The 27 th Annual
CLIFFORD SYMPOSIUM ON TORT LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY
ATION IN A POST-COVID W G I T I L ORLD CIVIL
WEBINAR: JUNE 3-4 • 2021
C I V I L L I T I G AT I O N I N A P O S T- C O V I D W O R L D Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York; and all the clouds that low’d upon our house in the bosom of the ocean buried. - Richard III, Act I, Scene I
We have all now come through the winter of a COVID-driven discontent. It has left its mark on our work as lawyers, our courtroom procedures, our legal responses to calamity, and our views of government. So, what happens now? That is the question our speakers will address at the 27th Annual Clifford Symposium. While there truly is a basis for thanksgiving, the road ahead may be far from smooth. It was, after all, the loathsome future monarch, Richard III, who proclaimed in Shakespeare’s play the dawning of a “glorious summer.” Will our post-COVID time be as fraught? We certainly hope not, but we need
to address matters, so that problems may be dealt with, tyrants thwarted, and the legal system harnessed to facilitate recovery. To these ends we have assembled a remarkable group of scholars. They will examine the psychological and procedural effects of the methods COVID produced. They will consider our social safety nets, both through insurance and the application of tort law. Finally, they will take a close look at the role that has been and, in the future, may be played by government.
CLIFFORD SYMPOSIUM: CIVIL LITIGATION IN A POST-COVID 19 WORLD
WEBINAR PROGRAM THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 2021
OPENING REMARKS
Jennifer Rosato Perea Dean, DePaul University College of Law
Stephan Landsman Director, Clifford Symposium, DePaul University College of Law
Robert Clifford Founder, Clifford Law Offices
SESSION I:
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGING PROCEDURE Virtual Juries Valerie Hans, Cornell University
High Tech Dispute Resolution: Lessons from Psychology for a Post COVID-19 Era Jennifer Robbennolt, University of Illinois and Jean Sternlight, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Procedural Justice in COVID-19 Era Courts Justin Sevier, Florida State University
The Psychology of Remote Interaction Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, University of Pennsylvania
DISCUSSANT: S hari Diamond, Northwestern University/ American Bar Foundation
SESSION II: THE CHANGING FACE OF CIVIL LITIGATION
An Innovation in Access to Justice: Opportunity Lost Stephen Daniels, American Bar Foundation
FutureLitigation: From Day in Court to Data Governance David Freeman Engstrom, Stanford University
Son of the Vanishing Trial Marc Galanter, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Our New Normal? How COVID Accelerated Pre-Pandemic Trends in State Court Civil Litigation Paula Hannaford-Agor, National Center for State Courts
COVID-19 and the Multiple Worlds of Litigation Herbert Kritzer, University of Minnesota
DISCUSSANT: H onorable Lorna Schofield, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
III: THE COVID CHALLENGE TO INSURANCE SESSION What History Can Tell Us About the Future of Insurance and
Litigation After COVID-19 Kenneth Abraham, University of Virginia, and Tom Baker, University of Pennsylvania How a Pandemic Plus Recession Foretell the Post-Employment-Based Horizon of Health Insurance Allison K. Hoffman, University of Pennsylvania
he Role of Insurance Regulators in Resolving Widespread T Coverage Disputes Dan Schwarcz, University of Minnesota
Racial Inequality, COVID-19, and Health and Unemployment Insurance: Lessons Learned and Pathways Forward Shauhin Talesh, University of California, Irvine
DISCUSSANT: N ora Freeman Engstrom, Stanford University
FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2021 SESSION IV: TORT LAW IN THE WAKE OF PANDEMIC The Future of Injury Anne Bloom, University of California, Berkeley Bad Medicine: Why Liability Shields and Tort Reform Were the First Thing Policymakers Reached for in the COVID Pandemic Anthony Sebok, Yeshiva University Tort Law’s New Quarantinism Sierra Stubbs, Yale University and John Fabian Witt, Yale University, The PREP Act: Past, Present, and Future Allison M. Whelan, Covington & Burling LLP DISCUSSANT: R obert Rabin, Stanford University
SESSION V:
GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITY AND (IN)COMPETENCE Incapacity and Responsibility in the Time of COVID Seth Davis, University of California, Berkeley Government Failure in the Age of COVID-19 David Hyman, Georgetown University How the Primary Jurisdiction Doctrine in the Age of COVID-19 Threatens Workplace Safety Catherine Sharkey, New York University Responsive Analysis: More Than One Way to Stop a Virus: Integrating Public and Private Governance Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Timothy Lytton, Georgia State University DISCUSSANT: S tephan Landsman, DePaul University
CONCLUDING REMARKS
THE CLIFFORD SYMPOSIUM ON TORT LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY In 1994, Robert A. Clifford (’76) endowed a faculty chair in tort law and social policy. The chair gives meaningful expression to his belief that the civil justice system serves a number of vital interests in American society. The Clifford Chair at DePaul provides a vehicle for exploration of the civil justice system in an intellectually rigorous fashion. In addition to providing support for faculty research and teaching, the endowment makes possible an annual symposium addressing a timely issue in the civil justice area. The purpose of the symposium is to bring the latest scholarship and advances in legal practice to lawyers and scholars who specialize in tort law, civil justice and related fields. Professor Stephan Landsman is the current organizer and director of the symposium underwritten by the Clifford Chair.
