Agenda - 20th Annual Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues

Session II: Judicial Gatekeeping of Expert Testimony: Discretionary or Mandatory? Sua Sponte Duty or Party Presentation Principle?

Nathan D. Finch, Member, Motley Rice LLC

Zachary W. Martin, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates

Douglas J. McNamara, Partner, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC

Lee Mickus, Partner, Evans Fears Schuttert McNulty Mickus

Shannon N. Proctor, Partner, Hollingsworth LLP

Moderator: Brock A. Swartzle, Judge, Michigan Court of Appeals

Panelist Provided Readings*:
Lee Mickus, Amended Rule 702 in 2025: Circuit Courts Embrace the Changed Standard, 40 No. 12 Legal Backgrounder 1 (Wash. Legal Found. Oct. 8, 2025).

Session III: When Litigation Tactics Rise to Legal Wrongs: The Viability of Offensive Actions Through Civil RICO, Defamation, and Other “Defendant”-Initiated Claims

Daniel Johnston, Supervising Partner, The Willis Law Group

Matthew Laroche, Partner, Milbank LLP

Eric G. Lasker, Partner,
Hollingsworth LLP

Cary Silverman, Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Moderator: Kenny Griffis, Justice, Supreme Court of Mississippi

Panelist Provided Readings*:
American Tort Reform Association, Turning the Tables? The Growing Use of Civil RICO Actions by Businesses and Insurers to Respond to Suspected Fraudulent Litigation (Oct. 2026).

Working Lunch and Session IV: New Developments in Third Party Litigation Funding

Mark A. Behrens, Co-Chair, Public Policy Practice Group, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Lina Bensman, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Maria Glover, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Dai Wai Chin Feman, U.S. Chapter Chair, International Legal Finance Association

Moderator: William G. Montgomery, Justice, Supreme Court of Arizona

Panelist Provided Readings*:
Mark A. Behrens, Third-Party Litigation Funding: A Call for Disclosure and Other Reforms to Address the Stealthy Financial Product That Is Transforming the Civil Justice System, 34 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 1 (2025).

Justin Henry, Private Equity Woos Personal Injury Law Firms With Profits, Tech, Bloomberg L.: Bus. & Prac. (May 26, 2026 at 5:00 am EDT).

J. Maria Glover, The Civil Justice Business, 101 N.Y.U. L. REV. (forthcoming Jan. 2027).

Letter from Kevin R. Dean, President, S.C. Ass'n for Just., to the Hon. JJ. of the S.C. (Sept. 28, 2026).

James Hivner, Public Comment, Potential Regulatory Reforms to Increase Access to Quality Legal Representation, No. ADM2025-01403, at 1 Tenn. (Apr. 30, 2026).

Session V: The Growing Targets and Expanding Theories in Public Nuisance Litigation: Social Media, Energy, Food, Plastics, Schools, and More

J. Shahar Dillbary, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

Phil Goldberg, Managing Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Cyrus Mehri, Partner, Mehri & Skalet, PLLC

Paul W. Schmidt, Partner, Covington & Burling LLP

Previn Warren, Member, Motley Rice LLC

Moderator: Wendy Berger, Judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Panelist Provided Readings*:
J. Shahar Dillbary, Griffin Edwards & Fredrick E. Vars, Why Exempting Negligent Doctors May Reduce Suicide: An Empirical Analysis, 93 Ind. L. J. 458–61, 464–70 (2018).

J. Shahar Dillbary, Griffin Edwards & Fredrick E. Vars, Why Exempting Negligent Doctors May Reduce Suicide: An Empirical Analysis, 93 Ind. L. J. 458 (2018) (Entire Article).

Session VI: Artificial Intelligence and the Courts: A Potpourri

Nathan D. Finch, Member, Motley Rice LLC

Jack Kieffaber, Chief Counsel, The Arbitrus Corporation

John Rosenthal, Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Paige H. Sharpe, Partner, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

Rudie R. Soileau Jr., Partner, Lundy LLP

Kaitlyn E. Stone, Partner, Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Moderator: Shawn A. Womack, Justice, Supreme Court of Arkansas

Panelist Provided Readings*:
Kaustuv Basu & Emily R. Siegel, AI Is Disrupting Mass Torts With the Promise of Lower Costs, Bloomberg L.: Bus. & Prac. (Feb. 17, 2026, at 5:05 EST).

Session VII: Personal Jurisdiction: Its Limits and Purposes, and Recent Cases and Controversies

Deepak Gupta, Founding Principal, Gupta Wessler LLP

Ashley Keller, Senior Partner,
Keller Postman LLC

Dan Klerman, Edward G. Lewis Chair in Law and History, and Director, Center of Law & Social Science (CLASS), University of Southern California Gould School of Law

Jackie O'Brien, Associate, Bartlit Beck LLP

Jordan Schwartz, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Moderator: J. Philip Calabrese, Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio

Panelist Provided Readings*:
Daniel Klerman & Greg Reilly, Forum Selling, 89 S. Cal. L. Rev. 241 (2016).

James E. Pfander & Jackie O’Brien, Realism, Formalism, and Personal Jurisdiction: Due Process After Mallory and Ford Motor, 103 Tex. L. Rev. 65 (2024).

Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 143 S. Ct. 2028 (2023).

Daniel Klerman, Rethinking Personal Jurisdiction, 6 J. Legal Analysis 245 (2014).

Daniel Klerman & Alex Klerman, Forum Shopping and Judge Shopping: An Empirical Analysis of Immigration Policy Cases (forthcoming in J. Institutional & Theoretical Econ.).

Session IX: The Debate Over Alleged Remedy Inflation: Evaluating Phantom Damages, Social Inflation, Anchoring and Similar Approaches

Christopher E. Appel, Senior Counsel, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Lisa M. Bellino, Vice President, Claims, Judicial & Legislative Affairs, Zurich North America

Elizabeth Hanley, Senior Partner, Stritmatter Law

Zach Matthews, Partner, McMickle, Kurey & Branch

Caleb Seeley, Partner, Seeger Weiss LLP

Moderator: Lori S. Rowe, Judge, Florida Court of Appeal, First District

Panelist Provided Readings*:
Zach Matthews, Packet: Lien-Based Medical Care & Trial Transcript Excerpts from Manire v. Crabapple Turf Management, Inc. (2026).