Annual meeting repor

• Pages: 61-62

A BUSY 2 DAYS House of Delegates urges end

to mandatory arbitration of

sexual harassment claims

By Lee Rawles and Lorelei Laird

After a year in which sexual h arassment in

the workplace has ta ken center stage, the

ABA House of Delegates voted to urg e legal

employers not to require mandatory arbitra-

tion of such claims.

Resolution 300, a response to the Me

Too movement, doesn’t see k to eliminate

arbitration in all instances. Rather, it

opposes mandatory binding arbitration that

employees cannot o pt out of and shields the

matters from public dis closure. It was co-

sponsored by the Commission on Women

in the Profession, the C ommission on Racial

and Ethnic Diversit y in the Profession,

the Commission on Sexual Orientation and

Gender Identit y, and the Section of Civil

Rights and Socia l Justice.

No ABA entity o c ially opposed it, but

Resolution 300’s report noted that revisions

were made in response to concerns raised

by other entities.

The resolution was moved

in the House by delegate

Stephanie Schar f of Illinois, chai r of the

women’s commission. Sh e said its broad sup-

port refl ec ts the fact that “we are living i n a

time when men and wome n will no longer

tolerate what really has been decades of

staying silent about sexual harassment.”

She also noted recent res earch from

the 2017-2018 Presidential Initiative

on Achieving Long-Term Careers for

Women in Law. Data cited in the resoluti on

showed that 49 percent of fema le lawyers in

America’s 350 largest law fi rms say they’ve

had some kind of “unwanted s exual contact”

at work.

“The ABA sets the gold st andard in so

many areas of law and pol icy,” said Scharf

of Chicago-ba sed Scharf Banks M armor. “I

ask you to set the gold stan dard here—that in

our profession, vic tims of sexual harassmen t

will choose how they wish to pro ceed and

where.”

The resolution passed easily.

AID FOR PUERTO RICO

A nearly century-old shipping

regulation is hampering Puerto

Rico’s economic and physical

recovery in the wake of Hurr icane

Maria last year, and Congre ss

should enact legislation to

permanently exempt

the island, the

ABA House

of Delegates

declared

in another

resolution.

The Jones Act,

as the Merchant

Marine Act of

1920 is known,

places additional

regulations and

requirements on

ships that travel betwee n U.S. ports . It raises

the cost of shipping , and every U.S. ter ritory

has been exempted from it, b ut Puerto Rico

remains under its scope. “Estimates indicate

that the Jones Act cos ts the Puerto Rican

economy hundreds of millions of dollars

every year, and in 2010 alon e cost $537 mil-

lion,” according to Resolution 10B’s accom-

panying report.

The presidents of the New York State Bar

Association and th e New York City Bar

Association rose to spea k in favor of the

resolution. Michael Miller of the NYSBA

said the resolution wa s the product of “an

unprecedented collaboration” between the

bar associations , and he joked that an issue

would have to be importa nt if the associa-

tions could put aside their traditional rivalry

to advocate for it.

“Exemption from the J ones Act will not

work miracles, but i t would be a major step

forward,” Miller said.

Resolution 10B passed overwhelmingly.

The House also approved th e following

actions:

Resolution 116B urges that laws and poli-

cies be adopted to largely prohibit out-of-

school suspension and expulsion for children

in pre-kindergarten through second grade.

The two exceptions cited woul d be if “(1) the

student poses an imminent threat of serious

physical harm to sel f or others that cannot

be reduced or elimina ted through the use

of age-appropriate school-based behavior

interventions an d supports and (2) the du ra-

tion of the exclusion is lim ited to the shortest

period practicable.”

Resolution 116C urges courts and gov-

ernment entities to interpret Titles II and III

of the Americans with Disabilities Act as

applying to technol ogy, and goods and ser-

vices delivered via technology.

Resolution 101 amends ABA Model

Rules of Professional Con duct 7.1-7.5,

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ABA MEDIA RELATIONS; BY KATHY ANDERSON

ANNUAL MEETING REPORT || Your ABA

Former ABA President Hilarie

Bass passes the gavel on to new

ABA President Robert Carlson.

OCTOBER 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 61