It shouldn’t be too surprising that Selendy & Gay has done away with mandatory arbitration agreements for their employees. After all, the Quinn Emanuel spin-off was recently forced into arbitration with Quinn over client fees, so if there was ever a firm sympathetic to concerns about mandatory arbitration, it is them. Regardless of why it came about the People’s Parity Project — student activists that have kept the heat on Biglaw firms over their use of mandatory arbitration agreements — announced yesterday that Selendy & Gay has done away with the agreements.
As reported by Law.com, Selendy & Gay’s official statement on the matter steered clear of the firm’s history with forced arbitration:
“After looking deeply into the issue, we decided to eliminate mandatory arbitration agreements because it is an important issue to our employees and prospective hires, and we determined that doing so is in the best interests of our firm,” said David Elsberg, Selendy & Gay’s co-managing partner.
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The practice of mandatory arbitration agreements in Biglaw first came under fire when Munger Tolles was called out on social media for the practice last year. That firm changed their policy as a result, and other firms voluntarily did away with the practice. Others required some good, old-fashioned pressure, but eventually eliminated the agreements. But, of course, there have been some firms that have held fast, despite complaints.