Biglaw Firm Changes Course On Mandatory Arbitration... For A Limited Time
Employees will have the option not to arbitrate at this firm.
Biglaw firms that employ mandatory arbitration agreements as a condition of employment are having a PR problem. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, a ton of attention is being paid to firms that still employ the agreements. Harvard Law student activists, organized as the Pipeline Parity Project, have made it their mission to take down firms that require employees to arbitrate employment issues. Additionally, other student organizations at elite law schools have called out forced arbitration as “a process which advantages sophisticated, repeat players at the expense of individual claimants.”
And all the sturm und drang about the practice has translated into real change. After Munger Tolles was called out on social media for the practice and changed their policy, other firms voluntarily did away with the practice. Others required some good, old-fashioned pressure, but eventually eliminated the agreements. While there have been some notable holdouts, the tide might finally be turning against mandatory arbitration agreements.
Yesterday, Paul Hastings announced a change to their arbitration policy. While the firm still firmly believes in employment arbitration, they are allowing employees to opt out. (Though as they note, they do not have a confidentiality clause as part of their arbitration agreement.) New employees will have the option to opt out when they join the firm, and existing employees have until June 21 to opt out of mandatory arbitration.
Now, an opt-out process is far from perfect. A busy attorney can easily forget to fill out the paperwork, and find themselves bound to arbitration. A better process would be to have all employees affirmatively choose between the options. Then employees who arbitrate would have actually decided to do so, and not just let trial prep get the better of them.
Still, it is better than Paul Hastings’s previous position on arbitration.
Read the email from Paul Hastings about the arbitration policy below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
