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On April 27, 2011, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its opinion in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. ___ (2011). In that decision, in the context of a consumer agreement that generally required all customer claims to be arbitrated but prohibited class claims in arbitration, the Court held that California may not require that arbitration agreements subject to the Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”) permit the maintenance of class arbitration claims, because the FAA displaces the state law rule and forbids such state restrictions on the content of arbitration agreements.  Simpson Thacher & Bartlett issued a memorandum the next day describing the facts before the Supreme Court in the AT&T Mobility case, the holding of the majority, the points raised in the dissent and the implications of this decision.

We write separately to our friends and clients with an interest in labor and employment law because of the significance of the decision in AT&T Mobility to this specific area of our practice and to make several points and observations which may be helpful to you in understanding the importance of this decision to employers and assessing an appropriate response to the opportunities presented by it.