Kaplan Arbitration and Mediation.
Bill Kaplan KC FCIArb
Bill is an arbitrator and mediator whose practice is concentrated on corporate and commercial disputes.
Bill spent almost 40 years acting as counsel on the fullest range of corporate and commercial disputes. His experience ranges from contract disputes to complex business arrangement disputes both internal and external to a company and includes extensive experience in financial restructuring of both solvent and insolvent corporations.
That experience has not simply lead to an understanding of the elements of commercial and corporate disputes, but also an understanding of the underlying structures, interests, governance issues, and financial imperatives of corporations themselves.
Every corporate or commercial dispute has a own unique characteristics. Whether the context of a neutral’s engagement is arbitration or mediation, it is imperative that the neutral has a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of what can drive a corporate or commercial dispute. It is equally imperative that the mediator understand the elements that can drive a resolution of a corporate or commercial dispute that is sustainable for the parties.
Litigation and Dispute
resolution Experience
Bill commenced his litigation practice as a labour and employment lawyer in 1980. In that role Bill had extensive experience in both arbitrations and mediations including acting as a neutral arbitrator. By 1985 Bill’s practice focus changed to corporate commercial litigation matters involving a wide variety of corporate and commercial disputes over a broad spectrum of industries. Bill conducted that corporate commercial litigation practice at Blake Cassels and Graydon, leading their litigation practice in Vancouver for most of the succeeding 30 years.
Bill has handled matters involving contract disputes, securities litigation, shareholder and partner disputes, real estate and development issues, intellectual property matters, construction and development disputes, banking issues, corporate bankruptcy and insolvency, corporate restructuring, banking litigation, energy, gas, and oil issues, product liability claims, environmental litigation, insurance disputes, and defamation cases.
Bill has litigated at every level of the court system in British Columbia and at the Supreme Court of Canada. He was a broad, experienced litigator and brings that experience, expertise and the judgement engendered, to his practise as an arbitrator and mediator.
Industry Experience
Bill has litigated and acted as a neutral in the fullest range of industry contexts, including construction, energy, hospitality, entertainment industry, biomedical, industry, banking, real estate and development, transportation, hospitality, and professional services industries.
Bill has arbitrated disputes concerning intellectual property rights in the sports and biomedical industries, contract disputes in the construction industry, partnership disputes in professional businesses, and a number of general contract disputes in the general business sector.
Bill has mediated disputes in the real estate industry, construction industry, transportation industry, hospitality industry, leasing business, waste management business, and a variety of other business contexts.
Mediation approach
Bill has had a career long interest and involvement in negotiations theory and practice. He was an adjunct professor of Law at the Allard school of Law University of British Columbia teaching a negotiations course at the school for over 25 years. He has taught and written in the area of negotiation theory and practice throughout his career. Bill’s approach to mediation is an interest based approach. He does not adhere to a given model of mediation (either interventionist or neutral based).
Rather, he believes that each dispute possess a different balance of relevant dynamics, including the nature of the dispute, the party specific relationship (short term, long-term, temporary or permanent) and the specific litigation context that will recommend a specific approach to each dispute. The focus is always on an attempt to tailor a specific approach to maximize the likelihood of reaching a solution that both parties accept and are most likely to maintain in the future if their relationship requires.
Bill’s practice includes not only the usual exchange of mediation briefs and sessions, but also a process that significantly engages counsel in pre-mediation discussions, setting the stage for a productive and efficient mediation, and ensuring that counsel are actively involved in the settlement-making process.
Arbitration Approach
The single most significant challenge for every dispute resolution mechanisms these days is the cost associated with an adjudicated resolution, especially in the context of medium size or smaller disputes. Arbitration procedures provide the flexibility to tailor the process to fit the specifics of each dispute and deliver both a fair procedure and cost effectiveness to the parties.
Bill’s approach is to coordinate with counsel to develop a process that meets those objectives by ensuring that both parties have an equal and appropriate opportunity to present their case while doing so within a process that properly reflects the financial and other values of the case and the need for the parties to reach an arbitrated solution that does not tax their resources to the point that the process becomes financially futile.
Every arbitration presents a different balance of financial and legal issues and Bill works with counsel, especially in the initial pre-hearing stages, to put in place of process that delivers efficiency, cost effectiveness, and a litigation context that will allow a full and proper hearing of the dispute.
Sometimes that means staged hearings for issues; for example, the separation of damages assessment from liability issues, or the hearing of a discreet legal issue that may either resolve the matter or provide enough certainty to the parties that their ability to consensually resolve remaining issues is enhanced. In all cases, the objective is to ensure a fair process, but also an efficient and cost-effective one to the parties and counsel.