Former New York appellate judge joins DecisionLayer as advisor

DecisionLayer named former New York Appellate Division Presiding Justice Alan D. Scheinkman as an advisor as the online arbitration startup pushes to make disputes faster and cheaper to resolve. The company says its platform uses AI for case administration while human arbitrators retain final decision-making authority.

Why it matters: - DecisionLayer is targeting a large gap in legal services: disputes that are too expensive and slow to resolve through traditional litigation or arbitration. - The addition of a former top New York appellate judge gives the startup credibility as it tries to pair AI tools with human oversight. - The company is positioning its platform for both human users and AI agents as commercial transactions become more automated.

What happened: - DecisionLayer appointed Hon. Alan D. Scheinkman, former Presiding Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, as an advisor. - Scheinkman said he joined because the platform’s design emphasized fairness, independence and human oversight. - DecisionLayer announced the appointment on Oct. 15, 2026.

The details: - DecisionLayer is a fully online arbitration provider founded by Liberty McAteer and William Ferrell. - The platform uses proprietary artificial intelligence software to help with case administration and preparation of materials for review. - A qualified human arbitrator still evaluates the dispute and issues the award. - Filing fees start at $500. - The company says its process is designed to move matters from filing to a reasoned award in about 45 days. - DecisionLayer has published procedural rules and model arbitration clauses. - The platform also offers an API so parties can integrate dispute resolution into existing systems. - DecisionLayer’s arbitration rules, fee schedule, model clauses and case simulator are available at DecisionLayer. - The advisory board also includes Dennis Glazer, retired partner and former head of litigation at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and James Shaughnessy, chief legal officer of Docusign and former general counsel of Workday, Orbitz Worldwide, Lenovo and PeopleSoft. - DecisionLayer says its API supports both human and agentic participation while maintaining rules for fairness, transparency and human oversight.

Between the lines: - Scheinkman’s role signals that DecisionLayer wants its AI-enabled process to be seen as institutionally serious, not just technically efficient. - The company is framing arbitration as an infrastructure problem, not just a legal one, with a goal of reducing cost and delay for lower-value and higher-value disputes alike. - McAteer said the long-term goal is to drive the time and cost of dispute resolution toward zero, while keeping humans in charge for now. - The startup is also betting that companies will want dispute resolution built directly into the same digital workflows they already use for contracts and transactions.

What's next: - DecisionLayer is likely to use its advisory board and published tools to attract companies that want faster, lower-cost arbitration. - The company plans to keep developing for a world where businesses and their authorized AI agents can resolve disputes through the platform. - Human oversight remains central for now, even as DecisionLayer builds toward more agentic participation.

The bottom line: - DecisionLayer is trying to turn arbitration into a digital product: faster, cheaper and more встроенный into business systems, but still anchored by human judgment.