Professor Richard Frankel is one of three law professors invited to address 150 jurists at the 2014 Roscoe Pound Forum for State Appellate Court Judges, which will be held in Baltimore, Md. on July 26.

With this year’s forum focused on “Forced Arbitration and the Fate of the Seventh Amendment,” Frankel will present a paper on state courts’ authority in the wake of the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. 

Frankel argues that while there are many variations in arbitration, the essential attribute historically has been the two parties’ freely-negotiated choice.  Noting federal and state court decisions that found  mandatory arbitration provisions to be unconscionable, Frankel observes that the Supreme Court ruling in Concepcion does not bar state courts from applying general contract rules when arbitration agreements are challenged.

An expert on consumer arbitration agreements and director of the law school's Appellate Litigation Clinic, Frankel is the author of “The Arbitration Clause as Super Contract,” published this year in the Washington University Law Review.  

The forum is organized annually for appellate judges by the Pound Civil Justice Institute, named for former Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound.