Yearly Archives: 2017

A Prescription for Overcoming Gender Inequity in Complex Litigation: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Dec 11, 2017 Suzette M. Malveaux1 comment

If ever there was a right time to discuss gender inequity in the legal profession, it is now. With a daily deluge of examples of how women are objectified, degraded, and undervalued in the workplace, Brooke Coleman’s A Legal Fempire?: Women in Complex Civil Litigation comes at a perfect time. It is a welcome and timely exposé of how a slice of the legal profession—the Multi-District Litigation (MDL) world—illustrates the acute and ongoing systemic problem of gender inequity and the modest progress that has been made over time to address it. Coleman does an excellent job of shining a light on this serious contemporary issue without sugarcoating or whitewashing it, while simultaneously crediting the Gender Bias Task Force movement for its historical contributions and making proposals for going forward.

Coleman’s article was an easy pick as a work I loved reading and one I highly recommend to law teachers, law students, and the legal profession in general. Her work reaches into many corners—complex litigation, feminism, employment law, ethics, social science—and is accessible in its content and tenor. She navigates the topic of gender inequity in the legal profession with both sensitivity and unapologetic dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. In sum, Coleman’s article should be required reading for 1Ls today, as a part of the prescription for attacking gender inequity in the legal profession.

Coleman’s article mines data collected from Gender Bias Task Forces, which were created in the 1980s by the National Organization for Women and the National Association of Women Judges to examine gender discrimination in the legal profession. Coleman takes a sample from more than forty available studies, choosing a slice that cuts across state and federal courts, representing seven states and two federal circuits. My only critique is that I wish the article could have covered even more.

To Coleman’s credit, she recognizes upfront that her work focuses on an elite, privileged few and that the data and analysis upon which she relies is in many ways under-inclusive. She concedes that much of this limitation was by design—with task-force leaders choosing essentialism over recognizing intersectionality—and that her work, while valuable, perpetuates this flaw to some degree. With this insightful confession behind her, the article goes on to make an invaluable contribution.

Although the Gender Bias Task Force studies varied in approach and scope, they all spotlighted two attributes in the legal profession: (1) acute female underrepresentation and (2) “rampant sexism.”

Despite an inspiring history of female “firsts,” the Gender Bias Task Forces revealed a significant female gap up to the mid-1990s, when their work primarily ended. Twenty years later, the statistics paint a similarly bleak picture. While women comprise almost half of law students today, women are woefully underrepresented in the most powerful and elite positions of the legal profession. Women make up only a quarter of federal and state judges, and 21% of law firm partners. Those who do make partner earn only 44% of what their male counterparts earn. Female lawyers are also tracked into lower-income practice areas. Although women make up 40% of law professorships, they hold only 28% of deanships. These numbers are even direr for women of color. Although they comprise 20% of the population, they make up only 8% of state and federal judges, less than 3% of all law firm partners, 7% of tenure/tenure-track professorships, and 8% of deanships.

Of course, the numbers tell only one part of the story. Not only is the legal profession dominated by men, it is rife with boorish and sexist conduct toward its female members. The Gender Bias Task Force studies “generally found … women lawyers often suffered gross discrimination, and female parties and staff were regularly mistreated on the basis of gender.” The extent to which this remains the case is unclear. However, if the current #MeToo movement is any indicator of the American workplace climate overall, there is much about which to be concerned. The fact that this movement has spread like wildfire across industries as varied as entertainment, politics, media, and professional athletics suggests that gender discrimination is systemic and endemic.

Coleman does a deft job of recognizing the positive contributions of the Gender Bias Task Force movement, identifying its shortcomings, and building from this base with proposals of her own. She tips her hat to the pioneers of the movement, highlighting their positive recommendations for change, including gender bias and civility educational programs for judges, law students, and lawyers; changes to the rules of professional conduct; recruitment efforts for female lawyers and judges; judicial election and appointment process reforms and training; and standardization of judicial qualifications. Coleman hits the nail on the head, however, in asking where we are twenty years after the efforts of the Task Forces largely subsided. With over half of all law students being female since 1996, what does the legal profession have to show for this equalization?

Coleman cleverly selects the world of complex civil litigation, specifically MDL, to illustrate the ubiquity of gender inequity in the legal profession. This exemplar is a microcosm of the larger endemic problem of discrimination against female lawyers and judges.

