On November 8th, CCL Senior Litigation Counsel Valerie M. Nannery participated The Future of Class Action Litigation: A View From The Consumer Class, a conference sponsored by the Center on Civil Justice at NYU School of Law. The day-long conference hosted law professors, judges, and practitioners from both the defense and plaintiffs’ bar to discuss the current state of the consumer class action, ideas for changes to the class action device, and the future of class actions. After panels that included current and former members of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, and several academics who study issues related to class actions, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Alex Kozinski, gave the Keynote—a conversation with Professor Arthur Miller about the current state and future of consumer class actions. While several panelists provided some new research into specific aspects of class actions, and specifically about class action settlements, it was repeatedly noted that there is currently a dearth of empirical data and research available about the current state of class actions. The conference organizers and participants called for study of class actions and class action settlements.

Further description of the conference and videos of the panel discussions can be found here.