Message from the Chairs

Welcome to the Class Actions and Derivative Suits Committee: Your home for class action practice, on the web and in the ABA!

If your practice involves class actions or derivative suits, you have come to the right location. The Class Actions and Derivative Suits Committee is the place to be for practitioners looking to develop their skills and market their practices. Take a tour of our website and see the many opportunities for you to get involved today.

The Class Actions and Derivative Suits Committee provides a wealth of CLE programming focused on the issues of the day. Most recently, at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, our Committee sponsored a program entitled, Is this CAFA or Kafka? Multi-State Class Actions in a Time of Metamorphosis. In this unique three-act play setting, our panelists explored the impact of the Class Action Fairness Act on class action litigation, particularly on how to plead, pursue, and defend multi-state class action cases subject to CAFA’s expansion of diversity jurisdiction In the Fall we co-sponsored two regional programs entitled General Counsel Under Attack, in New York and Palo Alto, which considered the issues facing general counsel today, in a litigation roundtable format. Our next major upcoming events are a program we are co-sponsoring at the Section of Litigation Annual Conference on Friday, April 17th, 2008, entitled Shifting the Securities Law Paradigm, as well as the annual National Institute on Class Actions, taking place later this year.

In addition to our programming, the Committee publishes a range of resources for class action and derivative suits litigators. First, we publish a quarterly newsletter available to Committee members free of charge by mail and on our website. Second, we publish an annual Survey of State Class Action law, available for download by Section of Litigation members and for purchase by nonmembers from the ABA.

Beyond our CLE programs and publications, our Committee website serves as a resource for both the experienced and the novice class action litigator, with links to legislation and legislative history, case comments about recent decisions of interest, and articles and analysis regarding important developments affecting class action and derivative suit litigation. Finally, we host an interactive discussion board on our website where Committee members can exchange ideas and information.

We welcome submissions from Committee members for our publications and for programming ideas. If you have a case that you believe would be of interest, please submit a case commentary to our web editors, along with a non-copyrighted copy of the decision. Unsolicited submissions to our newsletter or website are also welcome. Please send articles, of 3000 words or less, to our newsletter editors.

As your Committee Chairs, we are always available to discuss new ideas. We welcome any and all suggestions for increasing participation and communication among Committee members. We look forward to hearing from many of you soon.

Amy Longo
Lynda Grant
Co-Chairs, Class Actions & Derivative Suits Committee