Jessica Allain and Dominic Cvitanovic placed first in LSU Law’s first ever Arbitration Competition on March 24, 2012. Competitors were required to argue both sides of a mock arbitration involving a dispute between a former employee and a corporation over the course of three days. Lani Gholston and Michael Heier placed second in the competition, and Bradley Pierson and Melanie Johnson placed third. Jessica Allain won an award for the Best Advocate in the final round, and Michael Heier won an award for the Best Advocate in the preliminary rounds. Special thanks are due to our esteemed final round arbitrators, Mr. Don Frattini and the Honorable Robert Burns, Sr.
Arbitration is a dispute resolution process in which the disputing parties present their case to a third party intermediary (or a panel of arbitrators) that examine all the evidence and then make a decision for the parties. This decision is typically binding. Like court-based adjudication, arbitration is adversarial. However, arbitration is generally not as formal as court adjudication, however, and the rules of evidence can be altered to some extent to meet the parties’ needs. Arbitration is considered to be more flexible and resolves disputes much more quickly than traditional litigation. Parties are also generally able to select their arbitrator(s), who are often experts in the topic in dispute.
