Originally from American Review of International Arbitration - ARIA

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I INTRODUCTION

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Halligan v. Piper Jaffray, Inc., recently applied broad new principles of judicial review to scrutinize an arbitral award in favor of the defendant employer on an age discrimination claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”). The plaintiff’s statutory claim was the subject of mandatory arbitration because the plaintiff had signed a pre-dispute agreement to arbitrate such claims some twenty years earlier as a condition of his employment. Pursuant to the agreement, the arbitration was conducted under the Code of Arbitration Procedure of the National Association of Securities Dealers (“NASD”). The award denying the plaintiff’s claim contained no statement of reasons.