The SDR Process
When the SDR Process single-day meeting is over, the dispute will be resolved.
- The SDR process starts with a call from the participants or their lawyers to the founder to describe the dispute.
- The founder determines whether the dispute is appropriate for the SDR process and quotes a fixed fee, including SDR’s out-of-pocket costs, for SDR’s services.
- The participants in the SDR process enter into an agreement among SDR and the participants. That agreement specifies a timeline for all aspects of the process including the meeting at which a resolution will be reached.
- The SDR agreement provides that all aspects of the SDR process will remain confidential. It provides that, absent a settlement, the founder will render a final and binding resolution at 5:00 pm on the date of the meeting. The SDR agreement provides that the resolution will be enforceable in a specific court chosen by the participants and that attorneys’ fees will be awarded the prevailing party if a court proceeding is required to enforce the resolution.
- The SDR agreement specifies a mutually convenient place and day for the meeting. Each participant is entitled to send a summary of its position (and any legal back-up) of not more than 20 double-spaced pages in 14 point or greater typeface to the founder three business days prior to the meeting. Each participant supplies a proposed form of final resolution to the founder and the other parties.
- At the meeting, the founder ordinarily starts by meeting separately with each participant. But the founder will be free to follow any process the founder determines is best suited to reach a resolution.
- However—and this is the crucial aspect of the SDR process—the founder will be required to render a final written resolution at 5:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting. That can be in the form of a settlement negotiated by the participants if one is reached prior to 5:00 p.m.. But absent a settlement, the resolution will simply be the founder’s decision as to how to resolve the dispute.
- One way or another, the participants are over and done with their dispute at the end of the meeting.