Although the DDC bylaws have always given the litigants the right to be represented by a lawyer, prior to the Rapaport case it was uncommon. Today, legal representation is the norm. The arbitrators feel that the presence of lawyers has, in some measure, altered the rules of decision they apply. The lawyers alert them to relevant parts of New York law, and, while this law still does not supply the rule of decision, the arbitrators are more conscious of the law and are increasingly reluctant to drastically depart from it, except in instances where the decisions are deeply rooted in custom or do not involve creating a new rule.

QUESTION: Could explore how informal or customary justice systems change once lawyers professionalize them.

Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal Sys…, loc. 281