SYMPOSIUM FACULTY Kenneth Abraham University of Virginia School of Law
Timothy Lytton Georgia State University College of Law
Tom Baker University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Robert Rabin Stanford Law School
Anne Bloom University of California, Berkeley Law
Jennifer Robbennolt University of Illinois College of Law
Stephen Daniels American Bar Foundation
Honorable Lorna Schofield U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Seth Davis University of California, Berkeley Law
Dan Schwarcz University of Minnesota Law School
Shari Diamond Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law; American Bar Foundation
Anthony Sebok Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
David Freeman Engstrom Stanford Law School
Justin Sevier Florida State University College of Law
Nora Freeman Engstrom Stanford Law School
Catherine Sharkey New York University School of Law
Marc Galanter University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School
Jean Sternlight University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law
Paula Hannaford-Agor National Center for State Courts Valerie Hans Cornell Law School Allison K. Hoffman University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School David Hyman Georgetown University Law Center Herbert Kritzer University of Minnesota Law School Stephan Landsman DePaul University College of Law
Sierra Stubbs Yale Law School Shauhin Talesh University of California, Irvine School of Law Allison M. Whelan Covington & Burling LLP Tess Wilkinson-Ryan University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School John Fabian Witt Yale Law School
PAST CONFERENCE TOPICS: 2020 The Opioid Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here
2007 Distortions in the Attorney/Client Relationship: Threats to Sound Advice?
2019 Rising Stars: A New Generation of Scholars Looks at Civil Justice
2006 Is the Rule of Law Waning in America?
2018 Patient Safety: How Might the Law Help
2005 Who Feels Their Pain? The Challenge of Non-Economic Damages in Civil Litigation
2017 The Impact of Dark Money on Judicial Elections and Behavior
2004 Starting Over: Redesigning the Medical Malpractice System
2016 Privacy, Data Theft and Corporate Responsibility
2003 After Disaster: The September 11th Compensation Fund and the Future of Civil Justice
2015 The Supreme Court, Business and Civil Justice 2014 In Honor of Jack Weinstein 2013 Brave New World: The Changing Face of Litigation and Law Firm Finance
2002 Export Import: American Civil Justice in a Global Context 2001 Smoke Signals: Civil Justice in the Wake of the Tobacco Wars 2000 Civil Litigation and Popular Culture
2012 A Celebration of the Thought of Marc Galanter
1999 Judges as Tort Lawmakers
2011 Festschrift for Robert Rabin
1998 The American Civil Jury: Illusion and Reality
2010 The Limits of Predictability and the Value of Uncertainty
1997 Contingent Fee Financing of Litigation in America
2009 Rising Stars: A New Generation of Scholars Looks at Civil Justice
1996 Tort Law and the Science of the Twenty-First Century
2008 The Challenge of 2020: Preparing a Civil Justice Reform Agenda for the Coming Decade
1995 ADR and Torts: Implications for Practice and Reform
The 27 th Annual CLIFFORD SYMPOSIUM ON TORT LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY
REGISTRATION The Clifford Symposium Webinar is free and open to the public, but registration must be completed no later than Wednesday, June 2, 2021. To register please visit 2021clifford.eventbrite.com for one or both dates. Registration also can be made by phone at 312-362-8372. DePaul University College of Law is an accredited Illinois MCLE provider. This program has been approved for up to 9 hours of CLE credit. This is a two-day only opportunity to earn CLE credit. Day 1 - up to 5.5 General CLE credits. Day 2 - up to 3.5 General CLE credits.
All artwork by Claude Monet The Japanese Bridge, 1899 The Magpie, 1869 Water Lilies, 1897-1899 Impression, Sunrise, 1872 A Corner of the Garden at Montgeron, 1877