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