The Voice^TM

DRI For Life Fun Runs/Walks

I attended my first DRI Annual Meeting in New Orleans in 2019. As many of you likely recall, the meeting was vibrant, full of energy, and contained some of the best programming I can recall experiencing. One of the many great memories is my first DRI fun run. I wasn’t much of a runner and didn’t know anyone attending the group run, but knowing DRI to be ever welcoming and inclusive, I ventured downstairs at way too early of a morning hour to give it a whirl. I found a circle of chatty, friendly folks, all sharing various running experiences. Some jogged occasionally for recreation, like me, and some had run numerous marathons. We ran around the city, exploring New Orleans on foot, while talking and laughing the whole time. I met some of the kindest and happiest colleagues that morning, and wondered to them if maybe I could ever manage to run a marathon. I recall them being so encouraging, telling me that it was hard, and time-consuming, but absolutely worth the effort, and certainly within my reach. I left that meeting determined to try. Now, six marathons and many more DRI running friends later, I still reflect back on that first group run, and the inspiration that came from meeting those friendly and welcoming people. At the next meeting you attend, I encourage you to set your alarm for way too early of an hour and venture down and join the group. We run, jog, walk, and most importantly, we laugh, share, and make new connections. It’s a good thing.

International Day of Service

One of the newer DRI initiatives, and one of my personal favorites, is the International Day of Service. SLDOs are encouraged to organize a service event in their state and share their experience with the larger DRI community. In Wisconsin, our Women in the Law Committee has led this event for the past two years, with members of the committee organizing events in their region of the state. Last year, we held three different events, stocking food pantries, serving meals at shelters and organizing clothing donations. The result was some great work done in our local communities along with a lot of laughs, new friends made, and enthusiastic ideas for future service projects. I am so proud of how our Wisconsin attorneys have taken on this idea with such enthusiasm and energy, and I encourage you to set up a local service event in your own state as part of this initiative. Giving back to the community while building new connections? It’s a good thing.

Blessings in a Backpack

Finally, I am grateful for DRI’s partnership with Blessings in a Backpack, which makes participating in a meaningful service effort easy and seamless. At the last DRI meeting I attended, I volunteered to help set up the food that would be packaged to provide lunches for kids over the weekend, when they would not have access to lunch at school. I got to learn more about the work they do and what a big difference we make through DRI when we hold one of these events. Everyone taking just a few minutes out of their day to pack up bags of food leads to thousands of meals going to feed kids. I had a great time meeting new colleagues, bonding over collapsing stacks of fruit loops and hundreds of plastic bags that just didn’t want to come apart. I highly recommend signing up to volunteer at the next meeting you attend, either with set up, or just stopping by the event to give a few minutes of your time. It’s a good thing.

Grace Kulkoski, legal counsel at Wisconsin Mutual Insurance, is at at-large member of the DRI Foundation.

The DRI Center for Law and Public Policy’s MDL Working Group, chaired by Toyja Kelley, has been studying ways to improve the rules governing MDLs. Members of the working group became highly active in the past year, after the Advisory Committee on Federal Civil Rules—after seven years of study—published for public comment a Preliminary Draft of a new rule specific to MDL proceedings.  Draft Rule 16.1 included a list of topics that a judge appointed to preside over an MDL might consider, along with a few mandatory requirements.

The Center’s MDL Working Group conferred and submitted comments on the Preliminary Draft, including suggestions to improve it as well as to address realities of MDL practice not fully covered by the Preliminary Draft.  After receiving written comments from all sides of the bar, the Advisory Committee held multiple days of hearings, during which several members of the Center’s MDL Working Group testified.  At its April 9, 2024, meeting, the Advisory Committee, after considering the written comments and testimony, approved a revised version of Proposed Rule 16.1, and on June 4, 2024, the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the United States Courts approved that Proposed Rule. It will next be considered in December by the Judicial Conference of the United States—comprised of the Chief Judge from each judicial circuit, a district judge from each circuit, and the Chief Judge of the Court of International Trade—is presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States.  If the Judicial Conference approves this Proposed Rule, it will be considered early next year by the Supreme Court.  If it concurs with the Proposed Rule, the Court will promulgate the official rule by May 1.  The Rule would then take effect on December 1, unless both houses of Congress amend, delay, or reject it.

