NEWS

The NAA Research and Education Foundation (www.naarb.org) awards CLEL a $25,000 grant for 20th Video History Project -

Impressed by the far-reaching value of this documentary, The National Academy of Arbitrators' Research and Education Foundation (NAA) recently awarded the College a $25,000 grant for The Art and Science of Arbitration.This unprecedented grant will support the first phases of production which is being led by Emmy Award-winning writer/producer Carol Rosenbaum. Our new documentary will capture compelling ideas, stories and insights about arbitration and mediation as it was, and is, practiced by giants of law and public policy. Covering many landmark decisions in labor law and industrial dispute resolutions, along with historic film clips and stills, it will illuminate the origins of arbitration and numerous other pivital events through interviews with distinguished leaders in the field.

For the past twelve years the College has been embarked on an ambitious enterprise creating a one-of-a-kind library of in-depth video oral histories. This newest production is our twentieth! We will keep you updated as production progresses in the coming months. Please consider a contribution which will help bring this exceptional project to completion and make it widely available to law students, law libraries, archives and legal associations throughout the country. It will also help develop opportunities to bring the video to select broadcast markets, including cable television.

The story of James Harkless' forty plus years as an arbitrator/mediator has been captured on film as the latest addition to the Video History Library. In 1970, Mr. Harkless began his arbitration career as an Associate Umpire with Umpire Ralph Seward, under the contract between Bethlehem Steel Company-United Steelworkers of America. During 41 years as an arbitrator, he has served as a permanent arbitrator with employers and unions in various industries, including auto, rubber, airlines, aeronautical, hotel, health care, telecommunications, newspapers, public utilities, railroads, Federal and public employment. During this period, he has issued more than 3000 decisions covering most labor-management issues. Additionally, from 1985 to 2006, he was Chairman of the IUE-GM (Delphi) Legal Services Plan. Mr. Harkless has served as a mediator, fact finder, and arbitrator in numorous arbitral and interest disputes; an arbitrator, mediator, or special master in Title VII discrimination cases; and a neutral member on Public Law Boards in the railroad industry. In 1972 and 1974, the U.S. President appointed him to serve on Special Railroad Emergency Boards.

From 1974 to 1978, Mr. Harkless was part-time Chairman of the D.C. Board of Labor Relations, a member of the Prince George's County, MD Public Employee Relations Board from 1975 to 1978, and a member of the Employee Relations Council of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority from 1993 to 1995. In 1990, the Secretary of State appointed him to serve as a member of the Foreign Service Grievance Board where he served four two year terms. In 1998, he also was a consultant on arbitration to a South African government commission.

He attended Harvard University where he received a B.A. in 1952, and a J.D. in 1955. After Law School, he clerked for a Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and was appointed Chief Clerk in 1956. After that, from 1957-60, he was an associate in a leading Boston labor law firm representing unions in the New England states. During 1961, he was Counsel for a Sub-committee of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee conducting a study of the NLRB. Then, from 1962 to 1964, he became the first African American Appellate Court Attorney in the office of the NLRB General Counsel. In addition, Mr. Harkless was Assistant to the Commissioner of Customs, receiving the Treasury Departmenet Honor Award for his work in that position, Executive Secretary of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, under its Director R. Sargent Shriver, and a Senior Associate and Vice President with a Washington, DC consulting firm for three years prior to becoming an arbitrator. He is admitted to practice law in Michigan, Massachusetts and D.C.. In 1973, he became a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and was its first African American President in 1998-99. He was inducted an Honorary Fellow of the College in 2005. His other memberships include the American Bar Association, the Labor and Employment Relations Association, and the International Society for Labor Law and Social Security.

The Honorable Mark W. Bennett was inducted as an Honorary Fellow at the 16th Annual Induction Dinner on November 5, 2011 in Seattle.

