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Professor Jill I. Gross, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and a distinguished faculty member of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at 91��Ƶ , is shedding light on the past and future of arbitration law with her newest book, . Co-edited with Richard A. Bales and published by Cambridge University Press, the book features 30 scholars speaking collectively towards improvements to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) as it approaches its 100th anniversary.

Enacted in 1925, the FAA was designed to place arbitration agreements on equal footing with other contracts, reversing historical judicial hostility to pre-dispute arbitration clauses. However, its application has evolved in ways Congress may not have anticipated, especially in consumer and employment disputes. As Professor Gross explains, “The centenary of the FAA is an opportune moment to examine a statute that has profoundly impacted the lives of millions of Americans, and to propose ways to ensure it continues to serve its intended purpose while addressing modern realities.”

The centenary of the FAA is an opportune moment to examine a statute that has profoundly impacted the lives of millions of Americans, and to propose ways to ensure it continues to serve its intended purpose while addressing modern realities.

The timely publication brings together diverse perspectives from scholars, practitioners, and arbitrators, each focusing on different provisions of the FAA. Key recommendations range from modernizing procedural mechanisms, such as addressing the rise of online arbitration, to reassessing the enforceability of arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts. “One of the most significant criticisms of the FAA is its role in enforcing class action waivers in arbitration clauses, which can suppress claims by individuals against corporations,” said Professor Gross. “Our contributors offer a variety of reform proposals, including making arbitration clauses enforceable only when they guarantee hallmarks of due process, such as impartiality and fair notice.”

Professor Gross, whose expertise spans commercial and securities arbitration, collaborated with co-editor Richard A. Bales, an authority on labor arbitration, to ensure the book addresses the broad spectrum of arbitration governed by the FAA. “We were impressed by the breadth and novelty of the ideas our contributors proposed,” Professor Gross added. “From updating the language of the statute to aligning arbitration processes with contemporary standards of fairness, the book provides a roadmap for meaningful reform.”

Designed for policymakers, legislators, scholars, and students of arbitration, the book not only critiques the FAA but also underscores its successes. “One of the statute’s great strengths is the predictability it provides for business-to-business disputes, allowing sophisticated parties to choose arbitration confidently,” said Gross. “Our goal in suggesting reforms was to retain these strengths while ensuring the statute does not disadvantage vulnerable parties.”

Professor Jill I. Gross is a nationally known expert in the field of securities dispute resolution, and teaches courses in the areas of dispute resolution, ethics, securities law and lawyering skills. She was the James D. Hopkins Professor of Law, a two-year rotating endowed Chair, from 2013–2015, Director of the Investor Rights Clinic from 1999–2015, and Director of Legal Skills Programs from 2010–2015. She also has taught at Cornell Law School, UNLV’s Boyd School of Law and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. In addition to this recent publication, Professor Gross is an author of the preeminent treatise, Broker-Dealer Law and Regulation (Wolters Kluwer 5th ed. 2018, annually updated) (with J. Fanto and N. Poser), and the casebook Arbitration: Law, Policy and Practice (Carolina Academic Press 2018, 2d ed. 2024). She has published dozens of book chapters and articles on the negotiation, mediation and arbitration of securities and other commercial disputes. She has chaired the AALS Section of Dispute Resolution, the Securities ADR Committee of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution and the Practising Law Institute’s annual Securities Arbitration program. She is also an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, and FINRA Dispute Resolution Services, and a former public member of the FINRA National Arbitration and Mediation Committee and the Securities Experts Roundtable. She has been quoted dozens of times in the national media, and retained as an expert in securities arbitrations, litigations and enforcement proceedings. Before entering legal education, Professor Gross was an attorney in several New York City law firms, representing clients in white collar criminal and securities enforcement proceedings, securities arbitrations, and other commercial litigation. She received an AB magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Cornell University and a JD cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Join us for an online book launch with the book authors on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. EST.