Not surprisingly, the history of multi-district litigation is one of gender exclusion with respect to (1) the judges appointed by the Chief Justice to serve on the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, (2) the judges chosen by the panel as transferee judges in MDL cases, and (3) the lawyers selected as plaintiffs’ lead counsel in MDL cases. In 1968, the first MDL panel was comprised of seven white men. The first white woman was appointed to the panel in 2000. Slowly, more were added: one in 2004, one in 2010, and then four more by 2014. Over the almost fifty years of the MDL panel’s existence, there have been fifty judges appointed to the panel, only seven of them women. There has never been a woman of color appointed to the panel, although they represent 27% of the federal bench. Today, for the first time in its history, there is a majority of women on the panel, including a female chair. While there has been progress, Coleman rightly concludes that “[t]he lack of racial diversity and the paucity of women on the [MDL panel] is quite discouraging.”

The same is true for the selection of transferee judges. While 33% of active federal district court judges are women, they represent only 25% of transferee judges. Not surprisingly, the lawyers selected by those transferee judges as lead counsel are primarily white men. Women comprised only 16% of the MDL leadership appointments from 2011 to 2015, although that figure has increased to over 27%. Even those women selected for MDL leadership are stratified in lower-level leadership positions.

One of the insidious problems of diversifying multi-district litigation is the pipeline problem. To be considered for the MDL panel and as transferee judges, women must be federal judges. Yet presidents—particularly Republican administrations—have been stingy in appointing women to the bench. Almost 20% of President George H. W. Bush’s judicial appointees were women, while 22% of George W. Bush’s were women. President Bill Clinton was the first president to exceed 20% women with his nominees, at 28%. President Barack Obama appointed more women to the bench during his first five years in office than Presidents Reagan, H.W. Bush, and W. Bush combined; 42% of his nominees in eight years were women. Trump’s legacy has yet to be determined, but Coleman suggests that if his Cabinet appointments are any hint, the number of women nominees will wane.

Not only does Coleman do an excellent job of illustrating the gender disparity in complex civil litigation, she also makes a compelling argument that the disparity should be eradicated. While this would seem to be an obvious normative conclusion, Coleman supports it with four distinct undeniable pillars. First, gender diversity is important because the best decision-making occurs when a group is heterogeneous. This is backed by scientific studies that demonstrate the harms of conformity and lack of dissent. Second, participation by women not only changes outcomes, but improves them. A nice example of this is the corporate literature that reveals a 66% increase in profits for Fortune 500 companies having the highest percentage of females on their boards of directors. Third, gender diversity in complex litigation legitimizes the legal system. Stakeholders’ meaningful participation in the legal system signals fairness in the process, which in turn engenders confidence in the outcomes. Fourth, because the legal system itself has created and perpetuated subordination of women, it has a duty to correct it. This is only fair, especially for an institution that purports to promote justice as its job.

Finally, Coleman builds on the work of her Gender Bias Task Force predecessors with her own prescriptive measures for the future. Coleman gives an appropriate shout-out to the pioneers, contextualizing their contributions and appreciating their progress. After this brush clearing, she sets forth her own proposals.

First and foremost, Coleman contends that it is time to rip off the Band-Aid and “confront base sexism and change social norms.” She sums up what has been dripping out of the news on the daily: “As the events of the past year and the results of the national election demonstrate, there is a foundational sexism and misogyny that underlies our culture.” Coleman’s examples are perfect, showcasing how appearance—including African-American women’s hair, Muslim women’s hijabs, and all women’s bodies—has been used to discredit women in the legal profession. There are no easy answers, but there are many answers: “[a]wareness, education, movements, and overt action by allies,” to name a few.

Second, Coleman emphasizes the importance of retaining and elevating women in the complex-litigation world. To rectify the pipeline problem, law firms must do a better job of hiring, mentoring, and promoting women through the ranks. White women and women of color are leaving law firms in droves because of structural and cultural barriers built into the law firm environment that replicate white male control and success.

Third, Coleman suggests that MDL practices be restructured to address the gender inequity in plaintiffs’ leadership committees and in selection of MDL transferee judges. Coleman recommends that MDL judges move away from using slates of repeat players and instead affirmatively consider diversity in their leadership appointments. She also recommends that MDL panels dole out the opportunity of serving as a transferee judge to rookies, so as to open up the pipeline.

Finally, Coleman closes with the sobering observation that overcoming gender inequity in the legal profession is daunting, but worth it. I wholeheartedly agree, and suggest that we start by reading her important and timely article.

