2017 was a big year in arbitration law. We went from a country that seemed on the verge of banning arbitration in most consumer and employee contracts to a country whose federal policy embraces arbitration in nearly every context. It was the first year where my extended family saw my "obscure" legal topic showing up in the general news, resulting in Thanksgiving topics like: "Hey, isn't arbitration what you write about? Is it as horrible as they say?"
So, let's look back on how arbitration reached that level of notoriety. Here are the ten top developments from 2017.