This article outlines the concerns that the Center and others expressed as to why an MDL-specific rule should be implemented and then gives a brief overview of some key elements of Proposed Rule 16.1. 

The Field of Dreams Problem

In the more than 60 years since the enactment of 28 U.S.C. § 1407—which authorizes the temporary transfer of cases for coordinated pretrial proceedings—district courts have seen an exponential growth in the number of matters pending on MDL dockets. Since 1968, over 1,800 MDLs involving over 1.1 million cases have been created.  Almost 25 years ago, the Federal Judicial Center published a report, Mass Torts Problems & Proposals, A report to the Mass Torts Working Group (Fed. Judicial Center January 1999), which observed that, “[t]he consequences of aggregation can be to create a mass tort.  To capsulize a now-familiar metaphor, Professor McGovern has coined the mantra: ‘If you build a superhighway, there will be a traffic jam.’”  Mass Torts Problems & Proposals at 23.

More recently, in 2016, Judge Land stated that his experience as a transferee judge in two MDLs led him to believe that:

 the evolution of the MDL process toward providing an alternative dispute resolution forum for global settlements has produced incentives for the filing of cases that otherwise would not be filed if they had to stand on their own merit as a stand-alone action. Some lawyers seem to think that their case will be swept into the MDL where a global settlement will be reached, allowing them to obtain a recovery without the individual merit of their case being scrutinized as closely as it would if it proceeded as a separate individual action.

In re Mentor Corp. Obtape Transobturator Sling Prod. Liab. Litig., No. 4:08-MD-2004 (CDL), 2016 WL 4705827, at *1 (M.D. Ga. Sept. 7, 2016).  Based on his experience, Judge Land added:

This phenomenon produces the perverse result that an MDL, which was established in part to manage cases more efficiently to achieve judicial economy, becomes populated with many non-meritorious cases that must nevertheless be managed by the transferee judge—cases that likely never would have entered the federal court system without the MDL.

Id.  A rules-based requirement to provide threshold information at the outset of litigation would discourage if not outright eliminate the filing of unsupportable claims. 

The Center’s Input on the Preliminary Draft

The Preliminary Draft allowed but did not require the MDL judge to consider techniques to address unsupportable claims.  The Center and others advocated for a mandatory rules-based procedure for addressing the “Field of Dreams” problem rather than the Preliminary Draft’s gentle suggestion that MDL courts could consider, in appropriate cases, establishing procedures that might, at some point, weed out unsupportable claims.  The Center and others argued that Rule 16.1 should provide for mandatory early disclosure of the information necessary to establish each MDL plaintiff’s Article III standing: an injury-in-fact fairly traceable to the defendant’s conduct that would likely be remedied by a favorable resolution.  In the vast majority of the MDL proceedings, that requirement would simply pertain to the facts establishing the use of the involved product, the nature of the claimed injury, and the date of that alleged injury.  In addition, the Center suggested that the Committee Note to proposed Rule 16.1(c)(4) ought to outline in some detail the problem with unsupportable claims, explain why it is needed, and unequivocally state that the required information is not a discovery issue. 

The Published Version of Rule 16.1

Unfortunately, the Advisory Committee’s Proposed Rule 16.1 did not adopt a mandatory requirement.  Instead, it simply states the MDL court “should” hold an initial management conference where, among other things, the parties are by default expected to provide their “initial views” on a variety of topics, including the “principal factual and legal issues likely to be presented in the MDL proceedings” and “how and when the parties will exchange information about the factual bases for their claims and defenses.”  In connection with the latter, the Committee Note candidly acknowledges that “concerns have been raised on both the plaintiff side and the defense side that some claims and defenses have been asserted without the inquiry called for by Rule 11(b).”  The Note also makes clear, consistent with the position taken by the Center, that this “court-ordered exchange of information is not discovery.”  Finally, it states that “after taking account of whether the party whose claim or defense is involved has reasonable access to needed information—the court may find it appropriate to employ expedited methods to resolve claims or defenses not supported after the required information exchange.” 

While not providing everything the Center had hoped for, there is some reason for optimism that Rule 16.1, coupled with effective advocacy, will help stem the tide of unsupportable claims.  In the coming months, the Center will publish suggestions on how best to address the “Field of Dreams” problem at the earliest possible stage in MDLs covered by Rule 16.1, as well as tools to help achieve that result.

