HBO for ADR: Using Television's Silicon Valley to Teach Arbitration

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/jlse.12097
Date01 June 2019
Published date01 June 2019
Journal of Legal Studies Education
Volume 36, Issue 2, 359–380, Summer 2019
HBO for ADR: Using Television’s
Silicon Valley to Teach Arbitration
Michael R. Fricke
I. INTRODUCTION
Teachers of the law have long relied on cases to give interesting real-life
context to the black-letter law we teach our students. When we need to discuss
foreseeability, we consider the events of Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.1
and when we need to teach our students about shareholder primacy, we tell
the tale of how the Dodge brothers took on Henry Ford in Dodge v. Ford Motor
Co.2Judicial decisions are an invaluable resource when teaching almost any
legal topic.
When it comes to the legal issues surrounding alternative dispute resolu-
tion (ADR)—specifically mediation and arbitration—the confidential nature
of many ADR agreements leaves us lacking good examples to illustrate how
mediation and arbitration proceedings function. This dearth of examples
may contribute to ADR being given short shrift in business law courses.
For those of us teaching in business schools, our students are highly
likely to encounter some form of ADR during their careers. The fact that the
average arbitration reaches a final decision in about seven months3while the
Senior Lecturer, Department of Management and Organizations; Associate Director, Center
for Leadership Ethics, University of Arizona Eller College of Management.
1162 N.E. 99, 99 (1928). In Palsgraf, a man carrying a nondescript package was running to catch
a train as it pulled away from the station. A railroad employee gave him a boost in an attempt to
help him onto the train, at which point his package dropped to the ground and exploded, for it
contained fireworks. This caused a large scale to topple over onto forty-year-old Helen Palsgraf,
who was seated on the other side of the station. The question for the court was can the railroad
company be held liable for Palsgraf’s injuries?
2170 N.W. 668, 684 (1919) (holding that the primary duty of corporate managers is to serve the
interests of the shareholders, rather than those of the employees).
3SECTION ON DISPUTE RESOLUTION,AM.BAR ASSN,BENEFITS OF ARBITRATION FOR COMMER-
CIAL DISPUTES 3, https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/events/dispute resolution/
committees/arbitration/arbitrationguide.authcheckdam.pdf.
C2019The Author
Journal of Legal Studies Education C2019Academy of Legal Studies in Business
359
360 Vol. 36 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education
average civil lawsuit with court action in federal court takes 25.9 months to
be resolved (as of 2016) makes ADR a very attractive alternative to litigation.4
Further, the fact that there are more than nine times as many professionals
working as mediators, arbitrators, and conciliators in the United States than
there are federal judges5demonstrates the importance of ADR in the U.S.
economy.
In this article, I will provide an example of an arbitration proceeding
from the HBO television show Silicon Valley that is realistic and encourages
student engagement much like many popular court cases.6Utilizing this
example in a legal studies classroom serves several important purposes. First,
it gives the students an engaging look into the world of arbitration and
how it compares to litigation. Second, it allows the instructor to synthesize
several class topics—such as contract formation and ownership of intellectual
property (IP)—in one complex case study. Finally, it helps students learn how
to apply the law to a fact pattern.
By way of background, the primary plot of the second season of Silicon
Valley concerns a dispute between a large technology company, Hooli, and
one of its former employees, Richard Hendricks, who left Hooli to start
his own company, Pied Piper.7Season one centered around Hendricks’s
invention of a new software algorithm and decision to leave Hooli to
start Pied Piper.8In season two, Hooli responds with a lawsuit, which
4U.S. COURTS,TABLE C-5. U.S. DISTRICT COURTS—MEDIAN TIME INTERVALS FROM FILING TO
DISPOSITION OF CIVIL CASES TERMINATED,BY DISTRICT AND METHOD OF DISPOSITION,DURING THE
12-MONTH PERIOD ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2016, https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/
data tables/stfj c5 1231.2016.pdf.
5Compare BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS,OCCUPATIONAL OUTLOOK HANDBOOK,
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/arbitrators-mediators-and-conciliators.htm (last visited June
12, 2019) (providing that, as of 2016, there were 7800 professional mediators, arbitrators, and
conciliators in the United States, with a projected growth rate of ten percent until 2026), with U.S.
COURTS,AUTHORIZED JUDGESHIPS, http://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/allauth.pdf 8
(last visited June 12, 2019) (providing that, in 2016, there were 860 authorized Article III federal
judgeships).
6See, e.g., Silicon Valley| Trailers, Characters, Behind the Scenes & More, HBO, https://www.hbo.com/
silicon-valley (last visited June 7, 2019).
7See, e.g., Season 2,FANDOM:SILICON VALLEY WIKI, https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/
Season 2 (last visited June 12, 2019).
8See Rachel Paige, ‘Silicon Valley’Recap of Season 1 For Ever yone Who’s Forgotten What These Guys Did—
And Didn’t—Do Last Season, BUSTLE (Apr. 12, 2015), https://www.bustle.com/articles/75059-
silicon-valley-recap-of-season-1-for-everyone-whos-forgotten-what-these-guys-did-and.

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