Arbitration. Parity to the people
| Author | Stephanie Francis Ward |
| Pages | 25-27 |
KITA mock trial training
is in session.
ARBITRATION
Parity
to the
People
A group of Harvard law students
is trying to get rid of mandatory
arbitration clauses
BY STEPHANIE FRANCIS WARD
“I wouldn’t recommend someone for
something I don’t think they are ready
to do. I’m a rm believer that learning
by doing is the most effective way to do
anything, and the KITA program is a
way to learn through doing,” he says.
Marc Galanter, a University of
Wisconsin-Madison law professor who
wrote the oft-cited 2004 Journal of
Empirical Legal Studies article about
“vanishing trials,” says that 20 years
ago, he would have been surprised that
a rm like Kirkland & Ellis publicized
a mock trial program rather than real
court time. Today he thinks it makes
sense, as there are so few federal trials.
According to his research, 11.5% of
federal civil cases were resolved by trial
in 1962, and by 2002, that number
dropped to 1.8%.
He says today less than 1% of feder-
al civil lawsuits are resolved by trial.
“This creates an alternative way
to have the experience of a jury trial,
and maybe the sense of condence for
people, to negate that suggestion that
it seems like kind of a weak substitute.
I’m impressed they think it’s worth it to
get this kind of experience,” Galanter
says. He adds that the program could
help Kirkland recruit law students as
summer and rst-year associates.
“It wouldn’t turn them off, and it
gives the perception that the rm is
interested in investing in them,” he
says, adding that today, young lawyers
working as public defenders, prosecu-
tors, city attorneys or sole practitioners
probably get the most trial time.
Investing in associates
Current and potential clients would
also be likely to view the Kirkland pro-
gram favorably, says Deborah Farone,
a consultant who has previously served
as the chief marketing ofcer with both
Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Debev-
oise & Plimpton.
“The client would want to know
that the rm is investing in their
associates and providing them with
training. Also, the client ends up with a
higher-caliber associate that’s actually
had this mock trial training and gone
through a serious curriculum,” Farone
says.
Stephanie Biderman, a managing
director with the legal recruiting rm
Major, Lindsey & Africa, frequently
works with young lawyers. In terms of
job searches for lateral associates, she’s
not sure how much weight employers
would give to participation in the
KITA program. But she thinks it
is a great draw for young lawyers
who Kirkland would like to hire
as lateral associates.
“When junior associates are
looking to make a move, often-
times it’s because they don’t feel
that their skills are developing the
way they want, in terms of oppor-
tunities given,” Biderman says.
Photos by Leslie Barbaro
Business of Law | ARBITRATION
If you attended Venable’s
Washington, D.C., summer
recruiting reception for law
students in June or DLA
Piper’s Boston associate recruiting
event in March, someone may have
handed you a flyer on the way in
about the big firm’s mandate that
staff and associates sign arbitra-
tion agreements as a condition of
employment.
The People’s Parity Project, formerly
known as the Pipeline Parity Project,
organized the leaeting. Harvard Law
School students started the group in
2018, when the #MeToo movement
began drawing attention to manda-
tory arbitration employment disputes
involving sexual harassment and gender
discrimination. A Twitter campaign led
to law rms, including Munger, Tolles
& Olson, dropping arbitration as con-
dition of employment.
In 2018, Harvard Law School did
a voluntary survey of employers doing
on-campus interviews, and 18 reported
having arbitration as a condition of
employment, according to a People’s
Parity Project blog post. There were
between 300 and 400 employers, with
the vast majority being law rms, and
about 90% participated in the survey,
Mark Weber, Harvard Law’s assistant
dean for career services, told the ABA
Journal. This year, the survey was
mandatory for employers participating
in the law school’s on-campus inter-
views. The pool was the same size as in
26
ABA JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2019
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