Starting with the 12th Annual Sedona Conference on Complex Litigation last April, judges, leading members of the bar, and legal academics nationwide have been meeting, writing, discussing, and sometimes debating a series of initiatives aimed at realizing the elusive goal of Rule 1 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure - the “just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.” In May, the Civil Rules Advisory Committee of the Judicial Conference hosted a landmark symposium at Duke Law School on the topic, attended by more than 200 invitees who contributed more than 60 research and position papers. Since then, this national dialogue has engendered numerous pilot projects, case studies, and surveys designed to provide objective data to inform rule makers and policy shapers.
The 13th Annual Sedona Conference® on Complex Litigation will reconvene leaders of that national dialogue to take stock of where we are one year later. We will assess the progress we have made in objectively defining the challenges facing the civil justice system and in identifying potential opportunities for addressing those challenges through rules compliance, rules reform, judicial resource allocation, bench and bar education, and cultural change.
Led by a faculty of experienced public and private sector attorneys, judges, and legal academics from all points of view, the participants in this conference will engage in dialogue exploring:
- Civil litigation & justice - what does it mean, where are we going?
- The impact of post-Twombly/Iqbal pleading requirements
- Uniformity and trans-substantivity in federal and state rules
- Proportionality in eDiscovery preservation and production
- The proper role of judicial management
- The lessons of the various court “pilot projects”
- Attorney competence for the 21st century
- The role of bench and bar education to meet civil litigation challenges