Jeffrey A. Holmstrand is a member of Grove Holmstrand & Delk PLLC, where he focuses his state-wide practice on defending product liability, mass torts/class actions, and complex insurance disputes.  Jeff is a member of DRI Center for Law and Public Policy’s MDL Working Group.

The MDL Working Group

The Center’s MDL Working Group has been tasked with evaluating developments affecting multidistrict litigation legislation and rules; drafting appropriate changes to rules and drafts comments on proposed changes to rules affecting these cases; and, through the Legislation and Rules Committee, recommending action on those to the Center Management Council. The working group also assists SLCs on issues involving MDL issues.

Toyja Kelley (Chair), Locke Lord LLP, Washington, D.C.

Darleene Peters (Vice Chair), Irwin Fritchie Urquhart Moore & Daniels LLC, New Orleans, Louisiana

Carlos A. Benach, Irwin Fritchie Urquhart Moore & Daniels LLC, New Orleans, Louisiana

Ryan Clark, Lewis Thomason King Kreig & Waldrop PC, Nashville, Tennessee

Jeffrey A. Holmstrand, Grove Holmstrand & Delk PLLC, Wheeling, West Virginia

Anita Modak-Truran, Butler Snow LLP, Nashville, Tennessee

Torrey M. Peterson, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP, Kansas City, Missouri

Robert L. Wise, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, Richmond, Virginia

The first thing to recognize is that there are basically two types of AI: Generative (ex: ChatGPT), which can create content, and Extractive (ex: Arcuity), which reads content. That may be an oversimplification, but the distinction between the two is that simple. Generative AI is a relatively new science and has potential issues that need to be worked through and potentially governed, while Extractive AI has been around for at least a decade and is a proven science. In this article, we will be discussing Extractive AI.

In the realm of legal and claims work, where the mountain of documents never seems to shrink and the detail in every case matters immensely, a revolution is quietly taking place. This revolution isn't about changing laws but rather about how we navigate the myriad processes and mounds of never-ending documents. At the forefront of this change is AI, a tool not for replacing the human touch but for enhancing it. Let's break this down into simpler terms, keeping in mind that while you might be seasoned in legal matters, AI could still seem like a foreign concept.

The Game-Changer in Legal Work

Think of AI as your ultra-efficient assistant. It's here to take on the heavy lifting of going through thousands of documents, pinpointing the exact pieces of information needed, and in the future potentially even predicting outcomes based on past cases. But here's the kicker: it does all this at a pace and accuracy that's simply unmatched by human capability.

For example, when it comes to document review, AI can scan through masses of text, identifying relevant information quickly. It's like having a super-speed reader on your team, minus the coffee breaks. Similarly, in legal research, AI acts as your personal librarian, fetching case precedents and laws from digital archives in mere seconds.

Making Legal Services More Accessible and Efficient

The real beauty of AI in the legal sector is its ability to democratize access to legal services. By streamlining processes and cutting down on time-consuming tasks, lawyers can take on more cases without compromising on quality. This not only makes their services more affordable but also more available to those who need them most. 

The Human-AI Partnership

It's crucial to understand that AI, as revolutionary as it is, isn't here to replace the nuanced judgement and empathy that legal professionals bring to the table. Instead, it serves as a powerful tool that frees up time for these professionals to focus on what truly matters—providing personalized counsel and making strategic decisions.

Technology-Assisted Review (TAR)

TAR is a perfect example of how AI is transforming the legal field. By combining AI's processing power with human oversight, TAR makes document review not just faster but also more accurate. This synergy ensures that while AI handles the bulk of the grunt work, the critical, nuanced decision-making remains a distinctly human prerogative.

The Future Is Bright

As AI technology continues to evolve, its potential to transform the legal industry grows ever more exciting. From enhancing the accuracy of work to making legal advice more accessible, AI is set to redefine what's possible in legal services. It may well become the "standard of care."

Learning Curve? More Like a Gentle Slope

If the thought of integrating AI into your workflow sounds daunting, here's some good news: tools like those offered by Arcuity are designed with user-friendliness in mind. AI platforms are being developed as "plug and play," making it easy for legal professionals to adopt AI and immediately start reaping its benefits.

