Professor Rogers speaks at USC Gould School of Law

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – International arbitration expert Professor Catherine A. Rogers, the Paul and Marjorie Price Faculty Scholar at Penn State Law, spoke at the Inaugural Judith O. Hollinger Program Alternative Dispute Resolution Symposium at the University of California Gould School of Law on April 15.

Designed to launch the new Hollinger Program, the event featured preeminent scholars and practitioners in alternative dispute resolution who explored significant developments that impact ethical issues pertaining to both domestic and international arbitration and mediation. Participants and attendees will include ADR practitioners, ADR panel administrators and managers, litigators, judges, and members of the academic community.

Rogers’ presentation kicked off a panel titled “Counsel Ethics in International Arbitration: Is Self-Regulation Sufficient?” focused on the ethical rules applicable to counsel in international arbitration. The subsequent discussion was moderated by Nathan O’Malley, partner, Gibbs Giden, and included leading experts Stephen Drymer, partner, Woods LLP, and Jeffrey Dasteel of UCLA. Topics included the unique ethical issues raised by the multijurisdictional nature of international arbitration proceedings, conflict of laws issues and recently developed international standards that govern the conduct of counsel, and questions regarding the jurisdictional powers of arbitral tribunals to enforce counsel ethics.

Rogers commented, “Given that I first wrote about these issues over 15 years ago, when such reforms were regarded as quixotic, it is especially gratifying to see recent reforms in this area being taken up as the topic to launch this important new program.”

Earlier that same week, on April 13, Rogers also spoke about counsel ethics in New York at the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting of the Section of International Law.  This program focused on the effect of the legal seat where an international arbitration takes place on the ethical obligations of counsel.  

“It is not surprising that counsel ethics are the topic at both practitioner-oriented and academic conferences,” Rogers explained. “The monumental reforms being introduced require both practical knowledge about how international arbitration operates and an academic perspective regarding the many conceptual and theoretical issues that such sweeping reforms implicate.”

Rogers is a professor of law at Penn State Law and an affiliate professor at the Penn State School of International Affairs, with a dual appointment at Queen Mary, University of London. Her scholarship focuses on professional ethics and the intersection of public and private international adjudication. She is a Reporter for the American Law Institute's Restatement of the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration, and a member of the Court of Arbitration of the Jerusalem Arbitration Center (appointed by the ICC Palestine). She is founder and CEO of Arbitrator Intelligence, an nongovernmental organization to reform arbitrator selection. Her book, Ethics in International Arbitration, was recently published by Oxford University Press.