Class Action

Expert Analysis

• The Elephant In The Room: Advancing Women To Partnership

  

  Despite more focus and investment, the numbers continue to show little progress in advancing women to the top tiers of firm leadership. Considering the irreversible nature of the transformation of the market for top talent, it is time to start experimenting and innovating from the core, rather than from the periphery, say Anusia Gillespie and Scott Westfahl of Harvard Law School.

• How Midsize Law Firms Can Minimize Cybersecurity Threats

  

  It can be challenging for midsize law firms to develop an enterprise cybersecurity program that mitigates the eminent threat of data breach and meets the regulatory and compliance requirements of the firm and its clients. This challenge becomes daunting when considering the steady rise in client audits, say K. Stefan Chin of Peckar & Abramson PC and John Sweeney of Logicforce.

• Enforcing Arbitration Clauses In Product Packaging

  

  Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions pertaining to the enforceability of arbitration clauses provide guidance to manufacturers looking to bind consumers through the use of product packaging. Under certain states’ laws, such clauses may be enforceable — so long as reasonable notice is provided, along with notice that failure to return the product constitutes assent, says Abby Sacunas of Cozen O'Connor.

• High Court Signals Interest In Vitamin C Price-Fix Case

  

  For all companies engaged in international commerce, guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court on the Second Circuit's controversial decision in the Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation would be welcome. If the Supreme Court's recent request for input from the acting solicitor general is any indication, the court may agree, say Nicholas Melzer and Janet Chung of Holland & Knight LLP.

• 9th Circ. Price Advertising Decision Threatens Retailers

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Linda Rubenstein v. Neiman Marcus comes amid a wave of lawsuits targeting retailers for deceptive pricing. Though unpublished and without precedential effect, the decision will embolden plaintiffs to file similar class actions against retailers and could make it more difficult for them to succeed on motions to dismiss, say Rick Shackelford and Colin Fraser of Greenberg Traurig LLP.

• Courts Rein In TCPA 'Revocation Of Consent' Claims

  

  As we all anxiously await a decision in the appeal from the Federal Communications Commission's “any reasonable method” ruling, several courts have found other ways to limit this particular species of Telephone Consumer Protection Act abuse. The most recent and notable is the Second Circuit's decision last month in Reyes v. Lincoln, say Michael Daly and Daniel Brewer of Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.

• Weekly Column

  Innovating For Wise Juries: Matching Experts

  

  In the penultimate installment of this series, Stephen Susman, Richard Lorren Jolly and Dr. Roy Futterman of the NYU School of Law Civil Jury Project answer a question on many legal analysts’ minds: What if both sides’ expert witnesses sat in a hot tub discussing the case while a jury watched?

• Rebuttal

  The Rise Of Midsize Firms

  

  Recently, this publication featured an op-ed in which one law firm partner contended that midsize firms will be the next casualty of the legal market, due to a supposed inability to compete with BigLaw or boutique firms for business. Though we can expect to see Am Law firms continue to lead the market in megadeals and life-or-death litigations, by all indications midsize is on the rise, says Ronald Shechtman of Pryor Cashman LLP.

• Resolving Class Claims Individually Post-Fulton Dental

  

  Expanding on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Campbell-Ewald ruling, the Seventh Circuit’s recent decision in Fulton Dental v. Bisco further restricts a defendant’s ability to individually resolve a putative class action. Arsen Kourinian of McGuireWoods LLP discusses whether there are other procedural mechanisms that would permit a defendant to provide an unwilling plaintiff full relief in order to moot class claims.

• War Of The Employment Class Waivers: 6th Circ. Weighs In

  

  With its recent decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Alternative Entertainment, the Sixth Circuit created an even three-to-three circuit split over the enforceability of class action waivers in employment arbitration agreements. Jeffrey Ranen and William Sung of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP examine the divide in the circuit courts up to this point, and predict how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on this issue.