Bristol-Myers Gets to Shift Racial Bias Lawsuit to Arbitration

A former Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. employee must take her racial discrimination case to arbitration after a district judge found an agreement to do so wasn’t unconscionable.

Kimberly Hodges alleged that Bristol-Myers subjected her to a racially hostile environment and discharged her. But when she agreed to work with the pharmaceutical company, she signed an arbitration agreement that required her to “forever waive and give up the right to have a judge or a jury decide any covered claims” in the employment context.

• Hodges’ arguments were either contrary to case law, or based on an inaccurate reading of the arbitration ...