Law Commons^™

Does Critical Mass Matter? Views From The Board Room, Lissa Lamkin Broome, John M. Conley, Kimberly D. Krawiec

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, we report and analyze the results of forty-six wide-ranging interviews with corporate directors and other relevant insiders on the general topic of whether and how the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of corporate boards matters. In particular, we explore their views on the concept of “critical mass” — that is, the theory that women and racial or ethnic minorities are unlikely to have an impact in the boardroom until they grow from a few tokens into a considerable minority of the board.

In contrast to other recent qualitative research on corporate boards, we find more limited support …

Court-Connected Mediation And Minorities: A Report Card, Sharon Press

Faculty Scholarship

Critical race theorists have raised important concerns about alternative dispute resolution in general and mediation specifically. Many of the critiques were written prior to the ascendency of court-connected mediation. To set the context, Part II of this article begins with a brief history of the court-connected mediation movement in the United States. In Part III, the critiques of mediation, specifically focusing on those related to minorities, are summarized. Part IV identifies some of the flaws in the critiques as related to court-connected mediation. Part V includes actions that court programs can undertake to address the issues raised by the critiques …