Christopher Curran (Washington, DC) will participate in "Class Action Arbitration After Stolt-Nielsen", an ABA Section of Dispute Resolution sponsored teleconference on Friday, May 15, 2010. This panel discussion will review the April 27, 2010 decision delivered by the US Supreme Court in Stolt-Nielsen SA v. AnimalFeeds International, which addressed the issue of class arbitration.

The decision raises a host of questions: Who decides, between the court and the arbitrator, whether a case should proceed as a class action? Can arbitrators still find class actions to be permissible absent express consent in the arbitration agreement? On what basis? What happens to the hundreds of cases now being administered as class arbitrations? Does the Court's decision apply to contracts of adhesion and impact class actions in that context? Has the court undercut its own dictum in Hall Street as to the continuing vitality of manifest disregard as a basis for vacating an award? Does the decision presage what the court's decision will be in the Rent-A-Center v. Jackson case pending before the court? Will the decision prompt an increase in applications to courts to vacate awards?

These and other questions will be addressed by an expert panel to include counsel for both sides representing the parties before the Supreme Court, an arbitrator who has handled numerous class arbitrations and the American Arbitration Association which has administered hundreds of arbitrations brought as class actions.

Stolt-Nielsen was represented in the Supreme Court by Christopher M. Curran, J. Mark Gidley, Peter J. Carney, Eric Grannon and Charles C. Moore.

For further information and registration details, please click here.