Darby James M ESQ Arbitrator & Mediator

Darby James M ESQ Arbitrator & Mediator, operating as a sole proprietorship under the name James M. Darby, Esq., Arbitrator & Mediator, provides arbitration and grievance-hearing services to federal agencies as a prime contractor on small purchase orders, with no set-aside designations and no subcontract footprint. Based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the firm is a one-person legal-services practice classified under NAICS 8111 (Offices of Lawyers) and PSC Support-Professional Legal services, delivering arbitrator expertise and opinion preparation for employee grievance disputes and labor mediation matters across civilian agencies.

The vendor's customer base spans seven federal agencies, with concentration in the Department of Labor and the Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration. The top five customers by award count account for 82% of recent awards. The Department of Labor's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management leads by combined potential value at $40 thousand across two awards; the FAA Headquarters follows with three awards valued at $23 thousand combined. The Department of Justice Bureau of Prisons, the Social Security Administration, the National Mediation Board, and the Department of Homeland Security round out the active set. Recent representative work includes a $10,547 purchase order from the Department of Labor in June 2025 for research, hearing, and opinion preparation on Grievance Case #GREV20250236 (completion date September 11, 2025), a $3,850 purchase order from DOL in September 2025 for arbitrator services on Grievance Case #GREV202500332 (completion date December 3, 2025), and an $8,800 purchase order awarded January 7, 2026 for a virtual arbitration hearing scheduled January 8, 2026, with performance extended through September 18, 2026, to be performed in Long Beach, New York.

Activity is sparse and sporadic — one award in 2017, one in 2018, one in 2020, two in 2025, and one in 2026 — with eleven total awards across the captured history carrying $102 thousand in combined potential value. The vendor operates exclusively as a prime (100% of awards) and does not subcontract. All awards are uncompeted, full-and-open purchase orders under $50 thousand each, reflecting the vendor's role as an individual arbitrator-for-hire rather than a systems integrator or managed-services provider.