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IMI Certified Mediator
United Kingdom, United States
California, New York, Washington DC
Commercial, Corporate, Energy, Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
English, French
JAMS
Mediation Profile
Mr. Aragaki is a dual-qualified (U.S. and U.K.) lawyer, international arbitrator and mediator at JAMS, a Chartered Arbitrator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators. He is Faculty Director of the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at U.C. Hastings, and a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS School of Law, London. He is citizen of the U.S. and Japan, and an overseas citizen of India. He has lived in the U.K., Germany and France.
Hiro N. Aragaki, Esq., C.Arb is a distinguished neutral with more than 20 years of experience, including almost a decade of full-time law practice at global law firms and service as a neutral since 2001. Recognized internationally for his experience in arbitration and mediation, he has trained judges and lawyers and is frequently called upon to consult on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) reform projects around the world. He brings energy, sharp analytic skills and a talent for thinking outside the box. He is particularly well known for shrewd case management, something he credits to the influence of the Hon. Fern M. Smith (Ret.), for whom he served as a law clerk.
As a mediator, Mr. Aragaki is known for investing extra work prior to the mediation to narrow the issues and ensure that parties and counsel come fully prepared. He sees his role as helping parties make the best-possible decision about settlement based on careful case evaluation, reality-testing about litigation risks and transaction costs, and creative problem-solving. He is accustomed to using a wide range of directive and facilitative interventions, as appropriate.
Business & Commercial; Banking & Finance; Civil Rights; Employment; Energy; Entertainment; Professional Liability; Technology; Telecommunications
Please contact my Case Manager:
Louis Boney, II
555 West 5th St. 32nd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90013
LBoney@jamsadr.com
T: 213-253-9712
F: 213-620-0100
- Fellow, College of Commercial Arbitrators (2020-present)
- Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (2016–present)
- Board Member, California Dispute Resolution Council (2018–2020)
- Standing Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution, California State Bar (2013–2016) Executive Committee, AALS Section on Dispute Resolution (2015–present)
- International Bar Association (2017–present); Arbitration and Mediation Committees (2017– present)
- American Society of International Law (2017–present); Africa Interest Group, (2017–present) ABA International Law Section (2018–present); International Mediation and Arbitration Committees (2018–present)
- ABA Dispute Resolution Section (2007–present); International Committee (2011–present) Board Member, Foundation for Sustainable Rule of Law Initiatives (2015–present; international foundation to promote sustainable mediation programs, especially in countries with overburdened and backlogged court systems)
- ABA ROLI Africa Law Initiative Council (2018–2020)
- ABA ROLI Central European & Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) Council (2020- present)
- Blogger, Indisputably.org (2018–present)
- Senior Fellow, UCLA Law School Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Program (2012–present)
Please contact my Case Manager:
Louis Boney, II
555 West 5th St. 32nd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90013
LBoney@jamsadr.com
T: 213-253-9712
F: 213-620-0100
Training and Education
JAMS Mediator Training (2019) and continuing thereafter. Completed Virtual ADR training conducted by the JAMS Institute, the training arm of JAMS.