Arcuity: Leading the Charge

Arcuity is pioneering this integration of AI within the legal industry. Specializing in record summarization and complex report building, Arcuity's AI solutions are making it simpler for legal professionals to process and understand vast amounts of information, thereby enhancing their ability to handle complex cases efficiently.

In Conclusion

The integration of AI in legal work is not just about technological advancement; it's about enhancing the invaluable human element that lies at the heart of the legal profession, with Arcuity leading the way.  The ArcuityVizion platform stands out as a revolutionary tool in the legal and claims management sector, designed to tackle the daunting task of sifting through vast quantities of documents with unparalleled efficiency and accuracy. With the capability to read, index, summarize, and sort documents by specific concepts related to disease and injury, this platform is a game-changer for professionals drowning in paperwork. Imagine the relief of saving hundreds of hours each month that would otherwise be spent on manual review. The ArcuityVizion Platform accomplishes this feat at an astonishing rate of about 1,000 pages per hour, transforming what used to be a tedious and time-consuming process into a swift and streamlined operation. This not only accelerates the workflow but also ensures that no critical information is overlooked, significantly enhancing the accuracy and quality of work in the legal and claims processes.

As we continue to explore the intersection of AI and legal services, stay tuned for more from this exciting series where we delve deeper into how technology is not just changing but enhancing the way we approach legal work.

About the Author

For more insights and to see how AI is revolutionizing the legal industry, head over to Arcuity's website at Arcuity.com. And for a peek into the mind behind these innovations, check out Joe Salvati, a man of many hats: CEO and Founder of Arcuity, husband, father, proud American, and yes, even a secret CIA operative or Sith Lord – depends on his mood.

Questions can be directed to joe@arcuity.com.

But then you think: how? What can I do now to further my prospects of becoming an accomplished appellate practitioner in the future?  I’m going to eschew the obvious. Sure, you could clerk for a United States Supreme Court Justice, or get a job at the Solicitor General’s Office, but follow me off the beaten path for a moment, if you will, and I’ll share with you three unconventional, but foolproof, tips on how to become a knockdown appellate advocate.

First, read. A lot. Read everything. Histories, plays, biographies, essay collections, the newspaper, magazines, read it all. But most importantly, read the best. Read Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dickens, George Eliot, and company.  Read and read and read. And if you don’t like it, stop, and choose another career path. Because if you don’t like to read, you won’t like being an appellate attorney. Because being an appellate attorney is first and foremost about reading. Reading the order being appealed. Reading the transcript of the lower court proceedings. Reading poorly written and convoluted statutes and regulations. And reading case after case after case, looking for just the right one to convince that judge or justice that you know will be inherently skeptical of your argument. I’m perhaps biased, because I have always been a lover of the novel, but I think you should prioritize reading a lot of novels, from many different genres, styles, periods, and places. The novel is narrative- and character-driven, just like your appellate briefs. Learn to appreciate the complexity of the human condition that a novel like Brothers Karamazov or War and Peace portrays, and you will be far better equipped to prepare a brief on a Fourth Amendment issue, or challenge damages in a wrongful-death case, or even interpret EPA regulations.

Second, write. A lot. Write and write and re-write. But don’t start with legal writing. Instead, write a creative piece. Challenge yourself to write a short story, with plot, characters, and some action. All appeals have these three basic components: who, what, and why? Characters, action, and plot. When you’ve finished your short story, write an advocacy piece. Perhaps an article on “why PB&J sandwiches are gross,” or “what makes Calvin and Hobbes the funniest comic”? Try to convince someone of something using reason, commonsense, and perhaps even a little comedy. After that, keep writing, but again, don’t write legal prose. You’re not yet ready for that. Think of legal writing like blank verse poetry. It’s not that people should never write blank verse poetry, they just shouldn’t be allowed to write it until they’ve mastered formal verse, with strict adherence to meter and rhyme scheme. You shouldn’t be allowed to break the rules until you’ve mastered them. The same goes for legal writing. You shouldn’t be allowed to write legal prose, especially the apex of the form—appellate writing—until you’ve mastered the art of just plain good prose. If you jump into legal writing without knowing how to simply write—period—your briefs will come out looking like poorly executed blank verse poems. A heap of words on a page, with no beauty, no structure, and no power. And if you find that you don’t like writing? Then find another career path, because second to reading, appellate advocacy is about the written word.

