Originally from: AAA Handbook on Employment Arbitration and ADR - 2nd Edition

As in-house labor counsel for the last twenty-four years at Halliburton/Kellogg-Brown & Root (Halliburton),1 one of the world’s largest energy services companies, I have seen many changes in how workplace disputes are handled. Litigation had long been the only acceptable method of dispute resolution. But courts once hostile to arbitration have accepted it and hold that mandatory employment arbitration agreements that meet certain requirements are enforceable.

While arbitration has flourished, mediation and other conciliatory processes have developed and hold great promise to resolve workplace disputes.

II. The Litigation Model

The reliance on litigation to resolve individual employment disputes did not evolve from logical necessity. Rather, it was the result of legal and historical forces that developed outside the private employment context. These forces include the role of labor unions, the civil rights movement and the expansion of tort law.