A General Counsel’s View of Arbitration Clauses in Employee Contracts
“Litigation has its place, but most in-house counsel agree: avoid it if at all possible. That’s why Chris Fairey is a proponent of arbitration clauses in his employee contracts. Fairey is General Counsel for American Residential Services (ARS), one of the nation’s largest residential and commercial heating, air-conditioning, and plumbing services companies. ARS earns approximately $1 billion dollars in revenue annually and has more than 6,000 employees across the country. Like any legal leader of a company that size, Fairey spends a lot of time thinking about risk,” discusses Mark P. Henriques in Womble Bond Dickinson’s Articles and Briefings.
“One of the big upsides to arbitration from Fairey’s point of view is that the process takes a lot of the emotion out of a dispute. He points out that presenting a case to an experienced arbitrator, rather than a jury, removes many of the emotional elements that can go along with litigation, especially when employees or consumers are on the other side. A jury trial can be subject to grandstanding by plaintiff’s counsel, which is not the case in arbitration.”
