Proposed Arbitral Disclosure of Social Media Activity

Professor Mitch Zamoff will present, Proposed Arbitral Disclosure of Social Media Activity, an article for which he and his co-author received the "Best Article of the Year" Award from the American Association of Law Schools ADR Section.  

Professor Zamoff will discuss the statutes and rules governing the disclosures of conflicts of interest by arbitrators, which fail to provide concrete guidance about the disclosure of an arbitrator’s social media connections with the arbitration participants. The absence of clear, consistent standards governing social media disclosures is problematic for both arbitrators and the parties who select and appear before them. This problem will only get worse as arbitrators make increasing use of social media for personal and professional purposes, and as challenges to arbitration awards based on inadequate disclosure of social media activity work their way through the courts. Arbitrators who fail to make adequate disclosures about their social media activity expose themselves to ethical and reputational risk and their awards to vacatur.  

Professor Zamoff addresses this ethical marshland and proposes the first comprehensive set of guidelines for the disclosure of an arbitrator’s social media connections.