Last year, I discussed Northwestern professor Martin Redish’s argument that class actions are unconstitutional. Redish had predicted–and I largely agreed–that the argument would fall on deaf ears. It turns out we were both wrong. Leaving aside those defense lawyers who adopted his arguments about the Rules Enabling Act, Alexandra Lahav of the University of
Lawyers
Why Are Ignorant Plaintiffs Inadequate?
As I’ve written before, guessing at the motives and methods of plaintiffs’ lawyers in class actions can be much like old-style Kremlinology. But every once in a while, we get a little more information. The most recent comes from University of Minnesota Law School professor Stephen Meili, who just published his article Collective…
Are Class Action Lawyers Paid Too Little? Still No.
Last year, Vanderbilt professor Brian Fitzpatrick made the bold argument that class action plaintiffs’ attorneys aren’t paid enough. Now, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review’s online presence, PENNUmbra, has a response by University of Arizona professor David Marcus.
Marcus levels several criticisms against Fitzpatrick’s proposal. I’m going to ignore the easy ones and…
The Literary Class Action – A New Specialization?
To start, a brief apology. A combination of a virus and a heavy schedule this week means that this entry will be brief.
I’m just going to point to this news item, which details a class action that’s been filed against former President Jimmy Carter’s book Peace Not Apartheid:
[A] group of
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Thorogood Followup: A Master Class in Plaintiffs’ Strategy
Paul Karlsgodt of Classactionblawg.com got there first (in a post that should win "Title of the Month" hands-down), but Judge Posner’s opinion yesterday denying rehearing (and announcing there will be no en banc rehearing) in Thorogood v. Sears Roebuck & Co. is still worth an extra post. Not just because Judge Posner discusses the…
New Employment Class Action Blogs
One of the peculiarities about class-action practice is how segmented it can be. Because Rule 23 can apply to many different kinds of class actions–ranging from international human rights violations to the vagaries of various benefits plans–many lawyers will consider themselves "class action experts" even if all they’ve ever worked on are securities cases…
Litigation Governance: Taking Adequacy Seriously
Last March, dean of class action scholarship John Coffee Jr. published an article in the Columbia Law Review titled "Litigation Governance: Taking Accountability Seriously." Coffee’s argument is that, from a corporate governance perspective, there are two ways to keep an organization’s leaders accountable: "exit" and "voice." In other words, judges and legislators can…
Gilden Redux – Can Judges Impose Racial Quotas on Class-Action Lawyers?
Over the last ten days, Judge Baer issued a followup order in the Gildan Activewear case and gave an interview to the New York Law Journal discussing his reasoning. The order–which found both plaintiffs’ firms to be adequate, and stressed that it was not criticizing their hiring practices–was pretty much a non-event. But Judge Baer’s…
Does Adequacy of Counsel Mean Diversity of Counsel?
With the exception of Supreme Court rulings or groundbreaking appellate opinions, there is little that counts as "breaking news" in the class-action world. But a lead-counsel appointment in the Southern District of New York has drawn so much coverage in the last twenty-four hours that it seems worth at least a brief discussion on…
Referrer Firms – In re Tut Systems
Back in 2001, Bruce G. Murphy, a California attorney, contacted the San Diego office of then-firm Milberg Weiss. He claimed to have several clients who had bought stock in Tut Systems, a technology company that had announced it was not going to meet its earning estimates for the fourth quarter of 2000. Murphy…