Third, go to an art museum. Wait a minute, you’re thinking, this guy’s fallen off his horse and hit his head. An art museum? Hear me out. I’ve read hundreds of appellate briefs, and thousands of appellate opinions. Some of this writing is very good, and some is awful. What does the good writing have in common? For one, it is visually pleasing. Pick up a paper copy of a well-written appellate brief or opinion and leaf through it, and you’ll observe that it looks good. There’s proportion, balance, blank space. There’s no obvious typos or misaligned margins. Paragraphs aren’t as long as a Martin Scorsese movie. Bolded headings break up the text. And perhaps most importantly, you can tell—without even reading a word—that there is an actual argument being made, not simply endless string cites to cases that the judges will never read. And poor appellate writing? It bears the imprint of the mind of the maker: in other words, it is a mess.

But visiting an art museum will help develop another key skill that all appellate practitioners must develop: the art of slowing down. Appellate practice is not the same as trial practice. Trial lawyers must be quick on their feet, experts at improv, adept at juggling a hundred things at a time. If trial lawyers are sprinters, or perhaps even more apt, Olympic hurdlers, then appellate practitioners are marathon runners. Appellate writing takes time. You can’t be rushed. You can’t write an appellate brief in a day, and even if you could, you shouldn’t. Because before you write a single word of your appellate brief, you should have spent many hours and days thinking about the case. Reading everything. Mulling it over in the shower or during your commute. Seeing it from every angle. Treating the issues like cud in the mouth of bovine. 

In other words, appellate practice is like going to an art museum. It defeats the purpose of visiting an art museum if you make it your goal to see every painting during one visit. Instead, pick one painting and abide. Sit or stand and look. If you’re there two hours, look at that one painting for two hours. Train yourself to observe not just the foreground, but the background. See every detail. In art, details matter. In appellate practice, details always matter. In fact, it is the minutiae, the granular details, those little facts hidden on page 889 of a transcript, that oftentimes make or break an appeal—proof that the plaintiff did not raise the issue at trial she now raises on appeal, or an admission from an expert that sinks the claim. Just like it is the details in a painting—the younger son’s worn footwear in Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son, or the enormity of the woman’s hands in Van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters—that transforms good art into a masterpiece.

If you’re looking to guarantee a job as an appellate advocate, by all means, clerk for SCOTUS or get a job at the U.S. Solicitor’s General’s Office. But if it’s not a job you’re after, but proficiency and excellence, then first learn to read, write, and see.

Jeffrey Wald is Of Counsel at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough where he focuses on criminal and civil appellate litigation in state and federal courts. 

New Appointments

The Center continues to grow and is pleased to announce new appointments to two groups within its Public Policy Committee. DRI members Mandy Kamykowski and Mariel Taylor, partners of Kamykowski & Taylor PC in Saint Louis, are now members of the Social Inflation Task Force. Mandy has been an active leader within the DRI Law Practice Management Committee, having served as vice program chair of 2022 Law Firm Leaders and Managing Partners Conference and as co-program chair in 2023. Mariel is a member of the DRI Law Practice Management Committee and the DRI Medical Liability and Health Care Law Committee.

   
Kamykowski, Taylor 

New to the Center’s Third-Party Litigation Task Force is Siobhan Briley of Pugh Hagan Prahm PLC in Coralville, Iowa. Siobhan also serves on the steering committee for the DRI Litigation Skills Committee.

Briley

Joining an SLC connects you to your peers and puts you on a path to leadership with abundant opportunities. It can help you:

1. Expand Your Referral Network: Connect with your peers and get referrals from your fellow SLC members. 

2. Get Free PR: SLCs provide complimentary speaker and publishing opportunities to help you position yourself as a subject matter expert at your firm. 

3. Obtain On-the-Job Leadership Training: SLCs give you the opportunity to lead projects, placing you on the track to leadership at your firm and in the civil defense community. 

4. Access Cutting-Edge Information: Committee-specific e-newsletters, podcasts, programs, and more provide the latest legal information. 

5. Get Informed Responses in Real-Time: Gain instant access to experts in your field willing to share insights. Have your questions answered in real-time by your peers via the SLC’s online communities/discussion boards.  

