Meanings of public arbitrators in English

Of FINRA's 6,400 arbitrators, more than 3,500 are deemed public arbitrators.

A party would be able to select a panel of all public arbitrators by rejecting all arbitrators with industry ties.

Investors' lawyers, however, have complained that the public arbitrators who once worked on Wall Street may have an industry bias.

But clients' attorneys have complained that the public arbitrators may have come from Wall Street and therefore have an industry bias.

Under the plan, these people could instead become "non- public arbitrators," required to have industry experience and typically hear disputes between industry entities.

While it is unclear how many public arbitrators have past industry ties, some lawyers have pegged the figure at about 1,000.