Law Commons^™

The Pentium Papers: A Case Study Of Collective Institutional Investor Activism In Litigation, Joseph A. Grundfest, Michael A. Perino

Faculty Publications

This article suggests that institutional investors have rational incentives to become more active in the litigation arena, but that the current debate is falsely constrained because it rests on the assumption that institutional investors must participate either by (1) assuming the formal role of lead plaintiff, class representative, or intervenor or, (2) not participating at all. This is a false dichotomy because, as this article demonstrates, institutions have available to them a rich array of flexible, informal, and relatively inexpensive mechanisms by which they can make their views known to litigants and courts alike.

Our hypothesis that institutional investor activism …

Settlement Class Actions And The Limits Of Adjudication, James A. Henderson Jr.

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This paper is the Comment for a symposium on Individualized Justice, Mass Torts, and "Settlement Class Actions."

Feasting While The Widow Weeps: Georgine V. Amchen Products, Susan P. Koniak

Faculty Scholarship

This Article tells the story of Gerogine v. Amchem Products, Inc., a class action involving asbestos-related personal injury claims. Georgine was filed in federal district court on January 15, 1993. On the same day, class counsel and the lawyers for the defendants filed a proposed settlement with the court. The court authorized notice to the class, allowed a period for opt-outs, recognized objectors to the settlement, ordered discovery proceedings, held a fairness hearing, and, in August 1994, approved the settlement. The objectors to the settlement retained me to testify as an expert witness on the ethics of class counsel.

Power And Legal Artifice: The Federal Class Action, Bryant Garth

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Using case studies and interviews with lawyers and representatives in class actions, this article explores the contribution that class actions make to their ostensible beneficiaries. The article first distinguishes the major types of class actions in terms of the roles of lawyers and class representatives, ranging from very passive representatives to individuals intensively involved with the dispute that gave rise to the litigation. The article next seeks to evaluate the class actions. On the basis of the results of the class actions, the article finds that class actions cannot be proclaimed major contributors to social change. The focus on results, …

An Independent Public Law, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

This Article analyzes the application of numerous Federal Rules in public law litigation to show how the resurrection of private law approaches and hostility toward public interest litigants serves to disadvantage public interest litigants. The assessment is intended to discourage such future enforcement of the Federal Rules and analogous judicial treatment in other areas of public law. The Article is also meant to foster greater appreciation of public law and the articulation of a larger complement of public law principles so as to facilitate the growth of an independent public law.

Fairness To The Absent Members Of A Defendant Class: A Proposed Revision Of Rule 23, Elizabeth Brandt

Articles

No abstract provided.

Risk, Courts, And Agencies, Clayton P. Gillette, James E. Krier

Articles

Public risks are precisely the risks that have recently captured the attention of the legal community and the world at large, in no small part because they give rise to such novel problems for lawyers and such grave apprehensions among lay people. Public risks have moved the legal system to relax doctrines--regarding, for example, standards of causation and culpability, burdens of proof, sharing of liability--that were designed to deal with the private risks that once dominated the landscape. And public risks have moved lay people to intensify their demands for risk control measures. These developments suggest that public risks are …

Book Review. From Medieval Group Litigation To The Modern Class Action By Stephen C. Yeazell, Richard M. Fraher

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Rebuilding The Barriers: The Trend In Employment Discrimination Class Actions, Judith J. Johnson

Journal Articles

Congress intended that employees vindicate the rights given them under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by private action. For several years private actions proved to be very successful in eliminating employment discrimination. Recent decisions of the Supreme Court and lower courts have limited the effectiveness of the private employment discrimination suit as a major deterrent and remedy for such discrimination. This is especially true in the area of class action suits, which have been the single most effective tool in eliminating employment discrimination. Many courts today interpret Rule 23, the federal rule governing class action suits, …

Mass And Repetitive Litigation In The Federal Courts, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

The topic of "Mass and Repetitive Litigation in the Federal Courts" is even more vast and unwieldy than the complex litigations it brings to mind. The implicit assignment to address the topic by contemplating the events that may occur over the next century is still more daunting. One hundred years bring untellable changes to all of our social and political institutions, judicial and otherwise. Rather than attempt to meet the challenge by uttering bold prophecies of the circumstances that will confront our successors of the future, I will follow an easier course. This paper will select a few illustrations of …

When May State Courts Exercise Personal Jurisdiction Over Nonresident Class Members, Gene R. Shreve

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Bans Demonstrate Approaching Maturity Of Employment Law, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

The pervasive message of this symposium sponsored by the Labor Relations Law Section, whether or not intended by the individual authors, is that American employment law is moving beyond adolescence and may be approaching maturity.

Sosna V. Iowa, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.