In Search of a Parsimonious Model of Personal Jurisdiction

Nov 27, 2017 Roger M. MichalskiAdd a Comment

Parsimony is a vital concept in empirical scholarship. It holds that a simple model that explains things is preferable to a more complex model that explains just as much. The ideal model achieves a desired level of explanation with as few predictors and as little complexity as possible. For example, a regression model with three independent variables that explains a given amount of variance is preferable to a regression model with nine independent variables that does not explain more (or not sufficiently more). The key insight is that complexity is not always desirable or always undesirable; it must be justified by the amount of extra explanatory power that it purchases.

The concept of parsimony can help us make sense of the morass that is personal jurisdiction doctrine and scholarship. The Supreme Court continues to provide a fluctuating cast of more or fewer rules and caveats. Personal jurisdiction doctrine is, to a significant degree, the discursive practice of strengthening or adjusting a few core rules (e.g., Shaffer v. Heitner) or expanding, preserving, and creating caveat categories (e.g., Burnham v. Superior Court). Legal scholars debate whether we should account for new phenomena (e.g., Internet commerce) by adjusting existing categories or creating entirely new caveats and tests. The notion of parsimony offers tools to puzzle through such choices. It reminds us that we cannot simply insist that the creation of new doctrinal categories would be a better fit for new realities. Similarly, we cannot reject innovations simply because they would add complexity. Instead, the cost of doctrinal complexity must be justified by the benefit of a sufficiently better normative fit.

William Dodge and Scott Dodson’s forthcoming Personal Jurisdiction and Aliens does just that. It argues for a broadened national-contacts test for alien defendants. Under this test, the alienage status of a defendant breaks the shackles of a state-by-state contacts analysis. Instead, courts would consider the defendant’s contacts with the whole nation for state and federal causes of action in state and federal courts. This doctrinal innovation would add complexity by explicitly bifurcating (to some extent) the personal jurisdiction analysis based on the domestic or alienage status of the defendant. Is this added complexity justified?

Dodge and Dodson begin their answer to that question by relativizing the charge of added complexity. A national-contacts caveat for aliens would not add significant complexity to current doctrine because, though facially neutral, it already treats alien defendants differently from local defendants in important ways. The reasonableness prong of the minimum contacts analysis and the modern articulation of general jurisdiction make it increasingly difficult to establish personal jurisdiction over foreign defendants. Courts in practice rarely use the reasonableness prong of modern minimum contacts to protect domestic defendants. Instead, this prong is mostly reserved to dismiss suits against foreign defendants. Similarly, while general-jurisdiction doctrine does not mention foreign defendants, they are typically not treated as “at home” in any U.S. jurisdiction. General jurisdiction serves as a fallback option for domestic defendants—at least one state will be able to hear a suit involving a domestic defendant. But because foreign defendants are not “at home” in any U.S. jurisdiction, they can do business with many or all U.S. states but still be immune from general jurisdiction in all of them. Unitary personal jurisdiction doctrine thus hides complexity in application—the doctrine already minds differences between domestic and foreign defendants with the net effect that foreign defendants can more easily escape the reach of U.S. courts than domestic defendants.

Beyond explaining that their proposal would not add much complexity, Dodge and Dodson justify any added complexity by arguing that a national-contacts test for alien defendants is a good doctrinal and normative fit. One key notion that animates much of the argument here is that “once [alien defendants’] contacts justify suit somewhere in the United States, they ought not care exactly where.” Foreign defendants typically do not want to be sued in U.S. courts. But if unavoidable, they care far less about whether to incur that burden in Nebraska or South Dakota. If foreign defendants think of the market, the forum, and the burdens as national, then courts do not impose unfairness by using a national test that sums contacts across states. This also avoids the incentives potential foreign defendants have to structure their substantial U.S. business dealings in a diffuse manner spread across numerous states to become immune to suit in all of these states.

Dodge and Dodson contend that a national-contacts test for alien defendants respects the sovereignty interests of each state and the accompanying limitations on the sovereignty of all other states. Treating alien defendants differently from domestic defendants does not upset the implied federal balance among the states. Alien defendants frequently do not have a special relationship with a state that could be impinged upon by the assertion of personal jurisdiction in sister-state courts. Dodge and Dodson further argue that treating alien defendants differently is consistent with recent Supreme Court thinking and would provide a stronger foundation for building broad and stable coalitions on the Court.

