Meet Katherine Simpson: A Postdoctoral Associate at the Scheinman Institute
Dr. Katherine Simpson, Esq. is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution. She earned her B.A. and M.A. at Ohio University, before moving to Germany to earn a Masters in European Studies from the University of Bonn. She returned to the U.S. and earned her J.D. at the University of Baltimore before returning to Germany to earn LL.M. and Dr. iur. Degrees from the University of Cologne.
Dr. Simpson has a broad ADR practice, which she established thirteen years ago. She is a Fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and a Member of the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals. She serves on the CPR’s Panels of Distinguished Neutrals and the American Arbitration Association’s International (ICDR), Employment, Consumer, and Commercial Panels, and is on the Arbitrator Panel of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).
Katherine’s doctoral thesis, “Financial Inclusion & Consumer Empowerment”, was published by Frankfurt School Verlag. Katherine’s work to improve diversity in ADR has informed many of her recent publications, including “CETA – Where are the Women”, which summarizes a successful advocacy campaign in response to the EU and Canada’s failure to appoint any women as Chairpersons in a trade treaty roster, and “The Diversity Dividend”, which highlights some of the history of diversity in ADR. She is Vice Chair of the Ray Corollary Initiative (RCI), which is finding innovative ways to increase diversity in ADR, and Chair of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s Women in Dispute Resolution (WIDR) Committee.
At the Scheinman Institute, Katherine will research how labor arbitration has influenced the development of international commercial arbitration and, by extension, investor-state arbitration. She will explore the differences between these branches of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and evaluate what these branches might consider borrowing from one another to make each more efficient, predictable, and diverse.