Arbitration Handbook

The American College of Trial Lawyers created its Arbitration Committee in 2023. The committee members are all trial lawyers, but they also have significant experience in arbitration. This “Arbitration Handbook” is their first major work; it was written by Fellows of the College for trial lawyers.

As the College recognized, many commercial disputes are now being decided by arbitrators in conference rooms, not judges and juries in courtrooms. Many of the largest domestic commercial disputes, and essentially all commercial disputes arising from cross-border transactions, are being arbitrated, not tried.

Arbitration and litigation are similar in many ways, but they are not identical, and the differences can require changes in advocacy. Civil trial lawyers used to depositions, direct testimony, evidence rules, and “making the record” might be surprised that arbitration usually has less discovery, no or limited direct, fewer rules, and essentially no appeal.

This “Arbitration Handbook,” we hope, reduces the surprises and offers suggestions as to how trial lawyers can adapt to and thrive in this different dispute resolution process.

Fourteen Fellows of the College contributed chapters, each addressing the law, lore, or practice of arbitration—lessons that those Fellows learned, many times the hard way, through experience. They wrote under the supervision of Editor-in-Chief David M. Brodsky, the first chair of the College’s Arbitration Committee. He was ably assisted by Associate Editors Tom Cunningham and Dennis Suplee.

Arbitration law and practice in the United States and Canada have been advancing and changing rapidly. Neither the College nor its Arbitration Committee can claim that this “Arbitration Handbook” contains the only advice possible or, as time progresses, the most current advice. We do hope, though, that trial lawyers undertaking an arbitration find this “Arbitration Handbook” a useful primer.

Paul Klaas
Chair, Arbitration Committee
October 2026

To download the Arbitration Handbook, click on the “Get the Resource” button to the right