While the U.S. Supreme Court as recently as last month has affirmed its preference to enforce contractual arbitration clauses, a federal judge in Philadelphia questioned Wednesday whether that standard is impacted by professional ethics rules when the arbitration clause involves a law firm's client engagement letter.

In a hearing on whether the legal malpractice case of Sanford v. Bracewell & Giuliani should be stayed pending arbitration, U.S. District Judge Joel Slomsky of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said the Federal Arbitration Act has been the subject of a number of U.S. Supreme Court and Third Circuit cases supporting the presumption in favor of arbitration. But those cases didn't involve law firms, Slomsky said.

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