Global Arbitration Review Publishes Akin Gump Article on Arbitration’s Settlement Deficit

Global Arbitration Review has published “The settlement deficit in arbitration,” an article written by Akin Gump litigation partner Justin Williams and counsel James Glaysher. The article examines evidence suggesting that international arbitration proceedings are less likely to settle than court litigation, and suggests innovations to address this.

Williams and Glaysher begin by noting that recent attempts “to establish frameworks to encourage settlement of international disputes have all too often either not been adopted or are of limited effect.” Anecdotal evidence, they write, “suggests that international arbitration is especially prone to a relatively low incidence of settlement, at least in common law jurisdictions,” even though settlement “is often preferable to taking an arbitration through to a final award.”

The article considers different approaches toward encouraging settlement, including arbitrators giving non-binding early indications of their thinking and a practice known as “med-arb,” where the parties “attempt mediation, and if no settlement is achieved the mediator then becomes the arbitrator.”

The authors conclude by observing that, while the arbitration community has recognized that changes are needed to meet the needs of the arbitration community, “it is time that recognition extended to the need to encourage settlement.”

To read the full article, please click here.