Seamus Duffy Profiled by The Legal Intelligencer on Arbitration and Mediation After ‘Concepcion’

Akin litigation partner Seamus Duffy was profiled by American Lawyer Media’s The Legal Intelligencer in a Q&A discussing how arbitration law has evolved since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, what factors lead cases to successful alternative dispute resolution and how he became a “bet-the-company” litigator.

“I was defending class actions nationwide for telecom companies during the 2000s. That was when the market for wireless phone services was maturing, and anytime you’re working out the kinks of new products, it’s fertile ground to challenge business practices,” said Seamus. “These were big cases because a $25 individual customer dispute becomes a $250 million bet-the-company class action for a company with 10 million customers. My practice was defending those cases, often in hostile forums.”

On how arbitration has evolved since Concepcion, Duffy said “we’ve seen plaintiffs not just challenge the underpinnings of Concepcion itself pretty relentlessly, but also trying to leverage the ADR option as well.”

Commenting on whether “bet-the-company” litigation matters could benefit from alternative dispute resolution (ADR) such as mediation or arbitration, Seamus said, “Cases are about disputes, and every dispute calls for the exploration of compromise.” He added, “In most big cases, you need to work through the facts and the law to the point where the parties have a good grasp of the risk proposition. That can take time, or it can come quickly.”