Ninth Circuit Probes Drug Firm CFO’s Need to Arbitrate Bias Suit

A Ninth Circuit panel pressed a biopharmaceutical company and its ousted chief financial officer Tuesday on whether she properly withdrew from arbitration she commenced to sue under an exception for sexual harassment claims.

The appeal in former Structure Therapeutics Inc. employee Ding Ding’s case gives the three-judge panel a chance to determine what constitutes a “sexual harassment dispute” under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, a #MeToo-inspired law under which workers can void otherwise valid arbitration agreements in cases involving sexual harassment.

The meaning of sexual-harassment dispute under the EFAA is an issue that’s divided ...