The National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC), the legal arm of the U.S. Chamber, is looking to influence the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions on a number of business-related cases. The court term began October 1.

"This is going to be a significant term for the business community," says Robin Conrad, NCLC's executive vice president. "We were involved in 10 business cases before this term even started, compared to 14 cases for the entire 2008 term." Conrad notes that, on average, nearly half of all Supreme Court cases have implications for business, including smaller firms.

NCLC claimed victory in 13 out of 15 cases it weighed in on during the 2006 term. Results for the 2007 and 2008 terms were mixed, with notable NCLC victories in federal preemption, arbitration, and age discrimination cases.

Key cases in which NCLC is involved in for the 2009 term deal with which courts should hear a lawsuit, class action lawsuits, and arbitration.

In Friend v. Hertz Corp., the Chamber argues that the determination for where a case should be heard should be based on where the company makes its decisions—its headquarters or nerve center—and not on which jurisdiction is the most plaintiff-friendly or the biggest, like California.

In Shady Grove Orthopedic Assoc. v. Allstate Insurance, the Court will decide when plaintiffs can get around state laws prohibiting class action lawsuits by filing the class action in a federal court.

In Stolt-Nielsen v. Animal-Feeds International, the Court will decide when an arbitration agreement allows classwide arbitration. "Class arbitration defeats the whole purpose of arbitration agreements, which are intended to be a fair and efficient alternative to traditional litigation," Conrad says. "Instead, class arbitration is just like class action litigation—it's slow, expensive, and high risk."

To learn more, go to www.uschamber.com/nclc.