Arbiter

Most days can involve pre-hearing case management, conducted arbitration hearings, and the careful writing of awards. You're often reviewing briefs from counsel, holding scheduling conferences, presiding over hearings that can stretch days, and issuing reasoned awards that resolve the matter with finality. Hearings tend to be more informal than court but more structured than mediation.

The hardest parts often involve the gravity of issuing awards that have very limited appeal rights — and the variance across forums. Commercial arbitration through AAA or JAMS runs on detailed rules and counsel-heavy hearings; labor arbitration follows different conventions; ad hoc arbitrations are shaped by the parties themselves. Building a steady appointment stream is its own multi-year project.

People who tend to thrive here are decisive, comfortable with the weight of final authority, and skilled at running an orderly hearing. If you want advocacy or settlement work, the impartial-arbiter posture can feel constraining. If you find satisfaction in owning the decision and writing an award that holds up to scrutiny, the work carries a particular kind of professional gravity.