Mark W. Bennett was appointed a United States District Court Judge in the Northern District of Iowa on August 26, 1994. On January 1, 2000, he became Chief Judge of the Northern District and served in this capacity for seven years. He graduated from the Drake University Law School in 1975. Upon graduation, he started his own law firm in Des Moines, Iowa, which eventually became Babich, Bennett & Nickerson. Judge Bennett has spoken at more than 300 seminars and CLE programs across North America. He has also enjoyed teaching law students at the Drake University Law School, the University of Iowa, College of Law, and the University of Nebraska, College of Law. Judge Bennett is a prolific writer and his more than 1200 published opinions reflect his keen interest in legal scholarship. He has co-authored a book entitled, Employment Relationships Law & Practice (Aspen Law & Business 1998) and he has also published recent articles on "high tech courtrooms", "the vanishing civil jury trial", and "implicit bias in the legal profession." The Northern District of Iowa has been the national leader in trials per judge of the 94 federal district courts for most of the last decade. Judge Bennett has tried more than 400 jury trials and was one of the first federal district court judges in the country to allow live blogging from his courtroom. http://www.iand.uscourts.gov/e-web/home.nsf/65944fcb56773c56862573a30055c4f3/17a5762715fa4c52862573c90079072c?OpenDocument

Spotlight on Fellows

The College's Principles of Civility and Professionalism were distributed to students participating in the Midwest Regional of the ABA's Labor and Employment Law Trial Advocacy Competition held in Chicago on November 19-20, 2011. Fellow Joe Tilson is co-founder of the Chicago competition and Honorary Fellow Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer judged the Finals.

NAA'S NEW EDUCATIONAL DVD SERIES FEATURES COLLEGE FELLOWS

THE CASE OF THE MISSING MONEY: REVISITING THE ELEMENTS OF JUST CAUSE - A NEW DVD FOR EDUCATIONAL USE AVAILABLE FROM THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ARBITRATORS

The National Academy of Arbitrators is pleased to announce the availability of a new educational DVD portraying an arbitration in a termination case, including presentations by advocates and decisions by arbitrators. The DVD is designed for use by labor and management organizations, law schools, employee relations staff, and other academic and training programs. The DVD captures an instructive and entertaining session from the Academy's annual meeting in San Diego in May 2011. The subject of the arbitration is the dismissal of a 20-year old soda delivery driver who finds $400 on his route, keeps the money for himself, but then turns it over when his supervisor asks about the missing money at the end of the day. The DVD includes direct and cross examination of a witness, and closing arguments, by skilled counsel. Decisions are then rendered by a panel of experienced arbitrators from the US and Canada, and by a system board of adjustment from the airline industry. Those in the audience attending the session also had an opportunity to decide the dispute. The DVD, which runs 78 minutes, is available as a public service for $35 (shipping and handling included) from the National Academy of Arbitrators Operations Center, One North Main Street, Suite 412, Cortland, NY 13045 [Tel: (607) 756-8363]. Accompanying the DVD is a brief essay outlining the issue of just cause in arbitration proceedings. The essay also includes postscripts about the session itself and a statistical analysis of the decisions of those in the audience. The DVD has a menu permitting viewers to focus on different facets of the program, such as witness examination techniques, while also allowing for discussion breaks. The attorneys presenting the case, each with decades in the field, are Ira (Buddy) Gottlieb (Bush Gottlieb) for the union, and Lindbergh Porter (Littler Mendelson) for the employer. The arbitration panel includes Academy members Jules Bloch, Edna Francis, Joan Gordon, Kathleen Miller , and Lou Zigman. The airline system board is composed of management representatives Gerry Anderson (Air Tran/Southwest), Stephanie Babish (APFA-American), Terry Taylor (AFA-Alaska), and Maria Torre (AFA-United). The witness is played Academy arbitrator Margaret Brogan. The moderator is Academy arbitrator Barry Winograd.

THREE COLLEGE FELLOWS SERVE ON PEB AT REQUEST OF PRESIDENT OBAMA

Fellows Ira Jaffe, Roberta Golick and Arnold Zack were appointed to PEB No. 243 to help resolve an ongoing dispute between major freight rail carriers and their unions. Mr. Jaffe was named Chair. The PEB was asked to provide structure for the two sides in an effort to resolve their disagreements. Their 101-page report, submitted on November 7, 2011, offered discussion and recommendations with regards to multiple issues between the two parties including wages, health care, vacations and Craft Specific proposals. The full report can be found at http://www.nmb.gov/mediation/PEB243_FinalReport.pdf.