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Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
Aggregation As Disempowerment: Red Flags In Class Action Settlements, Howard M. Erichson
Aggregation As Disempowerment: Red Flags In Class Action Settlements, Howard M. Erichson
Notre Dame Law Review
Class action critics and proponents cling to the conventional wisdom that class actions empower claimants. Critics complain that class actions over-empower claimants and put defendants at a disadvantage, while proponents defend class actions as essential to consumer protection and rights enforcement. This Article explores how class action settlements sometimes do the opposite. Aggregation empowers claimants’ lawyers by consolidating power in the lawyers’ hands. Consolidation of power allows defendants to strike deals that benefit themselves and claimants’ lawyers while disadvantaging claimants. This Article considers the phenomenon of aggregation as disempowerment by looking at specific settlement features that benefit plaintiffs’ counsel and …
Viewing Privilege Through A Prism: Attorney-Client Privilege In Light Of Bulk Data Collection, Paul H. Beach
Viewing Privilege Through A Prism: Attorney-Client Privilege In Light Of Bulk Data Collection, Paul H. Beach
Notre Dame Law Review
This Note will argue that the attorney-client privilege is justified not only by the popular instrumentalist rationales, but also by noninstrumentalist thinking. It will further argue that Federal Rule of Evidence 502 gives federal courts the tools to protect the attorney-client privilege in light of bulk data collection. Even where courts do not find that traditional modes of communication constitute reasonable steps to protect a confidential communication, general considerations of fairness—as noted in Rule 502’s committee notes—should encourage courts to uphold attorney-client privilege in future situations of bulk data collection disclosures. Part I will discuss the establishment, development, and operations …