One of the three recent surveys undertaken by the Straus Institute in 2013 as part of the Theory-to-Practice Research Project was a survey of corporate counsel co-sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Section on Public Utilities, Communication and Transportation (PUCAT) ADR Committee. The Institute’s work was conducted pursuant to a contractual agreement with PUCAT.

Here is some initial information regarding the Survey:

Survey Group

• A total of thirty-three individuals responded to the survey.
• The survey group included corporate lawyers for companies in the electricity, communication, petroleum/gas, infrastructure/pipeline, aviation, cable TV, Internet and railroad industries.
• Forty percent of respondents were general counsels for their companies.
• Approximately a quarter (24%) described themselves as mainly concerned with litigation; another quarter were primarily focused on transactional/administrative matters, and the remaining half (52%) were concerned with both.

Forthcoming analyses

The survey data includes insights on:

• Corporate use of mediation, arbitration, early neutral evaluation, early case assessment and other approaches for different kinds of disputes
• Factors affecting the use of mediation or arbitration
• Impact of mediator attributes, professional background on mediator selection
• Impact of arbitrator attributes, professional background on arbitrator selection
• Preferred methods for neutral selection
• Role of non-lawyers in arbitration
• Factors in selecting the location of arbitration hearings
• Incidence of court activities in conjunction with arbitration
• Time spent negotiating dispute resolution provisions, involvement of business and legal stakeholders
• Nature of contractual dispute resolution provisions
• Use of streamlined or fast-track procedures

The final published version of our analysis of the Fortune 1,000 Corporate Counsel Survey, Living with ADR, will lead off the new volume of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review.

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