Your team spent weeks—maybe months—negotiating an important transaction. Someone, possibly not the deal lawyers, chose arbitration over the courts as a last-minute clause before signing. Now a dispute has arisen, arbitration is looming, it may last more than a year at significant cost, and you must select an arbitrator. Outside counsel will present candidates, and your instinct may be to defer to them—but don’t. Selecting an arbitrator isn’t a legal formality. It’s the equivalent of hiring …

