Rogers speaks at Columbia Law School’s Arbitration Day symposium

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Professor of Law and Paul and Marjorie Price Faculty Scholar Catherine A. Rogers spoke at Columbia Law School on March 3 as part of a panel discussion during Columbia Arbitration Day 2017.

The conference, which this year was entitled “Striking a Balance: Confronting Tensions in International Arbitration,” brings together leading practitioners and scholars of international arbitration to examine timely issues in the field, including double recovery, the admissibility of illegally obtained evidence, third-party funding, conflicting supranational obligations in state liability, and ethics rules.

Joining Rogers on the panel on “Ethical Rules: Reconciling Conflicting Sources and Tradition” were Charles Adeyemi Candide-Johnson of the Lagos Court of Arbitration, Tai-Heng Cheng of Quinn Emanuel, and Diane Desierto of the University of Hawaii at Mãnoa. The panel was moderated by Alejandro Garro of Columbia Law School.

Rogers’ panel discussed how arbitrators and counsel can resolve potentially inconsistent ethical obligations to ensure fair and just adjudications. The panel also explored whether it is possible to establish international standards of professional conduct in light of existing cultural and practical differences in how attorneys are regulated nationally.  In discussions about arbitrator ethics, Rogers’ project Arbitrator Intelligence was also discussed as an important innovation in the regulation and accountability of international arbitrators.

Former American Bar Association president and White & Case partner Carolyn Lamm delivered the conference’s keynote address. In her remarks, Rogers’ leadership on the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration was separately highlighted. Lamm also urged Rogers and Columbia law professor and chief reporter George Bermann to consider including in their work on the Restatement of the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration a section discussing the increasingly important issues relating to third-party funding.  

In addition to her position at Penn State Law, Rogers serves as professor of ethics, regulation & the rule of law and director of the Institute for Ethics, Regulation & the Rule of Law at Queen Mary University of London. She is co-chair of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration and a reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration. Rogers is the founder of Arbitrator Intelligence, an NGO that aims to increase fairness, transparency and accountability in the arbitrator selection process, and increased diversity in arbitrator appointments.