JEP Symposia

Judicial symposia provide an analysis of current legal and public policy issues in a dynamic format combining lectures and debates. These programs alert judges to emerging challenges in substantive legal matters and offer a balanced view of legal issues through presentations by diverse leading scholars and a series of debates.

The 2012 Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues will be held in 2012 (date TBD).

 

Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues (March 28-March 29, 2011)
Agenda

The 2011 Northwestern Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues was attended by 147 judges from 31 states, including 8 Federal judges.  Session information, including recommended readings and presentation slides can be found below.  Video of each session will be posted in the coming weeks.

• Perspectives on the Financial Crisis
  • Panel Chair:
    • Kenneth Ayotte, Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Panelists
    • Douglas Baird, University of Chicago Law School
    • Thomas Brennan, Northwestern University School of Law
    • Robert McDonald, Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management
  • Recommended Readings:
    • "Dodd-Frank for Bankruptcy Lawyers"
  • Presentation Slides
    • Thomas Brennan (PowerPoint)
    • Robert McDonald (PDF)
  • Video
    • Part 1
      • Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod
    • Part 2
      • Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• The Evolving Law of Public Nuisance

• Panel Chair:
  • David Dana, Stanford Clinton Sr. and Sylpha Kilbride Clinton Research Professor
• Panelists:
  • Howard Learner, Environmental Law and Policy Center
  • Carter Phillips, Sidley Austin LLP
• Recommended Readings:
  • The Mismatch Between Public Nuisance Law and Global Warming
  • State of Connecticut v. American Electric Power Company Inc., 582 F.3d 309 (2d Cir.2009)
• Presentation Slides
  • David Dana (PowerPoint)
• Video
  • Part 1
    • Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod
  • Part 2
    • Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Twombly and Iqbal Two Years On

• Panel Chair:
  • James Pfander, Owen L. Coon Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
• Panelists:
  • Scott Dodson, William & Mary Law School
    Richard Epstein, University of Chicago Law School
    Suja Thomas, University of Illinois College of Law
• Recommended Readings:
• "Why the Motion to Dismiss Is Now Unconstitutional"
• "Oddball Iqbal and Twombly and Employment Discrimination"
• "The New Summary Judgment Motion: The Motion to Dismiss under Iqbal and Twombly"
• Presentations Slides
  • Scott Dodson (PowerPoint)
  • James Pfander (PowerPoint)
  • Suja Thomas (PowerPoint)
• Video
  • Part 1
    • Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod
  • Part 2
    • Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Medical Malpractice

• Panel Chair:
  • Max Schanzenbach, Director, Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth and Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
• Panelists:
  • Ronen Avraham, University of Texas School of Law
  • Bernard Black, Northwestern University School of Law
  • David Hyman, University of Illinois College of Law
• Recommended Readings:
  • Medical Malpractice Litigation and Tort Reform: It’s the Incentives, Stupid
  • "Private Regulation"
• Presentation Slides
  • David Hyman (PowerPoint)
  • Bernard Black (PowerPoint)
  • Ronen Avraham (PowerPoint)
• Video
  • Part 1
    • Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod
  • Part 2
    • Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

---

PAST SYMPOSIA

Judicial Symposium on The Expansion of Liablity Under Public Nuisance (April 26-27, 2010)
Agenda | Speaker bios

• Overrview of the Legal Landscape: Spotting the Issues
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Traditional and Creative Uses of Public Nuisance Litigation
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod
    

 

• Public Entity Litigation and Contingency Fee Attorneys
  • Reading:
    • Private Contingent Fee Lawyers and Public Power (Redish)
    • Public Nuisance: Public Entity Litigation and Contingency Fee Counsel (Axelrad)
    • Public Entity Plaintiffs' Answering Brief: Superior Court of Santa Clara County vs Atlantic Richfield
• Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Luncheon Speaker: Professor Gifford's Outline
• Expanding Public Nuisance Liability and The Limits of the Judicial Process (Gifford)

 

• Public Nuisance Litigation: Lead Paint and Other Products
  • Reading:
    • No Gap Left: Getting Public Nuisance Out of Enviromental Regulation and Public Policy (Moellenberg)
    • Public Nuisance: Opening a Pandora's Box of Product Liability Claims (Mollenberg)
    • Lead Paint and Pigment Litigation (Mollenberg)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Problematic Issues in Public Nuisance Cases: Causation, Redressability, and Insurance
  • Reading:
    • Insurance Coverage for Climate Change Suits: The Battle Has Begun (Heintz, Kanemitsu and Scanlan)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• The Debate on Scientific Evidence of Climate Change
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• The Climate Change Lawsuits
  • Readings:
    • Copenhagen's Disappointing Denouement: Anatomy of a Failed Convocation (Faulk)
    • Uncommon Law (Faulk)
    • Premature Burial? The Resuscitation of Public Nuisance Litigation (Faulk)
    • A Lawyer's Look at the Science of Global Climate Change (Faulk)
    • Brief of Plaintiffs-Appellants (Maples)
    • Unified Reply Brief of Plaintiffs-Appellants (Maples)
    • Plaintiffs-Appellants' Supplemental: Brief on Rehearing En Banc (Maples)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

