White Oak Co-Founders Score Arbitration of Nurses’ Pension Fight

White Oak Global Advisors LLC co-founders won a court order requiring a New York nurses’ pension fund to arbitrate its ERISA claims tied to the soured business relationship between the fund and the investment firm.

White Oak’s chief executive officer and its managing partner can enforce the arbitration clause in the firm’s investment management agreement with the Trustees of the New York State Nurses Association Pension Plan despite not being parties to that agreement, Judge Edgardo Ramos of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said Thursday.

Defendants Andre Hakkak and Barbara McKee have a “close ...