Arbitration is litigation by contract. The parties choose who decides, under what rules, where, and often how fast, and they give up most appeals and some of the procedure a court would provide. Done well, it delivers a confidential decision from a tribunal that understands the subject matter, enforceable almost anywhere in the world. Done poorly, it produces a fight about the clause before anyone reaches the merits. We represent companies at every point: drafting the agreement that will govern future disputes, presenting cases to tribunals, and handling the court proceedings that start, support, and finish an arbitration.
Domestic And International Arbitration
Domestic arbitration in the United States runs under the Federal Arbitration Act, which makes written arbitration agreements in contracts involving interstate commerce valid and enforceable, with state arbitration statutes filling gaps. Most domestic commercial cases are administered by the American Arbitration Association or JAMS under their commercial rules. International cases add a layer: the New York Convention, implemented in Chapter 2 of the FAA, requires courts in more than 170 countries to recognize arbitration agreements and enforce awards, subject to narrow defenses. Those cases are commonly administered by the ICC, the ICDR, the LCIA, SIAC, or HKIAC, or run ad hoc under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. Investor-state disputes proceed under the ICSID or UNCITRAL rules.
The Matters We Handle
Our arbitration practice is organized around the stages and problems of a case. Before a dispute, we work on arbitration agreements and the choice between institutional and ad hoc arbitration. When a case starts, we handle commencing an arbitration, arbitrator appointments, jurisdictional issues, and conflicts of law questions about which law governs the clause, the contract, and the procedure. During the case, we handle interim measures, procedure and evidence, multiparty arbitration with joinder and consolidation, and costs and funding, including third-party funding. At the end, we pursue remedies, bring and defend arbitral award challenges, and handle enforcement against assets. Cross-border commercial disputes run through our international arbitration work, and investor-state claims through investment treaty arbitration.
Arbitration In The Courts
Courts start and finish most contested arbitrations. Under FAA Sections 3 and 4, a party can ask a court to stay litigation and compel arbitration, and after Smith v. Spizzirri in 2024, a court that sends a case to arbitration must stay it on request rather than dismiss it. Under Section 9, a party may move to confirm an award within one year. Section 10 allows vacatur only on narrow grounds, such as corruption, fraud, evident partiality, misconduct, or arbitrators exceeding their powers, and notice of a motion to vacate must be served within three months. Hall Street v. Mattel bars parties from expanding that review by contract, Badgerow v. Walters requires an independent basis for federal jurisdiction, and Convention awards may be confirmed within three years.
Drafting Clauses That Work
Most arbitration problems are written into the contract years before the dispute. We draft and negotiate arbitration clauses for licenses, SaaS and development agreements, supply and distribution contracts, joint ventures, M&A agreements, and terms of service. The core choices are the institution and rules, the seat, the number and qualifications of arbitrators, the language, the scope of covered disputes, and carve-outs for injunctions, IP ownership, or collections. We address delegation of arbitrability to the arbitrator, which the Supreme Court enforces when clear and unmistakable, along with discovery limits, confidentiality, emergency arbitrator relief, and consolidation across related contracts. For consumer and employee terms, we account for mass arbitration fees and the federal carve-out for sexual harassment and sexual assault claims.
IP And Technology Disputes
Arbitration suits many technology disputes. Patent and software license royalty audits, development projects that went wrong, earn-outs after technology acquisitions, trade secret claims between former partners, and SaaS service-level fights all turn on technical evidence that a well-chosen arbitrator can absorb faster than a generalist jury. Federal law expressly allows arbitration of patent validity and infringement under 35 U.S.C. Section 294, with the award binding only on the parties and notice filed with the USPTO. The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center and the major institutions all hear IP and technology cases, for clients in software, fintech, life sciences, manufacturing, and consumer technology. Our engineering background helps us explain source code, system architecture, and data to a tribunal.
How We Run A Case
We begin with the clause and the contract to answer the threshold questions: whether the dispute is covered, who decides arbitrability, what law applies, and what interim relief is available from the tribunal or a court. We then build the case plan around the seat, the rules, and where the other side keeps its assets, since an award is only as good as its enforcement. We help select arbitrators with relevant technical or industry background, prepare the statement of claim or defense, run document exchange and witness preparation, work with damages and technical experts, and present the case at the hearing. Throughout, clients get a budget, a realistic schedule, and candid assessments of settlement value.
How Engagements Are Priced
Defined pieces of arbitration work can be priced as a flat fee, with the scope and turnaround stated up front: drafting or reviewing an arbitration clause, a pre-dispute assessment of a contract's dispute resolution terms, or a petition to confirm an uncontested award. Full arbitrations are open-ended, so we scope them in writing first, with an estimate broken down by phase, from the demand and constitution of the tribunal through document exchange, hearing, and post-award proceedings. We also explain how institutional fees, arbitrator compensation, and expert costs add to legal fees, and, where a third-party funder is involved, how its terms interact with ours, so the total cost of the proceeding is clear before you commit.
