Commentators have paid tremendous attention in recent years to changes in federal court access wrought by the pleading standards set out in Twombly and Iqbal. Similarly, scholars have also focused on the ways in which discovery rules – in particular, new proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure – may alter or limit access to federal courts. But pleading and discovery issues are by no means the only elements shaping access to the federal courts. In this panel, we go beyond the cast of “usual suspects” to focus on a much wider range of civil procedure issues relevant to the scope and nature of access to the federal courts. This multi-faceted panel considers the scope and nature of access to the federal courts from a variety of different doctrinal and rule-making angles, and from a variety of distinct perspectives by role. We bring together a federal district court judge, defense and plaintiff’s bar practitioners, an empirical researcher, and voices from legal academia to offer insight and commentary on the myriad other ways in which access to the federal courts is shifting and narrowing, including, but not limited to, issues around transnational litigation, class actions, personal jurisdiction, and mandatory ADR.
Business meeting at program conclusion.