respect to the independence of
        public arbitrators, but our stud suggests that these requirements are
        unlikey  to affect outcomes in most cases. On the other hand, party
        selection appears to be most effective when the parties are represented bj
        counsel. Our findings hzighlght the importance of legal representation in
        the arbitration process.


    STEPHEN J.   CHOI   is the Murray and Kathleen Bring Professor of Law, New York
    University, JILL E. FISCH  is the Perry Golkin Professor of Law,  University of
    Pennsylvania, and A.C. PRITCHARD   is the Frances and George Skestos Professor of
    Law, University of Michigan. The authors thank numerous individuals who assisted us in
    collecting the background information on arbitrators for our analysis. We are also
    grateful to the Searle Civil Justice Institute for financial support of this project. Finally,
    we  are grateful to participants at the Arbitration Research Roundtable sponsored by the
    Searle Civil Justice Institute, the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, the annual
    meeting of the American Law & Economics Association, the University of Toronto Law
    &  Economics  Workshop  and the Advanced Business Law Seminar at Fordham  Law
    School for helpful comments on earlier drafts of the article.

Copyright C 2014 Virginia Law & Business Review Association


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