I’ve had the pleasure of serving on a committee of the Defense Research Institute (DRI) that has put together another blockbuster national class action seminar, being held on July 25, 2013 at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C (see the seminar website for details and the brochure). I attended DRI’s last class action seminar in July of 2011, which was excellent. As some of you may recall, I did several blog posts about that one (see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). This year’s program will be even better, with a star-studded lineup focusing on the major developments in class action law this year, including the numerous Supreme Court decisions.
Miguel Estrada, who argued for Comcast in Comcast v. Behrend, will discuss the Supreme Court’s key ruling this year in that case involving Rule 23(b)(3)’s predominance requirement (see my blog post on Comcast). Ted Boutrous, who argued Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Knowles (I had the pleasure of being his co-counsel in that case), will discuss the Supreme Court’s key ruling on the Class Action Fairness Act in that case (see my blog post on Knowles). Noah Levine, who represented the defendant in Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, will discuss the Supreme Court’s new decision in that case, which held that a plaintiff in a Rule 10b-5 case need not prove materiality at class certification. The Court’s decision also has significant potential implications beyond the securities context with respect to merits inquiries at the class certification stage (see my blog post on Amgen). Michael Kellogg, who represents AmEx in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant, will discuss the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision in that case on arbitration clauses with class action waivers (see my blog post about the AmEx oral argument).
And there will be much more. The seminar also features a panel of in-house counsel from Coca-Cola, Pfizer and LP Building Products addressing class actions from the client’s perspective; and programs on trials of class actions; lessons learned from the Toyota MDL; international class actions; and more.
I will be there, plan to blog about it, and hope to see you there. The attendance roster is looking strong and space may be limited, so sign up soon. If you plan to attend, please let me know so I can be sure to look for you there.