The U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) hosted its 14th Annual Legal Reform Summit to explore ways to heal the U.S. lawsuit system. The day-long summit brought together top experts to discuss legal reform’s importance to the greater business community and national economy. Participants addressed and offered remedies to various issues related to the U.S. lawsuit system, including False Claims Act reforms, litigation trends, class action loopholes, the effect of U.S.-style litigation across the globe, and privacy in the digital age. During today’s Legal Reform Summit, the following pieces of original research will be featured.
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Event Details
The 14th Annual Legal Reform Summit
October 23, 2013 8:30 am October 23, 2013 5:30 pm
Registration and Continental Breakfast
Welcome Remarks
- Lisa A. Rickard, President, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
Stitching the Loopholes: Exploring the Spectrum of Class Action Solutions
This panel will explore emerging issues in class action litigation and loopholes in the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) that are being exploited and expanded by the plaintiffs’ bar. It will offer a range of potential solutions, from the straightforward to the provacative. It will also provide an expose on pay-to-play in securities class actions.
- John H. Beisner, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
- Adam C. Pritchard, Frances and George Skestos Professor of Law, The University of Michigan Law School
- Victor E. Schwartz, Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
- James Wootton, Chairman, Partnership for America
- Introduced and Moderated by: Susan L. Lees, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Allstate Insurance Company
New Report: A Roadmap for Reform: Lessons from Eight Years of the Class Action Reform Act (Beisner, Miller and Schwartz)
New Report: Frequent Filers: Repeat Plaintiffs in Shareholder Litigation (Choi, Erickson, Pritchard)
Diagnosing the Disease: Emerging Litigation Trends
This panel will explore the evolving practices of the plaintiff’s bar and emerging litigation trends, including wage and hour suits, patent trolls, theories of liability involving no real injury; and government enforcement of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act.
- David R. Clonts, Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
- Connie Lewis Lensing, Senior Vice President, Litigation and Employment, FedEx Express
- Michael Y. Scudder, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
- James L. Stengel, Partner, Mass Torts & Product Liability, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
- Becca J. Wahlquist, Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
- Introduced and Moderated by: Harold H. Kim, Executive Vice President, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
New Report: The New Lawsuit Ecosystem: Trends, Targets and Players (Schwartz and Silverman)
Taking the Sting Out of Discovery: Improving the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
- Robert L. Levy, Counsel, Civil Justice Reform and Law Technology, ExxonMobil Corporation
Transition Break
Annual Legal Reform Awards Luncheon
Special Remarks by: Thomas J. Donohue, President and Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
2013 Legal Reform Awards
Presented by: Lisa A. Rickard, President, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
Keynote Address
- Peggy Noonan, Columnist for the Wall Street Journal and the bestselling author of seven books on American politics, history and culture.
Introduced by: Lisa A. Rickard, President, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
Transition Break/Meet & Greet with Peggy Noonan
Curing What Ails the False Claims Act: Promoting Compliance and Taxpayer Savings
This panel will address trends and problems in False Claims Act (FCA) litigation, both on the federal and state level. It will include a conversation about proposed federal FCA reforms.
- Robert DeBerardine, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Sanofi North America
- Jonathan L. Diesenhaus, Partner, Hogan Lovells US LLP
- Peter B. Hutt II, Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
- David W. Ogden, Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
- Introduced and Moderated by: Thomas M. Moriarty, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, CVS Caremark
New Report: Fixing the False Claims Act: The Case for Compliance-Focused Reforms (Hutt and Ogden)
New Report: The Great Myths of State False Claims Acts: Alternatives to State Qui Tam Statutes (Diesenhaus)
The Litigation Pandemic: The Rapid Spread of US-Style Litigation Around the Globe
This panel will explore how class actions and other aspects of US-style litigation are taking hold in countries around the world, and to what effect.
- Ken Daly, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
- Ricardo Ríos Ferrer, Senior Partner, Ríos-Ferrer, Guillén-Llarena, Treviño y Rivera S.C., and President-Elect, Mexican Bar Association
- Moira Saville, Partner, King & Wood Mallesons
- Introduced and Moderated by: Mary Terzino, Attorney and Advisor, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
A Hard Pill to Swallow: Privacy in the Digital Age
This cutting edge panel will address the importance of cybersecurity to government and businesses. The panel will also offer a perspective from the Federal Trade Commission on the rise in data privacy-related suits and areas of liability for companies.
- General Michael Hayden (Ret.), Special Counsel to the President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Former Director, CIA
- Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director, Division of Privacy & Identity Protection, Federal Trade Commission
- Introduced and Moderated by: The Honorable Robert E. McKenna, Partner, Public Policy, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, and Former Attorney General, State of Washington
Network Reception
The following research report also was released at the Summit: Legal Reform, The Framers and First Principles (Clement)