They conclude by arguing that existing protections temper the abuse of a national-contacts analysis for alien defendants. Foreign defendants utilize specific-jurisdiction’s reasonableness factors to challenge the exercise of personal jurisdiction based on the unique burdens foreign litigants sometimes face; these factors continue as a safeguard under a national-contacts test. Similarly, federal venue and transfer statutes, as well as forum non conveniens (among other practical tools), can mitigate excessive litigation burdens on alien defendants.

The power of Personal Jurisdiction and Aliens does not derive from complete originality—others have considered ways to incorporate alien defendants into general jurisdiction doctrine, in federal courts, for federal claims, etc. Instead, Dodge and Dodson’s article shines in two ways.

First, it is timely. Many of the Supreme Court’s recent personal-jurisdiction cases have involved foreign defendants, and alien defendants likely will continue to attract significant judicial attention, generating thorny and consequential doctrinal puzzles and confusions. Second, the article is elegant and thorough. Balancing complexity and fit is a delicate exercise. Dodge and Dodson illustrate how to do it well, even though some readers might strike a different balance or would prefer to purchase complexity elsewhere in the personal-jurisdiction landscape.

This article provides a helpful model for a new wave of scholarship just over the horizon that will grapple with the reach and effects of cases like J. McIntyre Machinery v. Nicastro and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, San Francisco County and propose new and hopefully parsimonious accounts of personal jurisdiction in a changing world.

Precedent, Preclusion, and Participation

Nov 13, 2017 Robin J. Effron2 comments

Preclusion and precedent restrict the permissible range of actions in future litigation. Preclusion bars parties from relitigating claims or issues that have already been adjudicated in a prior action in which the litigant was present. Precedent binds all courts and parties within a relevant jurisdiction to a particular rule or holding if the decision emerged from a court with binding authority. Alan Trammell’s new article undertakes a fresh examination of the tension between these two doctrines: why are future parties bound by precedent and stare decisis regardless of their presence in a prior action, when preclusion doctrines demand prior party presence and jealously guard an absent party’s right to a day in court?

Trammell’s take is that preclusion and precedent embody two different theories of due process. Preclusion protects a “participation-oriented theory,” in which courts are focused on guarding a party’s due process right to a “day in court.” Precedent protects an “outcome-oriented theory,” in which due process bolsters decisional accuracy and protects litigants’ rights to a stable and predictable legal environment.

Trammell frames his article around the problem of serial litigation. As a general matter, parties are not permitted to relitigate claims or issues that have already been litigated. Litigants can circumvent this bar by having a non-party to a first lawsuit bring a second action. In some cases, this has the effect of giving relief to the first party, particularly when the remedy sought is of an equitable nature and all similarly situated persons will benefit from the relief granted to the second-comer. Courts have struggled to articulate workable doctrines that do not bind absent parties to decisions in which they had no ability to argue or influence the outcome, but that also protect defendants from potentially vexatious repeat litigation.

Framing the preclusion/precedent problem as one that is primarily concerned with solving the problem of serial litigation emphasizes the disconnect between the two doctrines and allows Trammell to suggest that any plausible solution must account for a deeper understanding and application of the due process theories that underpin each doctrine, theories directed toward addressing serial litigation. It might be, however, that these doctrines do not fit neatly within the framework of problematic serial litigation. For example, one traditional justification for limiting the preclusive effect of judgments to parties while allowing precedential effect on all future parties is that each doctrine is directed at different classes of actors. The effect of preclusion is to bar future litigants from bringing a claim or relitigating an issue. But precedent does not bind parties directly, per se; rather, it binds future decision makers. Judges are bound by precedent, while parties retain more freedom. Future parties are constrained in their ability to achieve a desired outcome within the molding of existing precedent to which judges must adhere, but they are not barred from bringing the claims in the first place. This framing accounts for the fact that precedent is meant to address more than the problems that arise from serial litigation.

One of Trammell’s main contributions is to demonstrate the gap between theory and reality in this distinction. He urges the reader to look at the reality of the paralyzing and crushing weight of precedent, which becomes a de facto regulator of non-party lawsuits, justified by a due process theory inconsistent with that behind preclusion doctrines. Recognizing two distinct theories of due process better explains the doctrinal conundrum because they reflect the actual effects of each doctrine rather than the theoretical differences in scope. This observation also allows Trammell to advance a normative argument. Looking at each due process theory, he offers a convincing argument that the outcome-oriented theory of precedent is much more consistent with due process theories underlying other doctrines both in civil procedure and in the wider legal context. Applying the outcome-oriented theory to preclusion doctrines would enable courts to relax further the prohibitions on barring non-parties from effectively relitigating settled issues or claims in new lawsuits.

