Program Overview
Who Should Order
Attorneys, business executives, and consultants involved with class action litigation, and government officials involved with parallel investigations
Why You will Benefit from the Replay
This year the response to the Covid-19 pandemic permeates all of our daily lives. Class action litigation is no exception. Covid-related claims have been filed in virtually every topic area we will cover in this year's program. Even if you are not currently dealing with a Covid-related case, you will want to hear about the filing and legal theory trends.
At the same time, pre-Covid claims continue apace. At one time, U.S. Supreme Court decisions in cases such as AT&T v. Concepcion, Wal-Mart v. Dukes, and Comcast v. Behrend, caused many pundits to predict the demise of class actions. We are now finding that class actions remain a significant part of civil dockets in federal and state courts addressing issues of consumer protection, employment practices, the environment, and healthcare.
The number of filings is increasing in areas such as accessibility, privacy, and cybersecurity. Although many practitioners assume that class actions always settle before trial, there is a growing body of cases that have gone to trial after class certification, with some substantial verdicts that are now on appeal. For those cases that do settle, courts are taking a much closer look at settlement terms, including attorneys' fees, and in some cases rejecting class-wide settlements that the parties propose. And for those companies that include arbitration terms with class-action waivers in their contracts, plaintiffs, courts, and legislatures continue to address whether those terms are enforceable in consumer and employment disputes.
Program Co-chairs: Tom Boeder of Perkins Coie and Tim Fielden of Microsoft.
What You Will Learn
- 2020 case law trends, including carona virus-related filings
- Environmental class actions
- The opioid crisis and health care class actions
- RICO claims in class action federal lawsuits
- Class certification issues for human health impacts
- Privacy class actions
- The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act
- Employment class actions
- Arbitration clauses in consumer and employment class actions
- Settlement strategies
- Trials in class actions and post-trial motions
- Navigating the ethical rules in a class action world
What Participants Said
- "Very knowledgeable speakers."
- "Excellent program."
- "Very well run conference on cutting edge issues. Thanks for everything."
- "Impressive program and looking forward to next year."
Agenda Day 1
9:00 am
Pacific Standard Time | Introduction & Overview
Thomas L. Boeder, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Perkins Coie / Seattle, WA
Timothy G. Fielden, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair, Assistant General Counsel
Microsoft / Redmond, WA
Nicola Menaldo, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Perkins Coie / Seattle, WA
9:15 am
2020 Update on Case Law Trends
Piecing together the past year's major decisions from Article 3 standing to valuation of claims
Charles B. Casper, Esq.
Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads / Philadelphia, PA
10:30 am
Break
10:45 am
Environmental Class Actions
Behr Dayton Thermal Products v. Martin and other recent cases on certification of common issues; implications for certification of other toxic tort class actions including the surge in Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) cases
Barbara Mahoney, Esq.
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro / Seattle, WA
Eric L. Klein, Esq.
Beveridge & Diamond / Boston, MA
12:00 pm
Lunch (on your own)
1:15 pm
Health Care Class Actions: The Role of Class Actions as a Path to Recovery of Damages Related to the Opioid Crisis
State regulatory activity: Update on state-level consumer protection enforcement litigation and the interplay with local government, Tribal, and consumer class actions
Jeff Rupert, Esq.
, Chief, Complex Litigation Division
Washington Attorney General's Office / Seattle, WA
Update on the negotiation class mechanism certified by federal Judge Polster in the Opioid MDL
Paulina do Amaral, Esq.
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein / New York, NY
Case study of the RICO claims in class action federal lawsuits filed on behalf of Alaska Native Communities and in individual suits on behalf of Washington Tribes: Issues to be resolved and the relationship to other forms of Opioid litigation
Dan Drachler, Esq.
Zwerling Schachter / Seattle, WA
Class certification issues for human health impacts vs. financial impacts on government entities
Derek W. Loeser, Esq.
Keller Rohrback / Seattle, WA
3:15 pm
Break
3:30 pm
Privacy Class Actions
New developments for claims arising from data breaches, Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) violations, and the use of facial recognition
Eve-Lynn Rapp, Esq.
Edelson / San Francisco, CA
Robert E. Cattanach, Esq.
Dorsey & Whitney / Minneapolis, MN
Anticipating the broader impact of future state legislative actions: State-level trends including the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and its use against defendants located in other states
Nicola Menaldo, Esq.
, Program Co-Chair
Perkins Coie / Seattle, WA
5:00 pm
Continue the Exchange of Ideas: Virtual Reception for Faculty and Attendees
Gather in our Virtual Hotel Lobby space to connect with colleagues, meet new people, and talk about what is happening in your lives and in the western energy world
Friday, November 13, 2020
9:00 am
Navigating the Ethical Rules in a Class Action World
How to apply the Rules of Professional Conduct in class actions, with an emphasis on lessons from recent cases
Stephen M. Rummage, Esq.
Davis Wright Tremaine / Seattle, WA
10:00 am
Break
10:15 am
Employment Class Actions
Impact of the Me Too and equal pay movements
Toby Marshall, Esq.
Terrell Marshall Law Group / Seattle, WA
William Ben Stafford, Esq.
