ACR-GNY & CUNY Dispute Resolution Center at John Jay College present:
VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST
Addressing Unconscious Bias In The Selection of Neutrals: We Have a Plan For That!
The Ray Corollary Initiative:
How to Achieve Diversity and Inclusion in
Arbitrator Selection
PROFESSOR HOMER C. LA RUE
The ADR community, for a very long time, has realized that there are few persons selected as arbitrators, mediators and other ADR neutrals who are not male, senior, and white. Some success has been made in the selection of women as arbitrators but relatively little success in the selection of persons of color.
This presentation and discussion will focus on the competing interests of advocates, on the one side wanting to win for their clients, and on the other recognizing their professional responsibility to promote diversity and inclusion.
A central part of the discussion will be the Ray Corollary Initiative as a plan of action to change the paradigm in ADR neutral selection.
HOMER C. LA RUE, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, is the founder and co-director of the Howard Law School ADR Program and their ADR Certificate Program. He directs an ADR externship for third-year law students with the World Bank Group’s Internal Justice System and conducts lectures, seminars and also clinical courses at Howard where he is the founder and co-director of the Howard Law ADR Program.
Professor La Rue, a preeminent labor and employment law attorney and long-time mediator and arbitrator, has devoted a significant portion of his professional time and experience to the increase of diversity among neutrals in arbitration and mediation. He frequently gives lectures and presentations to law faculty, law students, and various other groups on issues concerning racial and ethnic diversity and inclusion in the ADR field. One of his current initiatives, known as the Ray Corollary Initiative (RCI), sponsored by the NAA, is designed to address the lack of persons of color and women selected as ADR neutrals, particularly in labor-management disputes.
Professor La Rue is a Distinguished Fellow in the International Academy of Mediators (IAM) and has served on its Board of Governors, a Past-President of SPIDR, now ACR, and President-Elect of the National Academy of Arbitrators, where he recently received the 2020 D’Almeberte-Raven Award for outstanding service to the ADR field. He has won many other prestigious awards and he is permanent arbitrator for several collective bargaining agreements and a member of the AAA and FMCS panels.
He was the 2017-18 neutral-in-residence at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He has served as a technical advisor and trainer for the Commercial Law Development Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce, designed to assist in development of a regional ADR system for the resolution of commercial disputes in Central and West Africa. He has published several scholarly articles and recently contributed a chapter in “Evolution of a Field: Personal Histories in Conflict Resolution”, eds. Welsh and Gadlin (DRI Press, December 1, 2020).
He has a BA from Purdue, an MA in Industrial & Labor Relations and a JD from Cornell.
PLEASE NOTE: BREAKFAST WILL BE A VIRTUAL MEETING ON ZOOM.
8:00 am – 8:30 am | Join call to network with attendees
8:30 am – 10:00 am | Presentation and Discussion
* * * A ZOOM LINK TO THE ROUNDTABLE BREAKFAST WILL BE SENT TO ALL REGISTRANTS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE EVENT * * *
