It's been an eventful couple of weeks for plaintiffs lawyers at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd who are targeting Morgan Stanley and the three big ratings companies in a pair of coordinated suits in New York.

The Second Circuit issued a sweeping rejection of Chevron's attempt to use a New York federal court to halt worldwide enforcement of an $18 billion Ecuadorian judgment on Thursday, just as international arbitrators backed Chevron in its efforts to block the Ecuadorian government from acting to enforce the award. The Second Circuit's ruling places the arbitrators center stage--and raises questions about the limits of arbitral power.