Judge Rules That Dodd-Frank Whistleblowers Cannot Avoid Arbitration Agreements

Last week, Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York ruled that a plaintiff making claims under the whistleblower protection provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act must submit to arbitration in accordance with his contract for employment. In Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC, No. 12-5914, 2014 WL 285093 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 27, 2014), Judge Failla held that the prohibition on pre-dispute arbitration agreements found in the whistleblower protection provisions in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1514A, do not extend to whistleblower claims made under Dodd-Frank, 15 U.S.C. 78-u. Commentators suggest that requiring whistleblower plaintiffs to adhere to arbitration agreements may slow whistleblower claims against financial institutions, which have steadily increased since Congress enacted Dodd-Frank in 2010.