Opinion ID: 2701
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Order to Return Fees to Client

Text: The mere fact that an arbitral panel may have interactions with both a party and the party's lawyer based on the lawyer's representation of the client before the panel does not give the panel a long arm to exercise jurisdiction over the attorney-client relationship. See AT & T Techs., Inc. v. Commc'ns Workers of Am., 475 U.S. 643, 651, 106 S.Ct. 1415, 89 L.Ed.2d 648 (1986) (arbitrators must not be allowed to impose obligations outside the contract (quotation marks and citation omitted)). A paramount question for reviewing courts is whether the arbitral panel has acted within the bounds of its authority. See 187 Concourse Assocs. v. Fishman, 399 F.3d 524, 527 (2d Cir.2005) (per curiam) (noting in collective bargaining context that the award must draw[] its essence from the collective bargaining agreement, since the arbitrator is not free merely to dispense his own brand of industrial justice (internal quotation marks omitted)); Local 1199, Drug, Hospital, & Health Care Employees Union v. Brooks Drug Co., 956 F.2d 22, 25 (2d Cir.1992) (The scope of authority of arbitrators generally depends on the intention of the parties to an arbitration, and is determined by the agreement or submission. (quotation marks and citation omitted)). The authority of the arbitral panel is established only through the contract between the parties who have subjected themselves to arbitration, and a panel may not exceed the power granted to it by the parties in the contract. See 9 U.S.C. § 10(a)(4); Banco de Seguros del Estado v. Mutual Marine Office, Inc., 344 F.3d 255, 262 (2d Cir.2003); see also Brook v. Peak Int'l, 294 F.3d 668, 672 (5th Cir.2002) (The power . . . of arbitrators . . . is dependent on the provisions under which the arbitrators were appointed. (internal quotation marks omitted)). The arbitrator is constrained foremost by this principle that a party cannot be forced to arbitrate any dispute that it has not obligated itself, by contract, to submit to arbitration. See United Steelworkers v. Mead Corp., 21 F.3d 128, 131 (6th Cir.1994). Where the arbitrator goes beyond that self-limiting agreement between consenting parties, it acts inherently without power, and an award ordered under such circumstances must be vacated. 9 U.S.C. § 10(a)(4). Porzig's attorney was not before the arbitration panel in any manner other than as Porzig's counsel; Porzig was not before the Panel with respect to his relationship with his attorney; and neither Porzig nor Attorney O'Donnell had agreed to arbitrate a dispute, if in fact there was one, over their fee contract. The Panel here was plainly without jurisdiction to order Porzig's lawyer to pay back to his client the specified contingency fee. That portion of the Modified Award must be vacated. [4] See 9 U.S.C. § 10(a)(4); Brooks Drug Co., 956 F.2d at 25.