Shawn Aiken Arbitration
Biography Representative Matters Arbitration Resources Contact
Check Available Dates
Biography Representative Matters Arbitration Resources Contact
Check Available Dates

Representative Matters

Representative neutral experience

Over the past thirty years, Shawn Aiken has served as mediator in well over 1,100 commercial cases (through February 2026) — business torts; breach of contract, including real-estate, corporate, transactional, license, and franchise agreements; construction and development; legal and accounting malpractice; and claims in insurance, health care, and employment. He has received 300+ arbitral appointments and arbitrated more than 160 reasoned commercial awards, including the following.

Closely-held entities

  • Members, managers, co-venturers, shareholders, officers, and directors — claims arising out of contract and fiduciary and statutory duties, with legal and equitable remedies including dissolution, dissociation, receivership, injunction, and accounting.
  • Competing claims of breach of fiduciary duty and contract (express and implied covenant), including application of the business-judgment rule and other aspects of corporate governance.
  • A professional firm’s and former member’s claims for breach of an operating agreement and buy-sell provision, failure to pay a redemption price, misappropriation of trade secrets, and data theft.
  • Cannabis-industry disputes — terminations and breaches of purchase agreements, post-closing provisions, management agreements, and multi-million-dollar sales-agreement disputes.
  • Oppression remedies — control of derivative claims, reinstatement of employment status, forced buy-out, and threatened dissolution.
  • An equalization payment on the dissolution of partners’ company operating behavioral-health facilities.
  • A deadlock between co-venturers over dissolution of an entity formed to develop tribal land; under the joint-venture agreement, selected one party’s last, best offer and resolved numerous winding-up disputes in the final award.
  • Co-venturers’ dispute over withdrawal of members and dissolution of a nutraceutical enterprise, including supervision of the wind-up and entry of a wind-down order.
  • A multi-million-dollar dispute among current and former members over division of proceeds from the sale of a large group medical practice to a national private-equity firm.
  • Claims of usurpation of corporate opportunity.

Valuation, buy-outs, and economic damages

  • Over five years, three disputes over the buyout price and terms for a physician’s interest in an LLC under an operating agreement.
  • Disputes among law-firm members over treatment and status of personal-injury clients, including an award determining the value of a departing member’s interest.
  • Chaired an arbitration over a settlement agreement seeking declaratory relief and multi-million-dollar claims for liquidated and actual damages and fees.
  • Numerous applications for attorneys’ fees in final awards — allocation for partial success; the “genuine financial obligation” requirement; prevailing-party assessment under statute and contract; AAA R-47(d) and A.R.S. § 12-341.01(A); lodestar reasonableness; the effect of redacted time entries; and related issues.

Construction and real-estate disputes

  • Arbitrated a $30 million dispute between partners over development of a residential project (panel).
  • Division of revenues and management disputes between a tribal nation and a developer arising out of construction of the Grand Canyon Skywalk.
  • A dispute between Fortune 50 defense companies over liability for repairs and capital improvements to leased commercial property.
  • A dispute arising out of a settlement agreement between real-estate co-venturers.

Franchise, license, and distribution disputes

  • Disputes between multiple franchisees and a franchisor in the hospitality and home-products industries.
  • An inter-tribal dispute over a gambling-rights licensing agreement (panel).
  • Claims for commissions — purchase orders generated by a sales representative; sales commissions in telecommunications payable to beneficiaries of an estate.
  • A “best efforts” provision and commissions on the worldwide sale of armored vehicles.
  • A charter school’s fraud and implied-covenant claims against an educational-software publisher (objectionable religious content).

Financial-services, insurance, and consumer matters

  • Over fifteen years, dozens of consumer cases under the AAA Commercial and Consumer Rules — automobile sales, banking, credit card, telecommunications, academic testing, ride-service, and other industries.
  • An accredited investor’s claim for losses on the purchase of units, with fees and costs under a subscription agreement’s indemnity provision (panel).
  • A dispute between the largest local hospital group and a national insurer over reimbursement for inpatient services to Medicare Advantage enrollees.
  • A multi-million-dollar crop-insurance dispute involving a major nursery; and a cotton operation’s losses under a multiple-peril crop policy.
  • Coverage for wrongful death arising out of a transportation-fleet accident (panel).

Purchase and sale of businesses

  • Over twenty years, many cases arising out of the purchase and sale of businesses — transportation, accounting, restaurant, and other industries.
  • Sale of a dental practice, including breaches of post-closing restrictive covenants.
  • Purchase of a water company and a transfer application to the Arizona Corporation Commission (panel).

Restrictive covenants and trade secrets

  • Enforcement of non-solicitation and other restrictive covenants — employees, former and current customers, non-disclosure, non-disparagement, and confidentiality — seeking interim relief and final award.
  • Misappropriation of trade secrets and data theft in cases arising out of terminated employment agreements.

Special-master and judicial-referee work

  • Family-law matters — served as special master liquidating commercial real estate, mediated the value of a community-held business, and assessed the disposition of a marital partnership interest.