Trial Magazine

Examining the Future of Aggregate Litigation

In July 2019, the Pound Civil Justice Institute held its 27th annual Forum for State Appellate Court Judges. At this one-day judicial education program, which focused on preserving aggregate litigation in state courts, law professors, judges, and practitioners discussed academic papers on “Rethinking Multijurisdictional Coordination of Complex Mass Torts,” presented by Professor Myriam Gilles (Cardozo), and “Federal Trends Affecting Aggregate Litigation in the State Courts,” presented by Professor D. Theodore Rave (Houston). Learn more about the forum and read the papers and commentary by legal experts in the forum report at www.poundinstitute.org/judges-forum/reports.

The Pound Institute also explored aggregate proceedings in depth at its November 2019 Academic Symposium, “Class Actions, Mass Torts, and MDLs: The Next 50 Years.” Presented with the Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., with Professor Robert Klonoff (Lewis & Clark) serving as Faculty Conference Chair, the symposium featured a faculty of 32 academics, judges, and prominent mass torts attorneys. Faculty and an overflow audience discussed the future of aggregate litigation and debated 11 academic papers on state and federal class actions and multidistrict litigation, social justice class actions, class action settlements, and much more.

Recognizing Civil Justice Scholars and Advocates

The Pound Institute’s Civil Justice Scholarship Award honors ­full-time law professors whose published book or article supports the American civil justice system and the right to trial by jury. This year, the award was presented to Professor Zachary D. Clopton (Northwestern) for his article, “Procedural Retrenchment and the States” (106 Calif. L. Rev. 411 (2018)), and Professor Adam N. Steinman (Alabama) for his article, “Access to Justice, Rationality, and Personal Jurisdiction” (71 Vand. L. Rev. 1401 (2018)). The Pound Institute also recognized an article for high distinction: “The Shifting Sands of Employment Discrimination: From Unjustified Impact to Disparate Treatment in Pregnancy and Pay” by Professor Deborah Brake (Pittsburgh) (105 Geo. L. J. 559 (2017).

The Pound Institute is now seeking nominations for its 2020 Appellate Advocacy Award, which recognizes attorneys who have been instrumental in securing a final appellate court decision with significant impact on the right to trial by jury, public health and safety, consumer rights, civil rights, access to justice in civil cases, or other issues relevant to the Pound Institute’s work. The 2019 award honored a group of attorneys for their respective work in two U.S. Supreme Court cases, New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira and Air & Liquid Systems Corp. v. DeVries. Nominations are due by March 23, 2020. Nominating criteria, the submission form, and information about past recipients are available at www.poundinstitute.org/appellate-advocacy-award.

For more information about the Pound Civil Justice Institute, visit www.poundinstitute.org, call (202) 944-2841, or email info@poundinstitute.org.