Perkins Coie / Seattle, WA
11:15 am
Arbitration Clauses in Consumer and Employment Class Actions
Potential impact of the legislation that recently passed the House
F. Paul Bland, Jr., Esq.
, Executive Director
Public Justice / Washington, DC
Rebecca J. Francis, Esq.
, Senior Attorney
Microsoft / Redmond, WA
12:15 pm
Lunch (on your own)
1:30 pm
Trials in Class Actions and Post-Trial Motions
Considerations for motions and filings in class trials
Gretchen F. Cappio, Esq.
Keller Rohrback / Seattle, WA
Fred B. Burnside, Esq.
Davis Wright Tremaine / Seattle, WA
2:45 pm
Break
3:00 pm
Settlement Strategies
Current best practices for designing a settlement that the courts will approve and effectively administering settlements once approved
The Hon. S. James Otero, Esq.
, Judge (ret.)
JAMS / Los Angeles, CA
Darrell L. Cochran, Esq.
Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala / Tacoma, WA
Gretchen F. Cappio, Esq.
Keller Rohrback / Seattle, WA
Emily Brubaker Harris, Esq.
Corr Cronin / Seattle, WA
Kim D. Stephens, Esq.
Tousley Brain Stephens / Seattle, WA
4:30 pm
Evaluations and Adjourn
Faculty Bios
Thomas L. Boeder,
Program Co-Chair, is a partner at Perkins Coie. He is a former Chief of Antitrust, Consumer Protection and Criminal Law Enforcement in the Washington State Attorney General's Office.
Timothy G. Fielden,
Program Co-Chair, is Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft where he focuses on class action litigation.
Nicola Menaldo
is of counsel to Perkins Coie. She defends technology companies on issues including privacy and data security, marketing, biometrics, scraping and web crawling, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
The Hon. S. James Otero,
Moderator, joined JAMS after serving for 30 years as a federal and state court judge in Los Angeles.
F. Paul Bland, Jr.
is the Executive Director of Public Justice. He manages and leads Public Justice's legal and foundation staff, guiding the organization's litigation docket and other advocacy.
Fred B. Burnside
is co-chair of Davis Wright Tremaine's class action defense group. He also serves as co-chair of the ABA's Annual National Institute on Class Actions.
Gretchen F. Cappio
is a partner at Keller Rohrback. She has a passion for striving for meaningful change through the class action device.
Charles B. Casper
is chair of the Class Action Defense Practice at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads.
Robert E. Cattanach
is a partner at Dorsey & Whitney. He represents clients on matters of cybersecurity, privacy, and information governance.
Darrell L. Cochran
is a partner at Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala. He has won a significant number of multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements for his clients.
Paulina do Amaral
is a partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and a senior member of the firm's Mass Tort and Injury Practice Team. Her current work includes national prescription opiate litigation.
Dan Drachler
is of counsel to Zwerling Schachter. He concentrates in the areas of antitrust, consumer and securities class action litigation.
Rebecca J. Francis
is a senior attorney at Microsoft. Her expertise includes complex civil litigation with an emphasis on consumer class action defense and healthcare litigation.
Emily Brubaker Harris
is the managing partner for Corr Cronin. In addition to class action defense, she is also one of the lead attorneys pursuing wrongful death claims arising from the 2014 Oso Landslide.
Eric L. Klein,
Beveridge & Diamond, represents major companies and municipalities in environmental and mass torts, class actions, and federal citizen suits under environmental statutes.
Derek W. Loeser,
Keller Rohrback, represents state and local government entities in ongoing cases against opioid manufacturers.
Barbara Mahoney
is a partner at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro where she prepresents plaintiffs in complex class-action cases.
Toby Marshall
is a founding member of Terrell Marshall Law Group, where he represents plaintiffs in class actions, collective actions, and other complex litigation.
Eve-Lynn Rapp
is a partner at Edelson. She devotes a considerable amount of her practice to consumer technology cases, consumer fraud cases, and privacy lawsuits.
Stephen M. Rummage
is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine. He represents class action clients from a broad variety of industries.
Jeff Rupert
is Chief of the Complex Litigation Division at the Washington Attorney General's Office. He previously served as a Team Leader in the Consumer Protection Division.
William Ben Stafford
is a partner at Perkins Coie. He has extensive experience defending complex wage-and-hour class action cases.
Kim D. Stephens
is a member of Tousley Brain Stephens. In addition to his private class action practice, he has been appointed special attorney general for Washington State and lead counsel to manage both state and federal, multi-district class actions.
Continuing Education Credits
Live credits: This program qualifies for 11.75 (inc 1 ethics) WA and 12.0 (inc 1 ethics) CA MCLE credits. Upon request, we will help you apply for CLE credits in other states and other types of credits.
Ordering
Pricing
Audio podcasts and video replays, with course materials, are available for download or on a flash drive at the same price as live attendance. The course materials alone are available for $100. Replays will be available within five business days after the program or from the date we receive payment.
Cancellation
There is a $25 cancellation fee
Purchase a Replay
The web link option allows you to stream or download. The flash drive option includes both audio and video files. Both include materials.