Legal Ethics Rules and the Federal Arbitration Act
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While the U.S. Supreme Court as recently as last month has affirmed its preference to enforce contractual arbitration clauses, a federal judge in Philadelphia questioned Wednesday whether that standard is impacted by professional ethics rules when the arbitration clause involves a law firm’s client engagement letter.
In a hearing on whether the legal malpractice case of Sanford v. Bracewell & Giuliani should be stayed pending arbitration, U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said the Federal Arbitration Act has been the subject of a number of U.S. Supreme Court and Third Circuit cases supporting the presumption in favor of arbitration. But those cases didn’t involve law firms, Slomsky said.
“There has to be some interplay here between the requirements of professional responsibility that lawyers have … and the Federal Arbitration Act,” the judge said.
Read original articleTags: Arbitration Clause, arbitration clauses, Federal Arbitration Act, U.S. Supreme Court
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