Thirty-seven percent of the American Arbitration Association’s construction panel is made up of construction industry arbitrators, meaning architects, engineers, contractors, developers and sureties. The rest are construction lawyers. The intent of this article is to explain how nonattorney construction industry arbitrators think and what they expect from litigants in arbitration. The goal is to help litigants understand how to select the right kind of industry professional for a case and to take advantage of this arbitrator’s expertise by providing the kind of evidence and argument that will be persuasive to him or her. All of the examples used to illustrate points made in this article are taken from my experience.