- Co-Instructor, Commercial Mediation Training, Monrovia, Liberia (with Magistrate Judge Robert Levy, EDNY, and Caroline Etuk, 2017): Provided dispute systems design advice and delivered two mediation trainings for lawyers and judges as part of World Bank Group-funded project to establish a court-annexed mediation program at the Commercial Court of Montserrado County
- Co-Trainer, Advanced Mediation Training, Centre for Advanced Mediation Practice, Bangalore, India (2016)
- Co-Instructor, Mediation Training Course for District Judges, Advocates and Educators, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2011): Delivered 35-hour mediation training and dispute system design advice for the Judicial Administration Training Institute of Bangladesh and the South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies
- Instructor and Head Coach, Loyola Law School ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition Team, Paris (2018, 2019)
- Instructor and Head Coach, Loyola Law School Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Team, Hong Kong (2019)
- Taught courses on ADR and international business law at Nagoya University Graduate Faculty of Law, Institut Supérieur Européen de Gestion/International School of Management (Paris), SOAS School of Law (London) and UC Hastings College of the Law
- International Developments in Mediation and their Implications for the Continent, SOAS Sixth Arbitration in Africa Conference, in partnership with the Centre de Médiation et d’Arbitrage de GICAM, Douala, Cameroon (2020)
- Litertainment: Discussions on Contractual Pitfalls, Contours of Investigations, Enforcement of US Judgments & Awards in India, Inaugural Seminar on Navigating Disputes in India sponsored by Nishith Desai Associates, at JAMS Century City (2020)
- Pathways to Sustainable Mediation – Mediation Legislation in Comparative Perspective, JAMS Weinstein Fellows’ Week, San Francisco & Napa (2019)
- From A(fghanistan) to V(ietnam): Mediation Law in Comparative Perspective, The Mediation Society of San Francisco (2019)
- What Commercial Mediation Legislation from Around the Globe Tells Us About How Mediation is Developing Internationally, Los Angeles ADR Study Group (2019)
- Ad hoc Arbitration in the United States, Ethics in Arbitration Symposium sponsored by the Civil Justice Research Initiative, UC Irvine School of Law (with Richard Chernick, Donna Melby, and Carrie Menkel-Meadow, et al., 2019)
- “Minds Meeting” Across Borders: Can’t We All Just Mediate Our International Dispute?, ABA Section of International Law Conference, Washington, D.C. (2019)
- A Primer on Mediation Law in Africa, SOAS Fifth Arbitration in Africa Conference in partnership with Bannaga & Fadlabi LLP and the African Institute of International Law, Arusha, Tanzania (2019)
- The Legal Framework of Arb-Med and Med-Arb: Lessons From Around the Globe, Conference on Multi-tier Approaches to the Resolution of International Disputes: A Global and Comparative Study, Hong Kong University (with Anselmo Reyes, Thomas Stipanowich, and Weixia Gu, 2018)
- Pursuing FLSA and Employment Discrimination Claims in the Wake of Epic Systems, ABA Section of Employment and Labor Law Webinar (2018)
- The Role of Counsel in Mediation, Advocacy in Mediation: The U.S. Experience, Workshop organized by WBG and VBLC on Outlook for Commercial Mediation, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2018)
- Lessons Learnt From Implementing Commercial Mediation in the U.S. and the U.K., Workshop organized by WBG, VBLC and VIAC, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2018)
- What Mediation Legislation From Around the Globe Tells Us About How Mediation Is Developing Internationally, Yale-Quinnipiac Dispute Resolution Workshop, Yale Law School (2018)
- Some Challenges of Promoting Commercial Mediation in the Developing World, public lecture delivered at SOAS School of Law, University of London (2018)
- The Benefits of ADR for Commerce and Investment in Liberia, formal launch of Liberia’s commercial mediation program organized by the World Bank Group and the Commercial Court of Montserrado County, Monrovia, Liberia (2017)
- Arbitration in India, AALS Comparative Arbitration Panel, San Francisco (with Shahla Ali, Manuel Gomez, and Jill Gross, 2017)
