Feinberg hired by GM to guide it through maze of lawsuits //Detroit Free Press.

“Pride precedes a fall and that is what happened to Kenneth Feinberg in the BP cases,” said George Conk, a law professor at Fordham University. “He implausibly claimed to be a neutral rather than a lawyer for BP while his law firm received hundreds of thousands of dollars to carry out BP’s obligations to provide temporary and permanent compensation to those who suffered spill-related losses.”
Kenneth Feinberg’s ADR practice is an interesting cross between mediation and traditional full-throated defense. Hiring is a way of saying “we’re gonna pay”. But he is not a neutral and that fact led him to run afoul when working for BP. His varying roles area good topic for classroom discussion or term papers. – gwc