June 6-7, 2024
and Online DePaul Conference Center
At least three times in the past hundred years, entire American industries have united in a coordinated and sustained effort to advance their financial interests by knowingly promoting products that have deadly consequences for enormous numbers of individuals exposed to them. The three industries involved in these activities have been the asbestos manufacturers, the tobacco sellers and the opioid purveyors.
There have been striking parallels both in their conduct and the inadequate societal response to the harm done.
Accordingly, this year’s Clifford Symposium will explore:
• The historical legacy of these events
• The ethical questions raised by the legal representation offered the industries
• The behavior of those who enabled widespread harm
• The American industries that appear to be following the same deadly roadmap
• The procedures we might adopt to address these activities
THE 30 TH ANNUAL CLIFFORD SYMPOSIUM ON TORT LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY
THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2024
9:00 REGISTRATION AND CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
9:30 OPENING REMARKS
Stephan Landsman
Emeritus Professor, DePaul College of Law; Director, Clifford Symposium
9:45 SESSION I: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
Remedy Becomes Regulation
Samuel Issacharoff, New York University
Adam Littlestone-Luria, Member, New York Bar
Toxic Standards: Regulatory Epistemology and the Legacy of Endocrine Disruption Chemicals
Colleen Lanier-Christensen, Harvard University
Corrupted Science: PCBs, Roundup and Monsanto in the Early Years of the EPA
David Rosner, Columbia University
Physicists as Environmental Experts: The Case of Richard Wilson
Rachel Rothschild, University of Michigan
Discussant: Noah Rosenblum, New York University
12:00 LUNCH (provided)
1:00 SESSION II: OTHER INDUSTRIES?
Farm Until It’s Gone: Industrial Animal Agriculture and the Limits of Law
Douglas Kysar, Yale University
Public Health Nuisances
Catherine Sharkey, New York University
Tragic Exposure, Mass Litigation and Regulatory Failure: Does It Have to Be This Way?
Wendy Wagner, University of Texas
Steve Gold, Rutgers University
Thomas McGarity, University of Texas
Evidence of Compliance
Maggie Wittlin, Fordham University
Discussant: Gregory Mark, DePaul University
3:10 BREAK
3:20 SESSION III: ENABLERS
Discovery Gamesmanship in Mass Torts
Seth Endo, Seattle University
New Empirics on Litigation Secrecy (Virtual Presentation)
David Freeman Engstrom, Stanford University*
Toxic Torts and the Shadowland of Responsibility
John Goldberg, Harvard University
Benjamin Zipursky, Fordham University
Effects of Sponsorship on Research Results
Michael Saks, Arizona State University
Discussant: Stephan Landsman
* Collaborators concerning the reported upon research include Nora Freeman Engstrom, Stanford University; Jonah Gelbach, University of California, Berkeley; Austin Peters, Stanford University
5:30 END OF DAY ONE
FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2024
8:00 REGISTRATION AND CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST
9:00 SESSION IV: ETHICAL DILEMMAS REGARDING LEGAL REPRESENTATION
Deal making and the Ethically Slippery Slope in the Quest for Global Peace
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, University of Georgia
Corporate Lawyers, Disloyalty and the Opioid Crisis
Elise Maizel, Michigan State University
What About Purdue’s Lawyers? A Brief History of Lawyer Gatekeeping From Social Trustee Professionalism Through the 2023 ABA Model Rules Amendment
Bradley Wendel, Cornell University
Discussant: Myriam Gilles, Yeshiva University
11:00 BREAK
11:15 SESSION V: RESPONSES
On the Relation Between Causation and Misconduct
Alexandra Lahav, Cornell University
Using Public Nuisance Litigation to Address Industry Misconduct: Common Law
Statutes, Delegation Doctrine and Systems Theory
Timothy Lytton, Georgia State University
Hillel Levin, University of Georgia
Microlocal Litigation for a Mass Tort World
Sarah Swan, Rutgers University
Discussant: Robert Rabin, Stanford University
1:15 CONCLUDING REMARKS
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch
University of Georgia
Seth Endo
Seattle University
David Freeman Engstrom
Stanford University
Myriam Gilles
Yeshiva University
Steve Gold
Rutgers University
John Goldberg
Harvard University
Samuel Issacharoff
New York University
Douglas Kysar
Yale University
Alexandra Lahav
Cornell University
Stephan Landsman
DePaul University
Colleen Lanier-Christensen
Harvard University
Hillel Levin
University of Georgia
Adam Littlestone-Luria Member, New York Bar
Timothy Lytton
Georgia State University
Elise Maizel
Michigan State University
Gregory Mark
DePaul University
Thomas McGarity
University of Texas
Robert Rabin
Stanford University
David Rosner
Columbia University
Noah Rosenblum
New York University
Rachel Rothschild
University of Michigan
Michael Saks
Arizona State University
Catherine Sharkey
New York University
Sarah Swan
Rutgers University
Wendy Wagner
University of Texas
Bradley Wendel
Cornell University
Maggie Wittlin Fordham University
Benjamin Zipursky Fordham University
2023
New Torts?
2022
Litigating the Public Good: Punishing Serious Corporate Misconduct
2021
Civil Litigation in a Post-COVID World
2020
The Opioid Crisis: Where Do We Go from Here?
2019
Rising Stars: A New Generation of Legal Scholars Looks at Civil Justice
2018
Patient Safety: How Might the Law Help
2017
The Impact of Dark Money on Judicial Elections and Behavior
2016
Privacy, Data Theft and Corporate Responsibility
2015
The Supreme Court, Business and Civil Justice
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.
2014
In Honor of Jack Weinstein
2013
Brave New World: The Changing Face of Litigation and Law Firm Finance
2012
A Celebration of the Thought of Marc Galanter
2011
Festschrift for Robert Rabin
2010
The Limits of Predictability and the Value of Uncertainty
2009
Rising Stars: A New Generation of Scholars Looks at Civil Justice
2008
The Challenge of 2020: Preparing a Civil Justice Reform Agenda for the Coming Decade
2007
Distortions in the Attorney/Client Relationship: Threats to Sound Advice?
2006
Is the Rule of Law Waning in America?
2005
Who Feels Their Pain? The Challenge of Non-Economic Damages in Civil Litigation
2004
Starting Over: Redesigning the Medical Malpractice System
2003
After Disaster: The September 11th Compensation Fund and the Future of Civil Justice
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
1999
Judges as Tort Lawmakers
1998
The American Civil Jury: Illusion and Reality
1997
Contingent Fee Financing of Litigation in America
1996
Tort Law and the Science of the Twenty-First Century
1995
ADR and Torts: Implications for Practice and Reform
Register for this free CLE event by June 6 at 2024Clifford.eventbrite.com.
There is a room cap of 100 in-person attendees, and online participants will receive a link to view the presentation from InReach just ahead of the event.
No proof of vaccination is required of guests and masks are optional.
You may be asked to show your ID while on campus. We know your time is valuable, and we appreciate your patience and cooperation.
DePaul University College of Law is an accredited Illinois MCLE provider. This program has been approved for up to 10.5 hours of general CLE credit hours, which includes 2 hours of ethics credits for Panel IV.
• DAY 1: Up to 6.5 credits
• DAY 2: Up to 4.0 credits
Details from George Grosz, The Pillars of Society, 1926. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin, Germany)