Ray Corollary Initiative

Here is the challenge: if we want to increase the number of persons of color and women who serve as arbitrators, mediators, and other neutrals, we must change the system for selecting these individuals.  This means changing the way that advocates choose neutrals and the way that rostering entities formulate the slates form which advocates make their final selection of neutrals. 

The Ray Corollary Initiative™ (RCI™) is a detailed plan for action to increase the number of diverse persons selected as arbitrators and mediators. The RCI uses a 30% metric in the final selection process and relies on measurable results. The “Ray Corollary” is named after Charlotte E. Ray who graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1872 and is the first Black woman to be admitted to a bar in the United States.

We need to understand the back-end problem of the lack of diversity in the ADR field, one that leads people to pick arbitrators or mediators they know and creates slates of neutrals who (like most selectors) tend to be older, male, and white. Most important, The Ray Corollary Initiative™ can help address this self-perpetuating situation.