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Class Action Waivers in Mandatory Arbitration Agreements: The Newest Developments



Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Product Code - LGA133
Speaker(s): Michael Rubin, Altshuler Berzon LLP; Jason M. Halper, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Ryan J. Andreoli, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
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This presentation will discuss the ability of companies to include class action waivers and mandatory arbitration provisions in their contracts with a wide variety of constituencies, including employees, customers, and shareholders.

Particular attention will be devoted to two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in the current term, Sutter v. Oxford Health Plans LLC, 675 F.3d 215, 80 USLW 1366 (3d Cir. 2012), cert. granted No. 12-135, and Italian Colors Restaurant v. American Express Travel Related Services Co. (In re American Express Merchants’ Litigation), 667 F.3d 204, reh’g en banc denied, 681 F.3d 139 (2d Cir. 2012), cert. granted No. 12-133, and the pending litigation in D.R. Horton Inc., 357 N.L.R.B. No. 184, 192 LRRM 1137 (2012), in which the Fifth Circuit recently heard oral arguments. The upcoming decisions in these recently argued cases likely will have significant ramifications on the use and enforceability of mandatory arbitration and class action waiver provisions in employment, consumer, and commercial contracts.

Educational Objectives:

• Find out background information on the Federal Arbitration Act and the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. American AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion and CompuCredit Corp. v. Greenwood.
• Understand the class arbitration issues confronting the Supreme Court in Oxford Health and American Express and the circuit courts in the D.R. Horton line of cases.
• Learn the important cases percolating in state and federal courts that raise significant class arbitration issues.
• Review the arguments made by counsel for the parties and amicus curiae at oral argument before the Supreme Court in Oxford Health and AmEx.
• Learn about the likely outcomes in Oxford Health and AmEx, as well as insight on the impacts these decisions may have on the use, scope, and enforceability of mandatory arbitration and class waiver provisions in employment, consumer, and commercial contracts.

Who would benefit most from attending the program?

Practitioners who counsel companies that are the subject of frequent customer, stockholder, employee or commercial complaints or disputes as well as attorneys representing the plaintiffs in such matters, and particularly those seeking to pursue class actions.

Program Level: Intermediate.

Michael Rubin, Altshuler Berzon LLP; Jason M. Halper, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Ryan J. Andreoli, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Michael Rubin, Altshuler Berzon LLP
Michael Rubin is a partner in the San Francisco labor law firm of Altshuler Berzon LLP and is a former law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court. A 1977 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Rubin specializes in labor and employment law, class actions, and appellate litigation. He is a four-time recipient of California Lawyer Magazine’s "California Lawyer of the Year" award, winning once in 2002 (for Employment Law), twice in 2010 (for False Claims Act Litigation, and for Criminal Law), and once in 2013 (for Employment Law). He was also a 2003 recipient of a "Trial Lawyer of the Year" Award from the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, for his work on the Saipan sweatshop litigation.

Mr. Rubin has argued cases challenging the enforceability of mandatory arbitration clauses in the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and the Ninth Circuit, and has represented several labor union amici in D.R. Horton, Inc. before the NLRB and in the Fifth Circuit. Michael is a member of the Board of Directors of the AFL-CIO’s Lawyers’ Coordinating Committee and a fellow of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Jason M. Halper, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
Jason M. Halper represents domestic and foreign clients in complex business disputes in federal and state courts and arbitrations throughout the country. He has extensive experience in securities, derivative, ERISA and RICO class actions, SEC and stock exchange investigations and arbitrations, internal investigations, suits claiming breaches of fiduciary duty, insider trading or other misconduct by corporate directors, substantial contract disputes, bankruptcy-related proceedings, and litigation arising from M&A or other transactions involving changes in or contests for corporate control in Delaware Chancery Court and elsewhere. He has been consistently recognized as a leading national trial attorney by numerous publications, including Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation and Legal 500.

Mr. Halper earned his undergraduate degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and graduated cum laude from Fordham University School of Law, where he was the Articles & Commentary Editor of the Fordham Law Review. Following law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable David N. Edelstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Halper is admitted to practice in New York and before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Second and Third Circuits and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the District of Colorado and the Northern District of Illinois (where he also a member of the Trial Bar based on his trial experience).

Ryan J. Andreoli, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
Ryan J. Andreoli's practice is concentrated in the area of complex commercial litigation, with a particular focus on securities and shareholder derivative matters. He has participated in the representation of pharmaceutical companies, investment banks, prime brokers, hedge funds, and defense contractors in a variety of state and federal courts across the country.

Mr. Andreoli graduated magna cum laude from Boston College and earned a J.D. from the New York University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in New York and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, and Northern Districts of New York.