Last year we reported on a glass ceiling sex discrimination lawsuit filed by a female partner against a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Glass Ceiling Sex Discrimination Alleged in Silicon Valley. The latest development in the case is the ongoing efforts of the employer, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, to keep the case out of court and in private arbitration, as the firm is appealing further an intermediate appeals court decision rejecting the arbitration argument, U.S. Venture Firm Appeals Court Decision In Discrimination Case.
Employers and corporate interests favor arbitration, because arbitrators tend to favor them. Unlike jurors, who have no interest in ever serving on a jury again, arbitrators get paid good money to work as an arbitrator so they have an interest in getting another arbitration job. Between an individual and a corporation a corporation is much more likely to have another case in arbitration. Since an arbitrator wants to get hired again, they have an incentive to favor the party most likely to be in a position to hire them again: the corporation. This doesn't mean that all arbitrators lack integrity. But there is a reason why corporations favor arbitration: it favors them not the individual.
