Confidentiality And Arbitration

“Confidentiality is “a paradigmatic aspect of arbitration.”” So stated the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Stafford v Intl. Bus. Machines Corp., 22-1240, 2023 WL 5183546 [2d Cir Aug. 14, 2023], where the Court held that is was proper to keep sealed an arbitration award that was subject of a motion to vacate. The Court’s decision was based in part on the “[Federal Arbitration Act’s strong policy protecting the confidentiality of arbitral proceedings and the “impropriety” of efforts to evade” an arbitration agreement’s “Confidentiality Provision.”  This decision strongly reaffirms one of the core principles underlying arbitration, namely, maintaining the confidentiality of disputes.