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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 43

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