In a Florida district court, a Hinshaw legal team consisting of Edward Lenci, Jenelle La Chuisa, and Rory Jurman recently secured a complete win for client Noble Prestige Ltd., a Hong Kong-based creditor. Jonathan Crompton of Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP (RPC) also represented Noble in the case.

A Hinshaw legal team recently secured a favorable ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on behalf of a Hong Kong-based creditor. Pursuant to the New York Convention, the creditor is seeking to confirm and enforce, in a Florida federal court, over $8 million in international arbitral awards it obtained from the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre.

A Hinshaw legal team assisted a Hong Kong-based creditor in overcoming a motion to dismiss its petition—filed in Florida federal court pursuant to the New York Convention—to confirm and enforce $6 million in international arbitral awards from the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre. The respondents—the debtor, last known to be resident in Thailand, and the debtor's Florida-based lawyer—had variously argued that the creditor had not established personal jurisdiction and/or subject matter jurisdiction to bring suit in Florida. The district court rejected these arguments and—with the exception of a claim against the lawyer’s firm, but not the lawyer personally—allowed the suit to proceed. The respondents will now need to establish that one of the New York Convention’s seven narrow exceptions to confirmation applies.

Read Ed Lenci's Law360 insights on how the Second Circuit's landmark ruling favoring international arbitration for hurricane damage claims marks a significant shift in the insurance industry.

On Thursday, November 9, the ARIAS•U.S Fall Conference is set to open in New York. Hinshaw is a proud sponsor of the conference. Coinciding with the conference, the Q4 2023 edition of the ARIAS•U.S Quarterly newsletter has also been published. The edition includes a byline by Hinshaw partner Ed Lenci, who currently serves as the co-chair of the ARIAS•U.S. International Committee.

On September 11, 2023, the New York Law Journal published, as an "Expert Analysis," Hinshaw New York partner Ed Lenci's article that examines the prospects for the Second Circuit's reconsideration of its previous holding that the McCarran-Ferguson Act (MFA) reverse-preempts the New York Convention such that state prohibitions on the arbitration of disputes between policyholder and their insurers control over the Convention's pro-arbitration policy. There is a split in the Circuits over the issue: the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits have held that the Convention preempts the MFA, while the Second and Eighth Circuits have held that the MFA reverse-preempts the Convention. Lenci is the long-time chair of the Reinsurance Section of Hinshaw's global Insurance Services Practice Group.

Partners Ed Lenci and D.L. Morriss will travel to Japan as part of a series of events organized by the New York State Bar Association’s International Section, May 18–23, 2025.

Hinshaw partner Ed Lenci will participate in the New York Bar Association's (NYSBA) International Section 2024 Tokyo Regional Meeting. The event is co-sponsored by the Daini Tokyo Bar and is set to take place on March 7, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. Lenci, who previously served as the chair of the NYSBA's International Section, will be co-presenting on the topic of "International Arbitration and Litigation: Cutting-edge Issues in Insurance Arbitration, OFAC and FCPA Compliance, and Cross-border Litigation." The panel of experienced litigators will discuss recent developments in arbitration, U.S. litigation practice, and compliance with OFAC sanctions and FCPA bribery laws.

Hinshaw partners D.L. Morriss and Ed Lenci have organized a virtual event titled "ESG, DEI, Marriage Equity, and Human Rights in Japan," which Morriss will moderate on January 24, 2024. The webinar will explore how Japanese businesses and law firms view ESG, DEI, marriage equality, and human rights.​ Morriss, the DEI partner at Hinshaw, also serves as New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) International's DEI officer, while Lenci is the former chair.

Hinshaw partner Ed Lenci and the firm's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Partner, D.L. Morriss will participate in a presentation titled "Love and Let Love: Breaking Down the Barriers to LGBTQ Equality" on June 24, 2021. The program—to be presented by the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) LGBTQ Law Section and the NYSBA International Section, for which Lenci serves as chair—will cover marriage equality and anti-discrimination legislation in the United States and Japan.

Hinshaw partner Ed Lenci will speak on a panel at the 11th Congress of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), on November 11, 2020. Moderated by CIArb's Director General, Catherine Dixon, the panel will consider the career landscape in ADR after 2000. The official event hashtag is #CIArbCongress.

Scott M. Seaman and Edward K. Lenci, partners in the Insurance & Reinsurance practice at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, will be presenting, "Staying Above Water in the Aftermath of the Viking Pump Case," a webinar hosted by ARIAS U.S. on December 6, 2016.

