“The Enforceability of Arbitration Provisions in Law Firm Engagement Agreements”

David Atkins and March Stovall of Pullman Comley have this article, discussing the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in Delaney v. Dickey, in which the Court, as Mr. Atkins and Ms. Stovall note, “refused to enforce an arbitration agreement in a legal mal claim filed against a prominent New Jersey law firm by a former client acknowledged to be a ‘sophisticated businessman…not unfamiliar to litigation.’”

Explaining the courts often impose more stringent requirements upon law firms seeking to include arbitration provisions in client engagement agreements than those generally required in other commercial contract contexts, the article offers as a takeaway the importance “to alert the client – in advance of signing the engagement agreement – of both the advantages and the disadvantages arbitration presents to the client.”