- Can Dispute Resolution Be Improved?, Global Pound Conference, USC Gould School of Law, Los Angeles (2017)
- ADR Around the World: Country Developments, Global Trends, ABA Dispute Resolution Annual Meeting, San Francisco (2017)
- Reevaluating the Role of Autonomy in ADR, ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Annual Meeting, New York (with Claudia Bernard, Michael Lewis and Stephen Ware, 2016)
- Holistic Approach to Dispute Management—Interplay of Arbitration and Mediation, Private Commercial Mediation Conclave, Bangalore, India (with K.G. Raghavan, Shreyas Jayasimha, and Jay Folberg, 2016)
- Negotiation & Beyond, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore, India (with Hon. Rebecca Westerfield, Jay Folberg, and Victor Schachter, 2016)
- Shifting Conceptions of Freedom in U.S. Arbitration Jurisprudence, Mandatory Arbitration and Justice Group, SEALS Conference (2014)
- The Federal Arbitration Act as Procedural Reform, Vanderbilt Law School and UCLA Law School (2014)
- “Contract” or “Procedure”? Reinterpreting the Federal Arbitration Act, Michigan Law School Symposium on The Future of Class Actions, Ann Arbor (2013)
- ADR Initiatives in the Developing World: Lessons From the Field, ABA Dispute Resolution Section Annual Meeting, Chicago (2013)
- Making Sense of FAA Preemption After AT&T v. Concepcion, ABA Annual Meeting, Chicago (with Eric Tuchmann and Terry Moritz, 2012)
- Tales of Success and Failure in Mediation: An Evening With Hon. Daniel Weinstein, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles (2012)
- The Future of Arbitration and the World of Class Action Litigation, Federalist Society Podcast (with Chris Drahozal, Brian Fitzpatrick, Michael Greve, and Bo Rutledge, 2012)
- AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion and the Antidiscrimination Model of FAA Preemption, Symposium on U.S. Arbitration Law in the Wake of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, State College, Pennsylvania (with John Feerick, Sandra Partridge, Art Rovine et al., 2012)
- The Supreme Court and Recent Arbitration Jurisprudence: Where Are We Headed?, Fordham Law School (with Edna Sussman, Eric Tuchmann, Thomas Stipanowich, et al., 2011)
- Is the Class Mechanism Fundamentally Incompatible With Arbitration? Quinnipiac/Yale Dispute Resolution Workshop, Yale Law School (2011)
- Is “Manifest Disregard” Dead After Hall Street?, ABA Annual Meeting, Chicago (2009)
Publications
- A Snapshot of National Legislation on Same Neutral Med-Arb and Arb-Med Around the Globe, in Multitier Approaches to the Resolution of International Disputes: A Global and Comparative Study (Anselmo Reyes & Weixia Gu, forthcoming)
- The African Promise, ADR Prof Blog: Indisputably (2019)
- An Outsider’s View of Mediation Law Reform in Africa, Newsletter of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Zambia Branch (July – Sep. 2019)
- SOAS Arbitration in Africa Survey, ADR Prof Blog: Indisputably (2018)
- Arbitration Reform in India: Challenges and Opportunities, in The Developing World of Arbitration (Weixia Gu and Anselmo Reyes eds., 2018)
- Reflections on Epic Systems v. Lewis, Nos. 16–285, 16–300, 16–307, 584 U.S. (2018); Summary Judgments (LLS Faculty Blog May 25, 2018)
- Things We Know and Think We Know About BATNA and WATNA, ADR Prof Blog: Indisputably (Jan. 4, 2018)
- Aragaki on DirecTV v. Imburgia, ADR Prof Blog: Indisputably (Dec. 21, 2015)
- The Federal Arbitration Act as Procedural Reform, 89 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1939 (2014)
- AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion and the Antidiscrimination Theory of Federal Arbitration Act Preemption, 4 Penn. St. Y.B. Arb. & Med. 39 (2013)
- Status and Contract in AT&T v. Concepcion, SCOTUSBlog symposium on arbitration and the U.S. Supreme Court (2011)
- The Mess of Manifest Disregard, 119 Yale L.J. Online 1 (2009)
- Hall Street Associates v. Mattel: The Right Result The Wrong Way?, JAMS Dispute Resolution Alert, Vol. 8, No. 3 (2008)
- The Negotiation Process, in A Litigator’s Guide to Effective Use of ADR in California (CEB Press 2007)
Compliance
JAMS Mediators Ethics Guidelines.
IMI Professional Conduct Assessment Process.
Provided through JAMS.
Contact
Hiro Aragaki
Mediator, Arbitrator, Professor of Law
JAMS
United States
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