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Russell T. Gorkin

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Recently recognized as “One to Watch” in Best Lawyers in America, Russell’s practice focuses on international arbitration, as well as a broad range of other commercial litigation matters.  He has successfully represented some of the world’s most successful and sophisticated entities and individuals before arbitral tribunals and in state and federal trial and appellate courts.

Most recently, Russell helped secure a favorable settlement on behalf of an alternative investment firm alleging breach of contract and other claims against a multinational pharmaceutical company following a two-week arbitral merits hearing featuring 20 witnesses.

Additionally, Russell maintains an active pro bono practice.  He is a two-time recipient of the firm’s Golden Gavel award for excellence in pro bono work.

Prior to joining Proskauer, Russell served as a law clerk to the Honorable George B. Daniels at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and, before that, to the Honorable Robin S. Rosenbaum at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Russell’s scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law and the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy Sidebar, and has been cited in the Harvard Law Review and in an amicus curiae brief filed with the Supreme Court of the United States, among other places.

Before law school, Russell worked for several years as a management consultant.  He currently resides in New York City with his wife, Eriko, and their toddler daughter, with whom he enjoys exploring the city’s many parks and playgrounds.

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Parties to an arbitration agreement sometimes choose to include a delegation clause, which is a provision that delegates to the arbitrator—rather than a court—gateway questions of arbitrability, such as whether the agreement covers a particular controversy or whether the arbitration provision is enforceable at all. See Caremark LLC v. Chickasaw Nation.

In Holley-Gallegly v. TA Operating, LLC, the Ninth Circuit recently reinforced the Supreme Court’s decade-old distinction between the analysis needed to determine whether a dispute is subject to arbitration on the one hand, and whether an arbitrator has been legally delegated the authority to make that threshold determination on the other. The decision provides important lessons to practitioners litigating disputes regarding the enforceability of delegation clauses.

Those who thought designating social media posts as “private” would be sufficient to shield them from outsiders—including opposing parties in litigation—had better think again. On February 13, 2018, the New York Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, unanimously held that the rules generally applicable to discovery in civil actions are just as applicable to “private” social media posts, and that they are therefore subject to disclosure if they are “reasonably calculated to contain evidence ‘material and necessary’ to the litigation.”  Forman v. Henkin, New York State Court of Appeals, No. 1 (quoting N.Y. C.P.L.R. 3101(a)).

On February 28, 2017, Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck issued a warning shot, stylized as a “wake-up call,” to the SDNY Bar: comply with the now 15-month-old amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure when objecting to requests for the production of documents and electronically stored information (ESI), or do not bother objecting at all.