 

Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues (December 7-8, 2009)
Agenda

• Recent Developments in Asbestos Litigation and Implications for Other Mass Torts
  • Readings:
    • Asbestos Causation and Expert Testimony (Anderson)
    • Scientific Judgement and Toxic Torts (Eaton)
    • Parker v. Mobil Oil (Anderson)
    • Thompson v. Kaczinski (Green)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Preemption: Balancing the Wyeth, Riegel, and Greier Decision
  • Readings:
    • W(h)ither Preemption? (Bograd)
    • Agency Task Force on Federal Agency Preemption of State Tort Laws (ILR)
    • Federal Preemption: States' Powers, National Interests (Epstein and Greve)
    • The Problem of Federal Preemption (Gasaway and Parrish)
    • ILR Statutory Appendix
    • Preemption in the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts (Greve)
    • Federal Preemption of State Law (Gasaway)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• The Restatement Third of Torts and What it Means to You
  • Readings:
    • Restatement of the Law Third (Green)
    • The Restatement of Torts Third, Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm: What it Means to You (Schwartz)
    • Can Governments Impose a New Tort Duty to Prevent External Risks? (Schwartz, Goldberg, Appel)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Data Privacy: The Electronic Frontier of Civil Liability
  • Readings:
    • AT&T Comments for Privacy Roundtables (Byrd)
    • In Defense of Data (Lenard and Rubin)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Searle Civil Justice Institute: Research Reports
  • Readings:
    • Creditor Claims in Arbitration and in Court — Executive Summary (Drahozal)
    • Consumer Arbitration before the American Arbitration Association — Executive Summary (Drahozal)
    • On the Efficiency of Increasing Litigation (Rubin)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Foreign Courts, Foreign Plantiffs: The Extraterritorial Reach of U.S. Law
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Searle Civil Justice Institute: Research Reports
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Law and Cyberspace: Legal Blogging and the Courts
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

   

Judicial Symposium on The Pharmaceutical Industry: Economics, Regulation, and Legal Issues (May 3-5, 2009)
Agenda | Speakers

• The Pharmaceutical Industry
  • Powerpoints: The Pharmaceutical Industry (Stern)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• New Drug Development-From Laboratory to Blockbuster to Generic
  • Powerpoints: The Life Sciences Innovation System (Stern)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Marketing and Distribution Systems
  • Powerpoints: The Strategic Commercialization of Biotechnology Innovation (Stern)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Are Prescriptions Safe?
  • Readings:
    • Statement by Sidney M. Wolfe, MD
    • Response to AMA's CEJA Draft Report on "Ethical Guidance for Physicians and the Profession With Respect to Industry Support for Professional Education in Medicine"
  • Powerpoints
    • Are Prescriptions Safe? (Wolfe)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• FDA Approval and Preemption of Products Liability Claims
  • Readings:
    • Riegel v. Medtronic
    • Cabraser brief on Wyeth v. Levine
  • Powerpoints:
    • FDA Approval and Preemption of Products Liability Claims (Lysaught)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Products Liability Law and Pharmaceuticals
  • Readings:
    • Perry Opinion
  • Powerpoints:
    • Causation in Pharmaceutical Cases (Abaray)
    • Causation, Causation, Causation (Latimer)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Direct to Consumer Advertising
  • Readings:
    • The Cost Effectiveness of Direct to Consumer Advertising for Prescription Drugs
    • Marketing Pharmaceutical Products in the Twenty‐First Century
  • Powerpoints:
  • The Cost Effectiveness of Direct to Consumer Advertising (Rubin)
  • Private Litigation and Increased FDA Regulation (Wilkinson)
  • The Learned Intermediary Doctrine (Abaray)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Off-Label Uses of FDA Approved Drugs
  • Readings:
    • Oregon v. Pfizer (Part 1)
    • Oregon v. Pfizer (Part 2)
  • Powerpoints:
    • Economic analyses of off-label drug use (Greenberg)
    • Off-Label Uses of FDA Approved Drugs (Kalb-Mayer)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Emerging Legal Issues
  • Readings:
    • Conte v. Wyeth
    • Wyeth v. Levine
    • Pharmacist's Duty to Warn
  • Powerpoints:
  • Reverse-Payment Settlements of Pharmaceutical Patent Litigation (Butler)
  • AWP Litigation (Cook)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

   

   