Trammell sees the outcome-oriented theory as dominant and the participation-oriented theory as “anomalous.” Although he makes a convincing case for the dominance of the former, he may be giving short shrift to the latter. While the participation-oriented theory is certainly less prominent, it is a stretch to characterize it as anomalous. Class actions represent the biggest example of the Supreme Court’s concern for the “day in court” theory of due process. The Court has repeatedly issued decisions celebrating the right of each current or potential class member to have his or her personal day in court. Many of the class-action structures, from notice to certification to settlement, are designed to ensure that no party is “absent” before it is bound by a settlement or judgment. Trammell’s intuition might be right to show that these decisions value a participation that is largely illusory. Beyond the fact that only a tiny fraction of absent class members will meaningfully object to or opt out of a class action, the “day in court” decisions rest on a participation theory, but result in less participation in practice. After all, many of the decisions that protect absent class members have the practical effect of weakening the class-action mechanism itself. And since many of these actions are made up of negative expected value claims, the upshot of the Court’s concern about individual participation is to reduce court access altogether.

While the participation-oriented theory might not be a true due process outlier, Trammell is correct to suggest the concern for “participation” might be another outcome-oriented theory. Trammell ends his article with a call for “leveling down,” using the outcome-oriented theory to justify an expansion of non-party preclusion. While this is an appealing doctrinal solution to the problem of serial litigation, class-action jurisprudence shows that courts might be too beholden to the participation-oriented theory in the minority of contexts where it exists—so much so that they will preserve the appearance of participation even when their decisions have quite the opposite effect.

Sequential Progression of Dispute Resolution in Federal Courts

Oct 30, 2017 Allan ErbsenAdd a Comment

An elegant logic seems to animate the intricate mechanics of civil procedure. To determine whether a requested remedy is appropriate, courts must identify the scope of a dispute, consider whether the law provides a potential basis for judicial action, resolve factual disagreements, apply the law to the facts, and reexamine that application when necessary. These abstract requirements manifest as an ostensibly sequential process of pleading, discovery, trial, and appeal, interspersed with dispositive motions.

In theory, each sequential stage of litigation incorporates data developed in prior stages, enabling courts to make progressively more informed decisions. Although a stage analyzed in isolation may appear to involve disjointed maneuvering, a broader choreography unites and structures all stages of a civil action. But what happens if the choreography unravels, jumbling the order of adjudication?

Alexandra Lahav’s new article, Procedural Design, challenges tidy sequential accounts of civil adjudication. The article builds from an empirical observation to a normative conclusion. Empirically, Lahav observes that civil litigation in federal courts does not follow the “textbook” sequential progression that commentators often assume. Instead, “a federal lawsuit may proceed in almost any order” (emphasis in original). She then contends that this departure from presumed ideals requires rulemakers to articulate guiding principles for the progression of adjudication. The article suggests three normative approaches, although one need not agree with Lahav’s typology of cures to accept her diagnosis.

The article’s empirical claim rests on analysis of five “doctrines of disintegration” that erode the customary sequence of litigation. Three of these doctrines entail consideration of facts prior to discovery. For example, motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim invite speculation about the plausibility of factual allegations and in complex cases can address factually detailed Lone Pine filings. Likewise, class certification motions can lead to “a full blown trial at the commencement of litigation” on an incomplete yet functionally dispositive record. Even summary judgment motions, which seem to require significant fact development, are now often used to avoid discovery rather than as the culmination of discovery. The remaining two “disintegration” doctrines involve shifting legal inquiries away from the starting and ending points of a suit. Appeals are frequently available in the middle of a case rather than at the end, while inquiries into justiciability and jurisdiction can occur throughout a case rather than only at the beginning.

A theme unifying Lahav’s examples is that the role of individual procedural devices evolves over time while the underlying systemic design remains static. Doctrinal evolution has many causes, including revised theories about the desirability of competing ends and the feasibility of proffered means. Procedures that seem misguided or wasteful in one era can appear prudent and efficient in another. Indeed, a recurring catalyst for change is a perception that prior procedures excessively accommodated weak claims or disfavored claimants. This perception raised the bar for pleading and class certification and lowered the bar for summary judgment and interlocutory appellate review.