Surround yourself with a network of attorneys in your practice area who can help grow your business by joining a DRI Substantive Law Committee today! View DRI’s 29 Substantive Law Committees, select the committee you’re interested in, and press the “Join Committee” button on the right-hand side of the page to join one today! Repeat this process for all the committees you’re interested in and join as many committees as you’d like for free!  

2024 Senior Living and Long-Term Care Litigation Seminar

September 18-20 | Chicago, Illinois

The premier senior living and long-term care litigation seminar in the country returns to Chicago on September 18-20! Join us at the Hyatt Regency, just steps from the Chicago River Walk, for an event tailored specifically for defense counsel, in-house counsel, claims professionals, and industry insiders. Gain access to unparalleled insights, CLE, and networking opportunities. The exceptional faculty includes a neurosurgeon, jury consultant, wound care nurse, an expert in electronic medical records (EMR), and "Pepper," a robot that assists with therapy and care in the skilled nursing facility/assisted living facility setting. Reconnect with clients and colleagues alike during counsel meetings, an afternoon of networking, or other exciting program events. We look forward to seeing you in the Windy City in September!

DRI members can register now through June 20 and save up to $500 thanks to exclusive, limited-time Early Access Registration! Everyone else can take advantage of Early Bird Registration starting June 21 through August 5.  

Know the Role: The Ethics of AI in the Law

June 20 | 11 a.m. CDT

Artificial intelligence ("AI") is a rapidly emerging technology that is already transforming the practice of law. While it holds great promise, there are real potential pitfalls. The legal practitioner must know the role of AI in the law. This program will address how to properly integrate AI into the legal practice while doing so responsibly. Major ethical issues will be addressed so that the practitioner can use AI while avoiding serious problems.

The registration is free for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

NEW! Exclusive DRI Member Benefit: Free Webinar Registration 

DRI is excited to provide members with FREE access to several valuable webinars like this one! Earn up to 8 hours of CLE credit this year at no additional cost to you–that's a savings of $1,350 for being a DRI member! From conspiracyism to succession planning, we are covering a host of hot topics this year to help you expand your knowledge and build your legal practice. Learn more here! 

A Young Lawyer's Guide to Considering Whether to Remove a Case to Federal Court

June 27 | 11 a.m. CDT

This program will provide attendees with a step-by-step guide for removing a case from a state court to a federal district court. Attendees will be provided with a mock case for consideration, along with a checklist that covers the situations that make a case removable, the relevant deadlines impacting removal, and the steps that must be completed to effectively remove a case to federal court. After the lecture, attendees will have the opportunity to discuss the “how, why, and when” of removing a case to federal court in small groups.

Registration is $75 for DRI members and $100 for non-members.

Save 25% when you purchase the "A Young Lawyers Guide to Handling A Case" series. Learn more.

Marketing in a Hybrid World

July 10 | 11 a.m. CDT

Join us as we discuss how to develop long-term relationships, both in person and online in this hybrid marketplace, that will help you develop business over your career.

The registration is free for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

NEW! Exclusive DRI Member Benefit: Free Webinar Registration 

DRI is excited to provide members with FREE access to several valuable webinars like this one! Earn up to 8 hours of CLE credit this year at no additional cost to you–that's a savings of $1,350 for being a DRI member! From conspiracyism to succession planning, we are covering a host of hot topics this year to help you expand your knowledge and build your legal practice. Learn more here! 

A Young Lawyer's Guide to Preparing Corporate Witnesses and Telling a “Company Story”

September 25 | 11 a.m. CDT

This program will provide attendees with all prior case materials, along with some specifics on a corporate witness to “prepare” for testimony. After the lecture, attendees will have the opportunity to discuss corporate witness preparation in small breakout groups.

A Young Lawyer's Guide to Arbitration

November 20 | 11 a.m. CDT

This program will provide attendees with the prior case materials, along with select rules from CPR, AAA and other arbitration processes.  The program will provide discussion what makes arbitration different from trial, and how young lawyers in particular can have an expanded role in Arbitration (per the rules, themselves). After the lecture, attendees will have the opportunity to discuss what it’s like taking an arbitration from start to finish and ask questions of fellow young lawyers who have done so.