The Fall of Class Actions and the Rise of Forced Arbitration

More than any other time in recent memory, access to justice may be at a tipping point. Until recently, with the help of courts and legislatures, proponents of class action bans and forced arbitration had a string of victories in their efforts to restrict the ability of consumers, employees, investors and others to seek redress for their injuries. In the past year, however, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a scathing report on the effect of forced arbitration clauses and a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking limiting their use. The change in the Supreme Court’s composition is leading corporate defendants to reassess class action appeals to what may now be a less business-friendly Court. How will this potential tipping point affect the ability of individuals and classes to assert their rights under consumer, anti-trust, securities, employment discrimination and wage-and-hours laws?

Speakers - 

Lauren Guth Barnes, Partner, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP (moderator)
F. Paul Bland, Jr., Executive Director, Public Justice
Kalpana Kotagal, Partner, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC 
Eric Mogilnicki, Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Suja Thomas, Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law