Professor of Law
Director, William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law

A specialist in employment law, arbitration and mediation, Susan FitzGibbon concentrates her research on alternative dispute resolution. Currently, she is analyzing results of a satisfaction survey given to participants in civil cases who went through the mediation process of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

“Although we hear a lot of talk about parties having their day in court, most people don’t realize that the majority of cases are settled before they reach the courtroom,” Professor FitzGibbon notes. “Only two to five percent of cases are tried. Some are resolved by preliminary motions. But increasing numbers of cases are settled through mediation and we’re exploring how satisfied participants are with the process.”

While classic forms of mediation and arbitration evolved in the labor field, Professor FitzGibbon says developments in the U.S. Supreme Court since the mid 1980s have fostered and promoted arbitration to resolve a wide variety of matters, including statutory claims. “But this has raised a troubling question,” she says. “If you’re going to resolve disputes in some alternative to court, especially if it’s a binding forum with very little judicial review, is it a fair process?”

An arbitrator and mediator, Professor FitzGibbon has been exploring this topic for more than a decade. Her scholarship includes articles on arbitrating employment claims, arbitration and mediation of sexual harassment claims and court-annexed mediation programs. Professor FitzGibbon joined Saint Louis University School of Law in 1987. She was named assistant director of the William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law that same year and became director in 1994. Prior to becoming a law professor, she worked in the commercial litigation section at Guilfoil, Petzall & Shoemake in St. Louis and clerked for Judge Myron H. Bright on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Professor FitzGibbon spent seven years in personnel management before earning her law degree. She is the third generation to graduate from Saint Louis University School of Law. Her father graduated in 1950 and her grandfather graduated in 1923.