Whatever the reason for doctrinal evolution, modern usage eventually diverges so far from what was originally expected that a rule no longer fits comfortably within the space for which it was designed. As more time passes, the accumulation of changes across multiple rules increases the system’s drift from its original assumptions. No innovation is revolutionary on its own, but the aggregation of several innovations can challenge assumptions about the proper sequence of litigation.

Lahav contends that this “organized decay”—an evocative quote from Emily Dickinson—has gradually undermined procedural coherence for the past forty years. The consequences are pervasive because the transsubstantive aspiration of federal procedure enables new ideas to propagate across substantive boundaries. For example, there is a short road between holding that complex antitrust cases require relatively precise pleadings and extending the new rule to all civil actions. The consequences of travelling down that road might not be apparent to judges focused on immediate rather than systemic concerns. As Lahav notes, courts often implement “piecemeal reactions to the problems posed by the individual case” without “think[ing] about procedural design holistically.”

Lahav concludes by considering how a holistic approach to procedural design might address questions about sequencing. To test competing options, Lahav posits that a sound procedural regime must promote four goals: a “meaningful hearing,” “a fair chance of reaching the correct result,” “speed,” and making costs predictable while balancing costs against competing objectives. She then identifies three distinct approaches to sequencing and assesses each in light of the goals above.

First, rulemakers might attempt to restore the “textbook” order in which motions “are calibrated to the information available at the stage of the litigation in which they are brought.” This approach has both the benefits and costs of formality. The pretrial, trial, and appellate stages would coalesce in a way that is logically coherent and easily administered, yet potentially stifling and wasteful.

Second, at the opposite extreme, rulemakers could authorize “bespoke procedures.” Judges would tailor the sequence of motions to the perceived needs of a case without any effort to enforce a prescribed order. This system’s flexibility might be productive in some circumstances, but discretion could easily lead to uninformed, arbitrary, or inefficient decsionmaking.

Third, rulemakers could jettison transsubstantivity in favor of “subject specific procedure.” Just as common law courts in England applied distinct procedures to different writs, federal courts might develop unique procedures for different claims. Sequencing would vary depending on the type of claim being considered, but each sequence would be fixed (at least relative to the bespoke option). This hybrid of the textbook and bespoke approaches risks sharing the flaws of each: it may be both too flexible and too rigid. In addition, the administrative costs of creating and implementing myriad sets of rules—including concurrently in cases with multiple claims—might outweigh the marginal benefit of customization.

Lahav acknowledges that all three potential regimes in her typology have flaws. Her goal is not to identify an optimal approach to sequencing procedures, but to provide a framework for further study. She reveals a trend, raises concerns about its consequences, identifies categories of responses, articulates norms by which to test those responses, and provides a preliminary assessment of competing options.

The article raises numerous fascinating questions for scholars to consider. I will highlight three. First, to what extent have adventurous exercises in resequencing significantly altered outcomes in a material number of cases? The article focuses on identifying the theoretical implications of doctrinal changes and provides specific examples, but the practical scope of the problem is difficult to quantify. Second, did the “textbook” description of procedure describe an order that rulemakers never fully embraced? Concise textbook summaries of a complex procedural system inevitably gloss over nuances. Perhaps the conventional account of sequencing was always neater than the reality on the ground, such that modern departures are more incremental than they may seem. Third, is the problem that courts are departing from established norms, or that they are doing so in an ad hoc manner? The FRCP’s framers deliberately designed the rules to be pliant and entrusted them to a common law method of elaboration. The problems that Lahav identifies may be foreseeable consequences of how federal procedure develops, or a reason to rethink the rulemaking process.

Lahav’s rigorous and thoughtful article will be a rich source of insight for scholars addressing these and other questions about the design and implementation of procedural rules.

Enquiring Minds Want to Know: What Law Governs Forum Selection Clauses?

Oct 12, 2017 Linda S. Mullenix1 comment

I can think of no better person to answer the burning question, “What law governs forum selection clauses?” than the inestimable Symeon C. Symeonides, of conflict-of-laws fame. Symeonides has stepped into the breach to assist civil procedure and federal courts professors everywhere with an exhausting analysis of how to resolve the problems relating to applicable law as it applies to contractual forum selection clauses.

