1. Arbitration: The In-House Counsel’s Perspective
Panel 2 – Management of Disputes in Corporate Legal Departments
Stefano Catelani - 16 March 2015

2. Overview of the DuPont Legal Model
The DuPont Legal Model ( was put together in 1992 when the Company had to reduce its operating costs by a significant amount.
The intent was to achieve high quality legal services at reduced cost.
The management team running the program concluded that litigation would be the initial focus of the Legal Model and established objectives to reduce cost and increase productivity.
Book: “The New Reality” (2009)

3. Objectives of the Legal Model
Reduce the number of outside law firms and suppliers;
Employ more sophisticated purchasing practices such as value billing agreements;
Leverage internal and external resources;
Fully utilize technology to facilitate collaboration and sharing of work product, to coordinate handling of similar cases and to promote knowledge transfer;
Increase the hiring, retention and contributions from women and people of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds.

4. Management of Disputes
Full time litigators only in the US. On going reorganization due to planned spin-off of chemical businesses.
Outside the US, commercial and IP lawyers handle litigations depending on business and geography (matrix system).
Number of cases traditionally much higher in the US than in the RoW due to peculiarities of US legal system.

5. Management of Disputes
Decision making power depends on the value of the dispute ($ amount) in accordance with internal rules on delegation of authority.
Decisions are always taken together by business and Legal.
Business doesn’t normally have strong views on litigation vs. arbitration (e.g. complex transactions, deals in emerging markets).

6. Current Trends
ADR (“Alternative Dispute Resolution”) growing in terms of importance (CPR activity as an example)
Importance of sharing best practices in the field of ADR
Litigation normally a distraction hence the need for ADR (“Accelerated Dispute Resolutions”)

7. Current Trends
DuPont Legal put together a Global Alternative Dispute Resolution Guide in order to harmonize practices around the world.
Increased use of Step Clauses and mediation.
Use of Early, Strategic and “Timely” Case Assessment (settlement at any time).

8. Current Trends
Importance of global view especially when there are reputational issues and/or knock on effects among different businesses.
Growing importance of training and compliance activity in general as a tool to prevent costly investigations and litigations.
Impact of lessons learned on current trends.