Judicial Symposium on The New Science of Judicial Behavior (April 21, 2009)
Agenda

• Introduction to Judicial Behavior
  • Presentation Slides:
    • Judicial Behavior: An Overview (Epstein)

     

• Judicial Behavior
  • Readings:
    • Inferring the Winning Party
  • Presentation Slides:
  • Rational Judicial Behavior: A Statistical Study (Landes and Posner)
  • Inferring the Winning Party (Epstein)

   

• How Judges Decide Cases
• Presentation Slides:
  • How Trial Judges Decide Cases (Guthrie)

   

• Speakers:
• Lee Epstein
• Chris Guthrie
• William Landes
• Richard Posner
• Gerald Rosenberg

 

Judicial Symposium on the Criminalization of Corporate Conduct (April 20, 2009)
Agenda | Speaker Bios

• The Criminalization of Corporate Conduct
  • Readings:
    • Reforming Corporations Through Threats of Federal Prosecutions
  • Powerpoints:
    • Corporate Criminal Liability (Baker)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Corporate Criminal Liability, Public Welfare Offenses, and Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine
  • Readings:
    • Rethinking Criminal Corporate Liability
    • U.S.A. v. L.E. Myers Co.
    • Parker, An Abolitionary View (references)
  • Powerpoints:
    • Corporate Criminal Liability An Abolitionary View (Parker)
    • Reforming Corporate Criminal Liability (Weissmann)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Overcriminalization?
  • Powerpoints:
    • Whether Fraud is Criminal or Civil is a Matter of Perception (Howard)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Erosion of Attorney-Client Privilege
  • Readings:
    • Back Against the Wall, Corporate Deferred Prosecution Through the Lens of Contract "Policing"
  • Powerpoints:
    • Corporate Deferred Prosecution Agreements (Podgor)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Crime and the Financial Crisis
  • Readings:
    • Perils of Criminalizing Agency Costs
  • Powerpoints:
    • Criminalizing Agency Costs and the Financial Crisis (Ribstein)
    • Crime and the Financial Crisis (Presser)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues (December 7-9, 2008)

The civil justice system in the United States is in a constant state of flux. Changes occur at both the state and federal levels, through legislative and judicial actions. At the same time judges face a constant barrage of new and innovative legal theories and procedural maneuvers. The goal of this annual symposium is to provide judges with a systematic review and critique of the most important civil justice issues of the day. Previous symposia have covered punitive damages, corporate misconduct, and toxic tort litigation.
Agenda(updated 12/02/08) | Speakers

• Emerging Civil Justice Issues
  • Readings:
    • Emerging Civil Justice Issues (Part 1)
    • Emerging Civil Justice Issues (Part 2)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Perspectives on Daubert
  • Readings: Perspectives on Daubert
  • Powerpoint Slides:
    • Understanding Daubert: Recurring Issues, Understanding Daubert: Recurring Issues (Wells)
    • Financial Conflict of Interest in Biomedical Research (Boden)
    • Perspectives on Daubert (Diamond)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Public Nuisance Litigation
  • Readings:
    • Public Nuisance Litigation (Part 1)
    • Public Nuisance Litigation (Part 2)
    • Public Nuisance Litigation (Part 3)
  • Powerpoints:
    • City of Cleveland Subprime Foreclosure Litigation (Cohen)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Discussion on the Financial Crisis
  • Powerpoint Slides:
    • The Financial Crisis (Brennan, Horwich, Van Zandt)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Perspectives on eDiscovery
  • Readings:
    • Perspectives on eDiscovery (Part 1)
    • Perspectives on eDiscovery (Part 2)
    • eDiscovery: Lessons from the State Rulemaking Process
  • Powerpoints:
  • Perspectives on eDiscovery (Kourlis)
  • The State of Discovery Abuse in Civil Litigation: A Survey of Chief Legal Officers (Kelly)
  • Perspectives on eDiscovery (Dimitrief)
• Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• eDiscovery: Lessons from the State Rulemaking Process
  • Readings:
    • eDiscovery: Lessons from the State Rulemaking Process
  • Powerpoints:
    • Update on State Action, with a Report on Proposed California Legislation and Rules (O'Donnell)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

• Punitive Damages
  • Readings:
    • Punitive Damages (Part 1)
    • Punitive Damages (Part 2)
    • Punitive Damages (Part 3)
    • Punitive Damages (Part 4)
  • Powerpoints
    • Punitive Damages in Mass Tort and/or Multi-Jurisdictional Actions: Managing the "First Bite at the Punitive Apple"Problem (Withers)
    • Punitive Damage Primer and Update (Relkin)
  • Video: Quicktime (Hi Res) | Quicktime (Lo Res) | iPod

 

If you have any questions please email us at jep@law.northwestern.edu.