PUBLISHED:May 05, 2010

Duke Law hosts conference on litigation in federal courts, May 10-11

Duke Law School will host a unique conference on civil litigation in federal courts May 10-11. Sponsored and organized by the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, the conference will bring together more than 180 federal judges, practitioners, and academics to undertake a comprehensive examination of issues of access, fairness, cost, and delay in the civil litigation process.

The 2010 Civil Litigation Conference will feature new data from several empirical studies on current litigation practice and proposals for improving civil litigation in the federal trial courts. In particular, data on actual litigation costs incurred by law firms and major corporations will be available for careful analysis.

“Much of the data to be presented at the conference has not been available before,” said Judge John G. Koeltl of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, a Civil Rules Committee member and conference organizer. “This will be important new information on what is actually happening in different practice areas.” Among the topics to be discussed are the cost of litigation and recent Supreme Court decisions that have focused attention on pleading standards and discovery.

“This conference hopes to build on the legacy of the 1976 Roscoe Pound Conference and all it contributed to the reform of the administration and delivery of justice in the federal system, as well as on the 1997 Boston College of Law Conference on Discovery,” said Judge Mark Kravitz of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, chair of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules.

Proceedings will be streamed live at www.law.duke.edu/ and at www.uscourts.gov/news.cfm. Conference registration is closed.

» Read more about the conference from The National Law Journal