Some may remember that the Supreme Court in Atlantic Marine Construction Co., Inc. v. United States District Court for the Western District of Texas avoided (or evaded) this fundamental question. Instead, focusing on proper procedure, the Court held that a forum selection clause is appropriately enforced through a venue transfer motion under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a).

Having resolved this vexing procedural issue, the Court left unanswered an array of irksome foundational questions. In the final analysis the Court’s entire Atlantic Marine edifice was erected on the premise that the forum selection clause in that case was valid. In footnote 5, the Court simply noted that “[its] analysis presuppose[d] a contractually valid forum-selection clause.”

Atlantic Marine proceeds from a presupposition of validity, which invites the question of how to decide if a forum selection clause is, in fact, valid. At a minimum, three legitimate questions arise: (1) what body of law applies to evaluate the validity and enforceability of a forum selection clause? (2) what court should make that determination? and (3) when should that determination be made? The analysis is further complicated depending on whether or not the contract also contains a choice-of-law provision. A choice-of-law provision might point to the application of a law other than the law of the plaintiff’s chosen forum. In such cases, as a matter of first instance, does the plaintiff’s chosen forum apply its own law to determine the validity and enforceability of the clauses, or does the choice-of-law provision compel interpretation of validity and enforceability based on the contractual forum’s law? Does the answer to this question vary depending on whether the court’s authority is based on admiralty, federal question, or diversity jurisdiction? And, if the threshold dispute centers on the validity and enforceability of choice-of-law and forum selection clauses, why should another forum’s law govern these questions?

Symeonides leaps into this breach to discuss, evaluate, and propose answers to these questions. In methodical fashion, he takes the reader through a decision-tree analysis, categorizing various possibilities for the choice-of-law question. At the threshold, he suggests that cases need to be assessed based on whether the applicable-law question is litigated in the court designated by the forum selection clause or in another court, and whether a choice-of-law clause is included in the forum selection clause. He also emphasizes that courts ought to pay better attention to the distinction between the enforceability and interpretation of forum selection clauses. He writes: “Once interpretation is separated from enforceability, one can address with a clearer mind the question of what law should govern the enforceability of [forum selection] clauses.”

Symeonides then surveys three possible scenarios where the parties’ contract contains a forum selection clause: (1) actions filed in the court chosen by the forum selection clause, (2) actions filed in a court other than the one chosen by the forum selection clause where the contract does not also contain a choice-of-law clause, and (3) actions filed in a court other than the one chosen by the forum selection clause where the contract does also contain a choice-of-law clause. In discussing the third scenario, he reviews decisions where courts have applied forum law, applied the contract’s chosen law, or distinguished between enforceability and interpretation.

Following an exhaustive recitation of judicial decisions, Symeonides offers these summary conclusions. In scenario 1, courts apply the forum state’s internal law without any choice-of-law analysis. These courts apply forum law in interpreting and determining the enforceability of the clause. In scenario 2, courts apply forum-state law to determine whether the forum selection clause is enforceable. A few cases undertake a choice-of-law analysis, but only in interpreting the forum selection clause. In scenario 3, courts chiefly apply the forum state’s internal law to determine whether the forum selection clause is enforceable and apply the law chosen in the choice-of-law clause in interpreting the forum selection clause.

In assessing what courts have been doing with regard to the applicable-law quandary, Symeonides concludes that most American courts, in all three scenarios, demonstrate a bias for applying lex fori, or the “internal” law of the forum state. The vast majority of courts, he notes, apply the forum state’s internal law to determine whether a forum selection clause is enforceable, and more often than not, do so without conducting a choice-of-law inquiry. Noting this judicial preference for application of lex fori, Symeonides challenges the reader to consider whether this is a bad practice. He reviews the competing scholarly views either repudiating or defending this practice, with his own sympathies tending toward the lex fori approach.

As law professors appreciate, conducting a choice-of-law analysis is not for the faint-hearted. Judge Jack Weinstein is reputed to have once jokingly said that whenever he wanted parties to settle a case, he would call them into chambers and tell them that he wanted them to return to court with a choice-of-law analysis.

As the country’s preeminent conflicts scholar, Professor Symeonides has performed an extremely valuable task in systematically hacking through the Gordian knot of the applicable-law problem intertwined with forum selection clauses. Civil procedure professors, in teaching Atlantic Marine, now have a ready resource to address student enquiries: “So what law applies if we have to decide whether the forum selection clause is valid?” Brave professors may venture an explanation citing Symeonides, or otherwise send questioning students to this thoroughgoing article.