Glenn Hendrix, a member of NAB and a Fellow of CIArb, filed an amicus curie brief for NAB in the United States Supreme Court in the case of GE Energy Power Conversion France v. Outokumpu Stainless USA. At issue is whether a party may be deemed to have consented to arbitration through its conduct (for example, by means of estoppel), even though the party never signed the arbitration agreement. For domestic arbitration agreements, it is well-established that the answer is yes. But for international arbitration agreements, the Eleventh Circuit ruled, pursuant to a narrow reading of Article II(2) of the New York Convention, that a party must have either signed the agreement or agreed to be bound by an exchange of correspondence. The concern is that this narrow reading will hinder the proper reach of arbitration in New York Convention cases and will be out of step with the emerging international consensus of the proper interpretation of the Convention. Here is a link to the filed brief.

Glenn is a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory LLP in Atlanta. He took on the assignment with relatively short notice and wrote much of the brief while in Moscow, where he was chairing the American Bar Association’s annual conference on the resolution of CIS-related business disputes.

Glenn is also the newly appointed Chair of the Amicus subcommittee of NAB’s Program Committee which is chaired by Katherine Smith Dedrick. The Program Committee encourages members to join the Committee, which oversees a number of interesting programs including the Annual Meeting, the Capacity Building Project (which last year went to Samoa), and the Amicus Project. If you are interested, please contact Katherine at KDedrick@tysonmendes.com. The Committee would love to have your energy!