{"id":228,"date":"2014-09-19T17:40:42","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T21:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/?p=228"},"modified":"2021-04-19T16:01:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T20:01:07","slug":"detroit-bankruptcy-mediation-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/detroit-bankruptcy-mediation-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Bankruptcy Mediation, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote in April<\/a> about the mediation team being used to facilitate the Detroit bankruptcy. I was intrigued about how it would work, and impressed at the novelty of using mediators. I\u2019m now realizing that these folks are not \u201cmediators\u201d in the normal sense of the word. As we read more about the active efforts of this team to fashion specific outcomes, it appears that they may not be \u201cneutral,\u201d and that they may not be promoting party self-determination, which is the first principle of ethics for mediators<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, one of the City\u2019s creditors,\u00a0Syncora, accused two of the mediators, Judge Gerald Rosen and Eugene Driker, of bias in the way they \u201cdesigned and later executed a transaction in furtherance of their own personal vision\u201d of preserving DIA assets, and of favoring city pensioners, at the expense of other creditors like Syncora. Syncora Brief 8-14<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

One of the proofs cited by Syncora to support their argument that Gene Driker was biased was the fact that his wife was a long-time board member of the DIA. Syncora this week apologized for saying that Mr. Driker hadn\u2019t disclosed his wife\u2019s connection to the DIA, when it turns out he had. It also apologized for casting aspersions on Judge Rosen\u2019s character. Syncora\u2019s apology <\/a>\u2013 issued in the face of an order to show cause<\/a> why it shouldn\u2019t be sanctioned for accusing the mediators of bias \u2013 is so flattering of the two mediators as to leave one puzzled, especially given that Syncora has now settled with the City and withdrawn its objections<\/a> to\u00a0the bankruptcy plan. <\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t undo the fact that one of the bankruptcy \u201cmediators\u201d has close ties to the DIA, that arguably should have disqualified him from serving, or at least from working on any aspect of the \u201cgrand bargain.\u201d These \u201cmediators\u201d perhaps should be called \u201cspecial masters\u201d or some other term that recognizes the scope of their power in this case.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote in April about the mediation team being used to facilitate the Detroit bankruptcy. I was intrigued about how it would work, and impressed at the novelty of using mediators. I\u2019m now realizing that these folks are not \u201cmediators\u201d in the normal sense of the word. As we read more about the active efforts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologies","category-learnings-from-mediation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abfifer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}