Jacquelin Drucker '81 Meets Others in the Middle
Some say today’s with-us-or-against-us world encourages black-and-white thinking. Allegiances to one side or another trump the goal of achieving a prompt resolution that is consistent with the law.
But not in Jacquelin Drucker’s world. Neutrality is the stock-in-trade for the 1981 OSU Moritz College of Law graduate. As a solo-practicing arbitrator of labor, employment and commercial cases, she has spent 17 years listening to and deciding disputes involving businesses, individuals, unions, and corporations worldwide.
“There is a real beauty to arbitration, in the structure and process of ensuring a fair and efficient hearing,” she says. “It is intellectually challenging and endlessly interesting … No two days are the same. Cases can relate to anything from a dispute over a few hours of overtime to discrimination or breach of contract claims in which millions of dollars are at stake.”
The work is constant, Jacquelin says, as she handles between 100 and 150 cases annually, depending on the complexity. She is based in New York City, but maintains an office in Ohio and practices worldwide.
“It is a tremendous privilege to have glimpses into the world and work lives of others—from those who work in the coal mines of West Virginia to those who occupy the seats of power in international corporations—and to be entrusted with the huge responsibility of managing the process and deciding these disputes fairly, in accordance with applicable law or contract.”
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Jacquelin, at the head of the
table, hears argument in an executive contract dispute |
Just name an industry and Jacquelin has arbitrated cases in it.
Employment and labor has long been a specialty for Jacquelin. She has 28 years of experience in the field, working as a lobbyist for the United Auto Workers union, as an attorney in private practice representing employers, and as general counsel, executive director, and vice chair of the Ohio Employment Relations Board, where she helped develop the state’s collective bargaining law. It was at the Board where she discovered the “satisfaction of neutral service,” Jacquelin said.
It is a satisfaction that she wants to impart to others.
Jacquelin is an adjunct faculty member in the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Cornell Institute on Conflict Resolution, where she teaches programs on arbitration, mediation and employment law. She originally pursued teaching while building her solo practice, but she continues to teach as a means to reach the next generation of lawyers. She tries to encourage others with relevant experience to consider moving into arbitration. “We need to build a pool of capable arbitrators for the future,” she said.
Her teaching efforts do not stop at Cornell’s hallowed halls. She has worked as an instructor for multiple national arbitration programs and has trained arbitrators in places like Panama and Bermuda as well.
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Jacquelin and her husband, John,
at the bow of the Pax Novus on Long Island Sound |
She is affiliated with the American Arbitration Association, as well as serving on other major national and local arbitration panels. Her written works include Collective Bargaining Law in Ohio, which some consider the state’s definitive treatise in labor law and impasse resolution.
An Ohio native, Jacquelin also got her undergraduate degree from OSU. It was through a law school classmate that she met her husband, John Drucker, a New York City attorney whose practice focuses on matters of corporate insolvency. They married, and she moved to Manhattan, where they still live.
“We take advantage of all the wonderful things New York City has to offer, especially the theater and the visual arts,” she said. In the summer months they set sail on Long Island Sound.
When free time allows, of course.
Friends wishing to get in touch with Jacquelin can reach her at jdrucker@aol.com.
