The Future of Class Action Litigation: A View from the Consumer Class

NYU's new Center on Civil Justice is hosting a conference on November 7 titled "The Future of Class Action Litigation: A View from the Consumer Class."  Here's a bit more information for those in the area who might be interested (I understand there will be up to 6 CLE hours available):

Co-hosted with the NYU Journal of Law & Business

Keynote Address by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Friday, November 7, 2014

REGISTER HERE.  Up to 6  hours of New York State CLE credit will be available to both experienced and newly admitted attorneys under the Areas of Professional Practice Category.

NYU School of Law
Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
40 Washington Square South

Have consumer class actions run their course? Once, they were praised for increasing access to justice by compensating "small claims held by small people." They were also seen as a form of regulation, because they allowed private enforcement of the law by overcoming the economics of small-stakes individual litigation. This view was so widely accepted that the Supreme Court described these "negative value" suits as "the very core of the class action mechanism."  

Now, consumer class actions face serious criticism for failing to provide compensation for class members or to achieve effective market regulation.  Courts and commentators have questioned whether class members or society benefit from these cases. Perhaps as a result, it is harder to certify a consumer class action today than at any time since the adoption of modern Rule 23 in 1966.

This conference will explore whether consumer class actions deserve the criticism—or the praise—that they have received. Participants will discuss a broad range of issues about the recent development of the law of consumer class actions. The conference will also consider what the criticism of consumer class actions means for the future of class actions more generally. If "the very core" of class actions goes away, what will be left? 

 

Conference Schedule

8:30 - 9:00 am - Registration

(Registration will take place just outside of Greenberg Lounge)

9:00 - 9:15 am  - Welcoming Remarks

Introduction – Peter L. Zimroth, Director of the Center on Civil Justice

Remarks - Dean Trevor W. Morrison, NYU School of Law

9:15 - 10:30 am: Panel 1 -  The Current State of the Consumer Class Action

Moderator:  Samuel Issacharoff, Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law and Faculty Co-Director, Center on Civil Justice, NYU School of Law

When Peace is Not the Goal of a Class Action Settlement
D. Theodore Rave, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center

The Identifiable Consumer: The Ascertainability Doctrine and Rule 68 Offers as Impediments to the Class
Myriam Gilles, Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Comments: Andrew Pincus, Mayer Brown LLP

10:30 - 10:45 am - Coffee Break

10:45 am - 12:00 pm: Panel 2 - Reforming the Consumer Class Action

Moderator:  Troy A. McKenzie, Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director, Center on Civil Justice, NYU School of Law

Constructing Issue Classes
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Associate Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law

Compensation in Consumer Class Actions:  Data and Reform
Brian T. Fitzpatrick, 2014-15 FedEx Research Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School (with Robert C. Gilbert, , Grossman Roth)

Comments:  Elizabeth J. Cabraser, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP

12:00 - 1:00 pm - Lunch

1:00 - 2:15 pm: Panel 3 - Alternatives to the Consumer Class Action

Moderator:  Michael S. Barr, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Contract Procedure, Regulatory Breakdown
David L. Noll, Assistant Professor of Law, Rutgers University School of Law – Newark

Government Compensation and the Class Action
Adam Zimmerman, Associate Professor of Law, Loyola Law School

Comments: Mark P. Goodman, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

2:15 - 2:30 PM: Break

2:30 - 3:45 PM: Panel 4 - Roundtable Discussion:  Consumer Class Actions and the Future of the Class Action

Moderator: Arthur R. Miller, University Professor and Faculty Co-Director, Center on Civil Justice, NYU School of Law

Participants:

• Sheila A. Birnbaum, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP
• Elizabeth J. Cabraser, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
• Charles Delbaum, National Consumer Law Center
• Andrew Pincus, Mayer Brown LLP
• Hon. Lee H. Rosenthal, US District Court for the Southern District of Texas

4:00 - 4:45 pm: Keynote Address

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Introduction by Arthur R. Miller

4:45 - 5:00 PM: Closing Remarks by Peter Zimroth

 

Register here