Alternative Dispute Resolution

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Conference room in our Philadelphia officeBecause of the escalating costs, increasing delays and unwanted publicity often involved in litigating disputes in court, alternative dispute resolution methods increasingly substitute for courtroom litigation. We are skilled in ADR methods, including mediation and formal and informal arbitration. For example, acting on behalf of a U.S. supplier of raw materials, we brought a breach of contract case against a large Chinese manufacturing company in the International Arbitration division of the American Arbitration Association, and persuaded the arbitrator to award our client its full damages of several hundred thousand dollars. Joe Lukens, Shareholder, LitigationIn that same matter, we also prevailed on the novel legal question of whether an arbitrator could award legal fees in connection with a contract subject to the Convention on the International Sale of Goods. In another matter, also before the American Arbitration Association, we successfully arbitrated the dissolution of a professional dental practice, receiving an award in favor of our client, the departing partner, of several hundred thousand dollars. In another arbitration, we represented a construction company that had entered into a long term agreement with the defendant, which was to supply stone from a quarry to our client. In the arbitration, we succeeded in proving that the defendant had injured our client by supplying it with stone from our client’s competitor. We have also resolved a number of cases through mediation; among our recent successful mediations are a dispute involving approximately $100 million of surety bonds written for a company that later entered bankruptcy; a trade secrets dispute; and a dispute over the scope of a licensing agreement between a research university and a biotechnology company.

In addition to representing clients before neutral arbitrators or mediators, many of our attorneys have themselves acted as neutral parties, serving as Judges Pro Tem, federal mediators, or arbitrators.