L-R Noah Hanft and Richard Ziegler, AcumenADR.

Two former prominent general counsel are teaming up to use the business expertise they gained in-house to offer alternative dispute resolution services.

Noah Hanft, GC at MasterCard Worldwide from 2001 to 2014, and Richard Ziegler, top lawyer at 3M from 2003 to 2007, announced they are launching New York-based AcumenADR on Monday.

Hanft, who most recently served as president and CEO of ADR provider and think tank International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution for five years, and Ziegler, most recently a senior litigation partner and co-chair of the international arbitration practice at Jenner & Block from 2007 to his retirement from the firm May 31, met in 1980, they estimate, and have been friends since.

They decided to team up when their paths began to cross in the ADR space and realized they were “philosophically aligned in terms of dispute resolution,” Hanft said in an interview. In addition to his role at Jenner, Ziegler has served as a member of the board of directors of CPR since 2016.

“When it comes to disputes, there's a solution orientation when you're running a business,” Hanft said. “You're not thinking about the business of litigation. … [Business leaders] are focused on putting disputes behind them and not spending a lot of time and money on litigation.”

Specifically, he added, companies involved in mediation do not want mediators who are mere messengers but those who “really understand the commercial realities and how corporations and boards of directors think.”

And arbitration, Hanft said, is “an incredibly flexible way to deal with disputes” and “a process that avoids massive discovery expenses and gets you to a conclusion in a much more efficient way.”

“When I was GC at MasterCard, I was fortunate enough to wear both hats because I had a significant amount of business responsibilities,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is be tied down in litigation. It's incredibly distracting to a company.”

Ziegler echoed Hanft's sentiment that the pair's experience as GCs provides unique insight into and understanding of “what drives commercial disputes between businesses.”

“In my early days as GC at 3M, I felt like I was earning an on-the-job MBA,” he said in an interview. “It wasn't until I got inside that I understood what makes businesses tick and animates decisions.”

Although not expected to be jointly retained on matters, Hanft and Ziegler are sharing expenses, including a website and office space, which helps eliminate loneliness and provides the collegiality common to practicing law in a firm, Ziegler said.

“I find being the neutral [party] very satisfying,” Ziegler said of his passion for ADR. “Having spent decades as a litigator and counselor, it is wonderfully satisfying to assist parties represented by able lawyers unable to reach a settlement on their own to reach a settlement. It's interesting and invigorating.”