In contrast to his big wins on Jeopardy! in the 1980s, Richard Cordray lost badly in 2017 after staking so much on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) Final Rule, which would have prohibited the use of class action waivers in the arbitration clauses of consumer financial contracts, such as credit card agreements and mortgages. The CFPB’s Final Rule drew sharp, valid criticism from both the U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. After the House of Representatives and the Senate acted pursuant to the Congressional Review Act to nullify the Final Rule, Mr. Cordray pleaded unsuccessfully with President Trump for a veto. It is unsurprising, really, that he decided to step down far earlier than anticipated.

With Vice President Pence casting a dramatic tie-breaking vote just after 10 p.m. E.D.T. on October 24th, the U.S. Senate joined the U.S. House of Representatives to eliminate, based on their authority under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's (CFPB) controversial Final Rule on arbitration agreements, which was issued in July. The CFPB's Final Rule would bar providers of consumer financial products and services from including mandatory class action waivers in the arbitration clauses of their agreements with consumers.

Read part one, "A Bronx Tale: A New York State Trial Judge Calls Out New York State's Long-Standing Heightened Standard of Proving the Making of an Agreement to Arbitrate," about the trial court's decision in Wu v. Uber Tech., Inc.

The Bronx, where I came of age and grew into young adulthood, is well-known for the scrap of its residents. That can also be said of its judiciary. On December 20, 2022, in Wu v. Uber Techs., Inc.,[i] the New York State Supreme Court, Bronx County (the Court), a New York State trial court,[ii] enforced the arbitral provisions of Uber's terms that plaintiff click-wrapped over two months after she filed a lawsuit against Uber for personal injuries she sustained while exiting a vehicle she had hailed using her Uber app. The Court's opinion is a tour de force and is especially noteworthy for the Court's gutsy decision, possibly in dicta but in the face of controlling legal authority to the contrary, that the 1993 holding of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (the Second Circuit), in Progressive Casualty Ins. Co. v. C.A. Reaseguradora Nacional de Venezuela,[iii] had, in cases falling under the long-reach of the Federal Arbitration Act (the FAA),[iv] displaced the heightened burden to prove the making of an agreement to arbitrate that New York law imposes on a party who seeks arbitration. Instead, the Court decided, after a thorough analysis, that the preponderance of the evidence standard that applies under New York law to prove the making of agreements generally applies also to proving the making of an agreement to arbitrate in state court actions falling under the FAA, as the Second Circuit held in Progressive.

A significant number of states prohibit or restrict the arbitration of disputes between an insurer and its policyholder and/or preclude the inclusion of arbitral provisions in insurance policies.[i]The McCarran-Ferguson Act ("MFA")[ii]is a federal statute that generally precludes an "Act of Congress" from preempting state statutes involving the business of insurance.[iii]The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958, commonly known as the New York Convention (the "Convention"), is a treaty of the United States and the foundation of the international system of arbitration. Its enabling legislation is Chapter 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA Chapter 2").[iv]However, the federal Circuit Courts of Appeals are split about whether MFA reverse-preempts the Convention.[v]The First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits have held that the Convention preempts MFA while the Second and Eighth Circuits have held that the MFA reverse-preempts the Convention.[vi]The Supreme Court may decide to resolve this split of authority in the future, but that is a discussion for another day.

In 2016, Best's Review published our article titled "The Bellefonte Cap Returns." As we explained, the Cap stemmed from the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1990 in Bellefonte Reinsurance Co. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.[1] In Bellefonte, the Second Circuit held that a cedent's declaratory judgment costs, i.e., expenses associated with litigating coverage issues with direct policyholders, were capped by a reinsurance contract's – particularly a facultative certificate's – limits of liability. At the time we published our article, the Cap seemed alive and well, though still controversial. The occasion for our article was oral argument in a case in Second Circuit, Global Reinsurance Corp. of America v. Century Indemnity Co.

On August 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Article II, Section 3, of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (commonly known as the New York Convention), which obligates signatory nations to enforce agreements to arbitrate that fall under the Convention, preempts state insurance laws that preclude the arbitration of insurance disputes and/or prohibit the inclusion of mandatory arbitral provisions in insurance policies. CLMS Mgmt. Servs. Limited P'ship, et al. v. Amwins Brokerage of Georgia LLC, et al.[i] With this decision, the Ninth Circuit has joined the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Fifth Circuits on this point of law.[ii] Conversely, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Eighth Circuits have held that the Convention does not override state insurance laws.[iii]

FCC Adopts Final Rule for TCPA and Does Not Require Prior Written Consent for Nontelemarketing Calls

U.S. Supreme Court Takes Eleventh Circuit Case on TCPA JurisdictionOn June 27, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Marcus Mims v. Arrow Financial Services, LLC,Case No. 10-12077, 2010 WL 4840430 (11th Cir. 2010). The Court will decide whether the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) provides for federal question jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Hinshaw will follow this case and keep readers of this newsletter advised of any developments in the case.