Your Day in Court? The Undermining of Access to Justice

A series of recent Supreme Court and circuit court decisions have made it more and more difficult for consumers, employees and investors to seek redress in court. Widespread use of mandatory arbitration clauses and new rules for class certification are impediments to relief for consumers. For employees, decisions like Wal-Mart v. Dukes mean that class actions, historically an avenue to address race and gender discrimination, are increasingly no longer available. And this Term, the Supreme Court's decision in Halliburton will shape the viability of investor class actions against companies for fraud. This panel considered the current state of class action litigation and mandatory arbitration and explore strategies to protect access to the courts for everyone.

Speakers

John H. Beisner, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
F. Paul Bland, Jr., Executive Director, Public Justice
David M. Brodsky, Principal, Brodsky ADR LLC
Elizabeth J. Cabraser, Partner, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
Myron M. Cherry, Founder and Managing Partner, Myron M. Cherry & Associates, LLC
Eric L. Cramer, Managing Shareholder, Berger & Montague, P.C.
Allan B. Diamond, Partner, Diamond McCarthy LLP
Judge Nancy Gertner, Judge (Ret.), U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts; Professor of Practice, Harvard Law School
Fatima Goss Graves, Vice President for Education and Employment, National Women's Law Center
Marc I. Gross, Managing Partner, Pomerantz LLP
Adam T. Klein, Partner, Outten & Golden LLP
Suzette Malveaux, Professor of Law and Former Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America
Cyrus Mehri, Founding Partner, Mehri & Skalet, PLLC
Alan B. Morrison, Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service Law, The George Washington University Law School
Scott A. Powell, Partner, Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton
Johnathan Smith, Assistant Counsel of the Economic Justice Group, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)
Harry P. Susman, Partner, Susman Godfrey LLP

The Web as the New Battleground over Free Expression

A free and open Internet has become one of history's most important "speech engines"—allowing anyone to use the megaphone of the Internet to express themselves. Scholars, activists, politicians and the general public utilize the Internet to stoke debate, challenge norms, rally constituents and change lives. Additionally, the emergence of digital democracy over the last decade has forced courts to revisit free expression principles in an entirely novel context and has prompted government actors to reevaluate their approaches to Internet regulation. What government and court actions might be considered a threat to free speech on the Internet, and when are limitations on free expression legitimate? How have these actions impacted the development of technologies? Is there a progressive vision for free expression and the Internet?

Speakers:

Danielle Citron, Professor of Law, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Garrett Epps, Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Emma Llansó, Director, Free Expression Project, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)
Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel and Policy Advisor, American Civil Liberties Union, Washington Legislative Office
Tim Sparapani, Vice President of Law, Policy and Government Relations, App Developers Alliance

The Privatization of America

This panel explored the question of whether rights are violated by the shift of inherently governmental functions to the private sector. Our prison systems are contracted out; some of our education schemes include vouchers and for-profit charter schools; our regulators are hiring private consultants to help enforce compliance and catch fraud; our federal Medicare systems rely on the insurance industry to determine medical necessity; and our courts are now telling litigants that judicial process is being privatized through arbitration. Are there constitutional or legal lines that are being crossed? How should progressives respond?

Speakers:

Kimberly Brown, Associate Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Reuben A. Guttman, Director, Grant & Eisenhofer P.A.; Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow, Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, Emory University School of Law
Jon D. Michaels, Anne Urowsky Visiting Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Miriam Seifter, Visiting Researcher and Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Paul R. Verkuil, Chairman, Administrative Conference of the United States

Executive Power in a Time of Political Dysfunction?

In his 2014 State of the Union speech, President Obama declared: "... [W]herever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do." The scope of executive authority, whether in the face of congressional obstruction or presidential assertions of power, has been continually called into question in recent years. From the controversy over raising the debt limit to the Supreme Court's review of the President's recess appointment powers, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and decisions about foreign military intervention, these questions continue to surface and how they are answered will have tremendous impact on how our government does—or does not—function. This panel addressed the shifting nature of the executive-legislative relationship in a time of gridlock in Washington. 
 
Speakers:
 
Steven G. Bradbury, Partner, Dechert LLP
Michael Gottlieb, Partner, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor, Slate
Gillian Metzger, Vice Dean and Stanley H. Fuld Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Constitutional Governance, Columbia Law School
Ronald Weich, Dean, University of Baltimore School of Law