Colloquium on Current Issues in Complex Litigation

The Colloquium on Current Issues in Complex Litigation offers law students and faculty an opportunity to read and discuss cutting-edge scholarship in the area of complex litigation, typically authored by non-UT faculty members. The Colloquium meets each week during the semester, alternating between seminar and colloquium formats. During the colloquium format meetings, the students will convene with the instructors and all interested faculty for an intensive two-hour exploration of the speaker’s paper with its author. The seminar format meetings are open only to the enrolled students.

Events for Fall 2023

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September 18, 2023 Monday

TNH 2.111 (Sheffield-Massey Room)
3:45pm - 5:45pm

Moderators:

Colloquium Seminar on Current Issues in Complex Litigation -- Jessica Erickson, University of Richmond Law School

Speaker:
  • Jessica Erickson
    Professor, University of Richmond Law School

Guest speaker Jessica Erickson (University of Richmond Law School) -- The Business Of Securities Class Action Lawyering

This Article looks inside the black box of securities class action lawyering to explore the business behind these cases. Our study includes hand-collected data on all securities fraud class actions against public corporations filed between 2005 and 2018, a total of nearly 2500 cases. We find that the business of securities class action lawyering is far more complex than prior scholarship has recognized. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there are not two tiers of plaintiffs’ law firms; instead, there are multiple tiers of firms, each with its own client base, litigation patterns, and revenue model. Our study gives lead plaintiffs and judges the data and tools they need to understand these tiers and to compare the performance of the law firms within them. We also examine how these law firms are compensated, finding that judges’ fee awards fail to account for the difficulty of cases or the risk of non-recovery in any systematic way. These fees are crucial to ensuring that law firms pursue the right cases on behalf of shareholders, so we suggest ways that judges can use data to improve fee awards. As we will see, the path to reforming securities class actions starts with understanding the business behind them.

October 2, 2023 Monday

TNH 2.111 (Sheffield-Massey Room)
3:45pm - 5:45pm

Moderators:

Colloquium Seminar on Current Issues in Complex Litigation - Pamela Foohey, Cardozo School of Law

Speaker:
  • Pamela Foohey
    Professor, Cardozo School of Law

Guest speaker -- Pamela Foohey

October 16, 2023 Monday

TNH 2.111 (Sheffield-Massey Room)
3:45pm - 5:45pm

Moderators:

Colloquium Seminar on Current Issues in Complex Litigation - Bob Bone, Texas Law

Speaker:
  • Robert G Bone
    G. Rollie White Teaching Excellence Chair Emeritus in Law
    University of Texas

Guest speaker Bob Bone

October 30, 2023 Monday

TNH 2.111 (Sheffield-Massey Room)
3:45pm - 5:45pm

Moderators:

Colloquium Seminar on Current Issues in Complex Litigation - Joshua Macey, University of Chicago

Speaker:
  • Joshua Macey
    Professor, University of Chicago

Guest speaker Joshua Macey

November 13, 2023 Monday

TNH 2.111 (Sheffield-Massey Room)
3:45pm - 5:45pm

Moderators:

Colloquium Seminar on Current Issues in Complex Litigation - Jay Tidmarsh, University of Notre Dame

Speaker:
  • Jay Tidmarsh
    Professor, University of Notre Dame

Guest speaker Jay Tidmarsh

December 4, 2023 Monday

TNH 2.111 (Sheffield-Massey Room)
3:45pm - 5:45pm

Moderators:

Colloquium Seminar on Current Issues in Complex Litigation - Judge Robert Dow, Judge David Proctor, Judge Robin Rosenberg

Speakers:
  • Judge Robert Dow
    Judge, USDC Northern District of Illinois
  • Judge David Proctor
    Judge, Northern District of Alabama
  • Judge Robin Rosenberg
    Judge, Southern District of Florida

Guest speakers: Judge Robert Dow, Judge David Proctor, Judge Robin Rosenberg