When I was a number of years into my law practice, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meager & Flom LLP, the firm at which I worked, asked me to sign a mandatory arbitration agreement. Signing was voluntary, but the course of conduct indicated that it was strongly suggested. I thought about it and declined to sign.
It was hard for me to imagine bringing a legal claim against my law firm employer. I knew that if I were to sue Skadden, the matter would have to be very big and very serious–a claim for a harm that I would not want compensated through a “compromise recovery,” which I understood could be a likely result in arbitration. I also was concerned about the lack of precedential value of an arbitration award for that kind of significant claim–permitting systemic bad employer behavior to be swept under the rug. And finally, I understood and respected the litigation expertise and experience of my colleagues in the firm and their connections to those outside the firm–expertise, experience, and connections that I believed would be more likely to impact negatively the opportunity for success on the merits of my claim in an arbitral setting.
I watched with
