Cocom v. ABM Aviation, Inc. (9th Cir. - June 23, 2026)

Imagine that you're an attorney representing a corporation and defending a wage and hour class action in the Central District of California filed by one of your janitorial employees. In the district court, you moved to compel arbitration, but the judge held that the company's arbitration agreement was unconscionable.

You filed an appeal in the Ninth Circuit. I generated randomly generated the following panels, one of which is the panel in the actual case. All of the panels contain two active judges and one senior judge. You're hoping that the Ninth Circuit will reverse the district court and compel arbitration. Which of the following is your dream panel?

A.  Judges Murguia, Bumatay and Tashima.

B.  Judges Koh, VanDyke and Graber.

C.  Judges Desai, Sanchez and Sidney Thomas.

D.  Judges Tallman, VanDyke and Tung.

E.  Judges Mendoza, Forrest and McKeown.

The company here gets both its hoped-for panel as well as its hoped-for result.