Collective Judo: Ethics and Access to Justice in Mass Arbitration Companies

Authors

Michael Doman

First Page

225

Last Page

264

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Over the past five years, several law firms have engaged in “mass arbitration.” This strategy involves aggregating hundreds or thousands of arbitrations and filing them all at once against a company, sometimes forcing the company to either pay huge sums to defend all the claims or settle with all the claimants. This Article discusses how mass arbitration coordinated by nonlawyers and companies should be legally protected by courts and regulators, provided that companies in this space erect specific ethical safeguards. Most notably, mass arbitration companies should implement better procedures to obtain informed consent from their customers, using technology to lower the costs of this education. This Article then details several ethical issues faced by mass arbitration (MA) companies with reference to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct including the unauthorized practice of law, attorney engagement and discharge, attorney performance, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and litigation finance. Throughout, the Article proposes several solutions for MA companies to minimize and avoid ethical problems. Some emerging scholarship on mass arbitrations exists, most notably by Professor J. Maria Glover. But this Article is the first to analyze mass arbitration and MA companies primarily through an ethical lens, detailing the various ethical quagmires presented by mass arbitration from an individual lawyer and consumer perspective.

Recommended Citation

Michael Doman, Collective Judo: Ethics and Access to Justice in Mass Arbitration Companies, 25 Pepp. Disp. Resol. L.J. 225 (2025)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/drlj/vol25/iss2/4