Labor-Management Professionals Complete 'Foundation' Arbitration Course

Eighteen labor-management professionals recently completed the Scheinman Institute’s Foundations of Labor Arbitration, a four-month course that combined in-person and virtual learning. 

The Foundations course was designed for labor-management professionals interested in exploring the possibility of transitioning to neutral practice as a labor arbitrator and those who have already launched labor arbitration practices. 

The sessions met in person in New York City for three days in January and three days in April. The course work included sessions on ethics, discipline and just cause, contract language interpretation, evidence, impartiality and implicit bias, and hearing practice.  Participants drafted an arbitration decision, served as arbitrator in mock hearings, and presented their decisions and analysis on case studies in a red light/green light panel format. 

Instructors included: Martin Scheinman, Founder of the Scheinman Institute, Alan Symonette,  Scheinman Institute Board Member and Past President of the National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA), Jay Siegel (NAA), Haydee Rosario (NAA), as well as Scheinman Institute extension faculty, Sarah Miller Espinosa (NAA), Ellen Gallin Procida, Katrina Nobles, and Cheryl Teare. 

Participants who successfully completed the Foundations course are eligible to apply to join the Fourth Cohort of the Labor Arbitrator Development Program (LADP), an 18-month program featuring advanced labor arbitration training, business plan development, mediation training, drafting and hearing practice, and shadowing established arbitrators.  The LADP is scheduled to begin in Summer 2026