This month, I was honored to interview Seamus Duffy, a “bet-the-company” litigator who played an early role in the matter that led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding arbitration. Duffy, then with Drinker, Biddle & Reath (now Faegre, Drinker, Biddle & Reath), represented AT&T Mobility in lower court proceedings that led to the high court’s 2011 ruling in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. The 5-4 court majority struck down a California law that banned arbitration agreements that would disallow class actions, holding that such laws were preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925.
Duffy, now with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, explained how arbitration law has evolved from before the Concepcion decision to the world of mass arbitrations today. He also provided great insight into factors that lead cases to successful alternative dispute resolution (ADR), echoing comments from our first interviewee in this series that litigants on both sides of a case need to feel heard and trust the process.
