Trial Magazine

The Conservative Case for Class Actions

By Brian T. Fitzpatrick
University of Chicago Press 
www.press.uchicago.edu
272 pp.; $32.50

Written by Brian Fitzpatrick, a Vanderbilt University law professor and former clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the book builds from a single premise: Just because corporations oppose class actions doesn’t mean that political conservatives should. Fitzpatrick argues that class actions deter corporate misconduct and embody fundamental conservative concepts, such as relying on individual parties—not government regulation—to enforce civil law standards. The book reviews common reasons for criticizing class actions and explains why these criticisms lack merit or are outweighed by the benefits. Fitzpatrick also offers ideas for reforms, including asking Congress to amend the Federal Arbitration Act to ensure class action waivers are not enforceable when state law says otherwise.

A History of Intellectual Property in 50 Objects

By Claudy Op den Kamp & Dan Hunter (eds.)
Cambridge University Press
www.cambridge.org
440 pp.; $34.95

From the oral contraceptive pill to the escalator to the Wi-Fi router, many everyday objects represent milestones in the evolution of intellectual property law. With striking photos and accessible content about 50 such items, the book explores how technological and artistic innovations have shaped how the law recognizes proprietary interests—and how new products are introduced to and adopted by the public. Editors Claudy Op den Kamp, a faculty member at the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom, and Dan Hunter, the founding dean of Swinburne Law School in Australia, describe the book as a crossover between “an academic publication and a coffee table book,” and each page and colorful graphic sheds new light on familiar items from the past and present.

The Public Option: How to Expand Freedom, Increase Opportunity, and Promote Equality

By Ganesh Sitaraman & Anne L. Alstott
Harvard University Press
www.hup.harvard.edu
296 pp.; $25.95

Public options—defined by the authors as government programs that coexist with competing private entities and guarantee “access to important services at a controlled price”—are key parts of social infrastructure. Ganesh Sitaraman, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, and Anne Alstott, a professor at Yale Law School, identify taxpayer-supported public option successes such as public libraries, parks, and schools and explain how providing or expanding public options in other areas such as child care, health care, and retirement planning could allow significantly more people in the United States to access high quality services, thereby expanding financial and social opportunities. Describing public options as “evidence of our common civic faith,” the authors argue that these instruments should not be overlooked as tools that could have a profound impact on improving equality. 

When Should Law Forgive?

ByMartha Minow
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
www.norton.com
256 pp.; $27.95

How can the law “forgive” without allowing injustice to continue or coercing vulnerable victims to reconcile with wrongdoers? Martha Minow, a former dean of Harvard Law School, tackles these complex questions by highlighting three areas in which “some legal systems have taken steps that . . . could be seen as forgiving [or] letting go of justified grievances and sanctions”: the treatment of minors who have committed criminal offenses, debt forgiveness, and amnesty and the use of executive pardons. Using these and other examples, Minow observes that pursuing forgiveness in law often requires “shifting from a focus on a specific violator and specific victim to use of a wider lens—not to negate the violation and its immediate harm but to understand the broader patterns and consider fair paths forward for all.”

Raising the Bar: Diversifying Big Law

By Anthony C. Thompson (ed.)

The New Press 
www.thenewpress.com
208 pp.; $22.99

Anthony Thompson—the founding faculty director of the NYU School of Law’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law—brings together four partners of color from large defense firms for an open conversation about the “issues of race and inequality [that] continue to confound the legal profession.” The partners reflect on their personal journeys and the pressure they feel as trailblazers. Thompson also interviews experts—such as the global head of diversity and inclusion at White & Case—on topics ranging from the unique challenges minority attorneys face to the role that affinity groups can play in professional development. The book offers concrete tips for firms and law schools to create a more inclusive legal profession and reminds plaintiff attorneys about the critical need to improve diversity on both sides of the bar.