News

During the ABA Annual Meeting in August 2012, the ABA House of Delegates debated a set of guidelines on retention of experts by lawyers that had been proposed by its Litigation Section.  The House ultimately rejected the guidelines, which were voluntary in nature, and the debate over them is recounted in an article in the November 2012 ABA Journal.  The article quotes CCL President Robert S. Peck, a delegate in the ABA House, as recognizing the guidelines as “simply a reference point” that would likely be followed “in an ideal world.” The guidelines were intended to provide advice on issues of professionalism, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and expert fees.

As vice chair of the Board of Overseers, CCL’s Robert S. Peck participated in the biannual meeting of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice, which conducts objective, empirically based, analytic research aimed at improving the operation of the civil justice system Oct. 25-26 in Pentagon City, Va. Among the topics discussed during that meeting was the role of hedge funds in the financial crisis, emerging legal issues in public nuisance litigation, compensation of members of wounded members of the military, and use of new survey technology for gathering data about civil justice issues.

CCL’s Robert S. Peck participated in a meeting of the Board of Directors of Justice at Stake, a nonpartisan national partnership of more than 50 organizations, working to keep courts fair and impartial through public education, litigation and reform. The Oct. 18-19 board meeting took place in Seattle, Washington, where the board discussed developments in judicial elections and its impact on the work of courts. Peck chairs the Board’s amicus curiae committee.

As a member of its governing Council, CCL’s Robert S. Peck attended the Fall Meeting of the American Bar Association’s Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS), who boasts 20,000 members, held in La Quinta, California October 10-14. During the meetings, issues regarding judicial disqualification, trial by jury, and asbestos litigation were discussed. Peck chairs the TIPS task forces on judicial disqualification issues and asbestos litigation.

The National Law Journal today published an article on the status of the Darvon MDL litigation, “Darvon plaintiffs look to Sixth Circuit.” The article quotes CCL Senior Litigation Counsel Lou Bograd, who is working with the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee for the MDL and heading up appellate efforts in the Sixth Circuit. In light of a series of adverse rulings from the MDL judge, Judge Denny Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky, Bograd says: "The bottom line is: The future of this litigation rests with the Sixth Circuit."

CCL is lead appellate counsel for the plaintiffs in the MDL. Preemption

Our own Robert S. Peck has been selected as appellate lawyer of the week by the National Law Journal, which notes that Bob is “a rare appellate specialist among plaintiffs’ lawyers for decades.”

A video interview conducted by Tony Mauro is online.

CCL’s Robert S. Peck has published an article entitled “For Trailblazers, When the U.S. Constitution Is Not Enough,” 45 New Eng. L. Rev. 855 (2011), which reviews Professor Robert F. Williams’ recent book, TheLaw of American State Constitutions.