To arbitrate, or not to arbitrate? That is the question with respect to discrimination and sexual harassment claims in New York. Section 7515 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) prohibits employers from forcing employees to arbitrate such claims. However, shortly after §7515 was enacted, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the prohibition was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and its strong policy favoring arbitration agreements. See Latif v. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 18-cv-11528 (DLC), 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107020 (S.D.N.Y. June 26, 2019).

We examined the question in an article last summer, and noted that the future of mandatory arbitration is far from settled. See “Mandatory Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Claims and FAA Preemption,” N.Y.L.J (Aug. 19, 2019). There are two recent decisions on FAA preemption, and they arrived at different outcomes: one employee was directed to arbitration and the other permitted to proceed in court. Hence, the question remains, and the law is even more unsettled.

Section 7515