Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Attorney’s Expenses Case Must Go to Arbitration

(CN) - A former Perkins Coie attorney's class action against the firm for unpaid business expenses belongs in arbitration, a federal judge ruled, dismissing the case.

Harold DeGraff sued Perkins Coie in federal court in San Francisco for himself and a purported class, claiming he was an employee who was wrongfully made to pay some expenses.

Perkins Coie -- which has offices throughout the United States, two in China and one in Taiwan -- moved to dismiss the lawsuit, or to stay it pending arbitration, claiming that DeGraff joined its firm as a partner and is therefore subject to an arbitration clause in the partnership agreement.

DeGraff opposed the firm's motion on the grounds that the arbitration agreement is unconscionable, and therefore unenforceable.

He argued the arbitration clause is unfair because it requires the arbitration to be conducted in Seattle, to apply Washington law, to be finished in 90 days and to remain confidential.

But in a ruling he issued on Monday U.S. District Judge Jeffery White found that only the confidentiality provision unfairly benefits Perkins Coie.

"Perkins Coie has institutional knowledge of prior arbitrations. In contrast, individual litigants, such as plaintiff, are deprived from obtaining information regarding any prior arbitrations," White wrote. "Thus, Perkins Coie is the only party who would obtain any benefit from this provision without receiving any negative impact in return."

As for DeGraff's argument that the Washington law clause deprives him of his wage claims under California law, White ruled that the arbitrator must decide which state applies.

DeGraff also claimed that the agreement does not provide for a neutral arbitrator because if the parties can't agree on one, it requires the arbitrator to be a partner in a law firm having a Seattle office of at least 100 lawyers.

He argued that this arbitrator would be a peer of Perkins Coie, risking their neutrality.

White found this would not give rise to any bias against DeGraff, however, as the arbitrator would also be his peer.

Given these facts White severed the arbitration agreement's confidentiality provision but enforced the rest of it, and granted Perkins Coie's motion to dismiss.

Follow @cam_langford
Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...