Proposed Seminar

This course examines issues at the cutting edge of civil litigation in the United States. Each week, students will engage with a new topic in civil procedure, complex litigation, federal courts, or related subjects that has impacted legal practice in recent years. Assigned materials are drawn from a range of sources, including court documents, news articles, blog posts, and other scholarly commentary.

If the seminar were running in Fall 2025, it would cover topics such as:

  • Discovery and other transparency mechanisms related to litigation financing.
  • Due process limitations on personal jurisdiction under the Fifth Amendment and the Supreme Court's June 2025 ruling in Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization.
  • Generative AI and emerging certification and sanctions practices at the local level.
  • The prospects for injunctive class actions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2) and "nationwide vacatur" under the Administrative Procedures Act in light of the Court's June 2025 ruling in Trump v. CASA.

One or two weeks on the syllabus will also be set aside to accommodate relevant developments during the semester, with scheduling adjusted as needed.

Grading will be based on a combination of regular participation, a blog post, and a final paper. For the blog post, students will be (to the greatest extent possible) evenly distributed across the weeks of the semester. The students assigned for a given week will be asked to write 1000-1500 words commenting on that week’s readings and then they will be responsible for introducing the topic in class that week. For the final paper, students will write on a civil litigation topic of their choosing—either one covered during the semester or one identified outside class and approved by the instructor. The final paper should be a piece of persuasive writing that: 1) informs readers about the development; 2) explains why the development is significant; 3) critiques or defends the development, taking into account other relevant practices, policies, and legal rules; and 4) offers a short proposal for future action. This seminar will be particularly well-suited to those looking to begin work on their student note.