“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, and expenses, and waste of time. As peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will be business enough.” 1
These contemporary sounding words by Abraham Lincoln were recently borne out by the New York County Lawyers Association Committee on Arbitration and ADR (the “NYCLA ADR Committee”), which recently had good news to report on the success of the alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) program that has been implemented for the last five years in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (the “EDNY”). The NYCLA ADR Committee’s statement was issued to the Committee on Civil Litigation of the EDNY, in response to its July 21, 1997 request for public comment on the Court’s implementation of its Civil Justice Expense and Delay Reduction Plan, which was adopted on December 7, 1991. 2