David Saxe of Morrison Cohen and James Catterson of Arnold Porter. (Photo by David Handschuh/NYLJ)

Nine former New York Court of Appeals and appellate judges are offering their services as arbitrators in commercial cases as part of a joint venture that is officially being launched this week.

The network, founded by retired Appellate Division, First Department Justices David Saxe and James Catterson, is unique because everyone in it has appellate and trial experience. The advantage of the judges-only network is that lawyers selecting arbitrators have access to extensive written opinions that provide insight into the judges' legal reasoning, Saxe said.

“People who send their clients to arbitration are really worried that they're going to run across arbitrators who are not enforcing the law,” Saxe said. “That's why it's very important to have an arbitrator with a fealty to the law who hews to legal precedent.”

“Appellate judges spend their career looking over decisions that come to them from the lower court. They're not in the business of taking chances,” he said.

Rick Andrias, who retired from the appellate court three months ago and is joining the network as a principal, said he was involved in 700 to 800 cases a year at the First Department. “We're known quantities by litigators,” he said.

The network, which the judges are calling ADAM or Appellate Division Arbitrators & Mediators, was an outgrowth of Saxe's and Catterson's common experiences. Saxe found that lawyers at Morrison Cohen where he is now a partner were always asking about the arbitrators offered by the larger networks such as JAMS or NAM because they didn't know enough about any of them.

“Oddly enough although David and I are at different firms, I also get the exact same inquiries every day,” said Catterson, who became a partner at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer after retiring.

And inevitably, he said, no one at Arnold & Porter knew enough about the prospective arbitrators to select one.

Saxe and Catterson decided against joining JAMS or NAM because the arrangement wouldn't have been as favorable financially or allowed them to handle as many other matters. Instead, they retained Resolute Systems to handle the back-office operations and provide office space. As partners, the revenue they earn goes to their firms.

Aware of the need for diversity, the founders reached out to retired female judges to see if any would be interested in joining. Three women took them up on it: Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, Victoria Graffeo and Susan Phillips, all retired from the Court of Appeals. Barry Cozier, a retired Second Department justice who is part of ADAM, is African-American. Retired Court of Appeals Judges Howard Levine and Joseph Covello are also part of the venture.

Lack of diversity has been an issue in alternative dispute resolution. Data from a 2014 American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section survey indicated that for cases with between $1 million and $10 million, 82 percent of neutrals and 89 percent of arbitrators were men (Brown & Schneider, 2014). Studies since haven't shown much progress.

“We sought out people from diverse backgrounds that we knew and respected,” Andrias noted. “We wanted diversity so people could choose whoever fit their particular needs.”