Winter 2012, Ripped from the Headlines

     

    Litigation & Trials

    Ripped from the Headlines: GyneTech Scandals Send Stock into Free Fall

    Stephanie Kane

    Ten Lawyers Look at a Story that's Ripped from the Headlines. Rarely are trial lawyers privy to a bird's-eye view of all the facets of a complex case. This issue of Litigation offers precisely that. We asked experienced litigators to respond from the perspectives of fictional clients to a story that might have been ripped from the headlines of any major newspaper. The story starts with this piece on the Gynetech Scandals. We have ten insider views, plus that of a judge, packed with insight, strategy, and wisdom about everything from how to deal with a client one initially dislikes to the economics of signing on to what could be a financially ruinous case.

    Features

    Columns

    Headnotes

    Litigation & Trials

    E-Discovery: The Elusive Search for the Ideal Search

    William Hamilton

    The hunt for the ideal e-discovery search method has been a long, winding road. Search software now indexes, digests, organizes, and selects critical documents from the unimaginably large mountain range of electronically stored information (ESI). But has the steady conversion from tomes to gigabytes really taken us to the point where the search will lead to truth as quickly and cheaply as possible? Perhaps not yet. But we are getting closer.

    Civil Rights & Constitution

    Pleading: Twombly’s Seismic Disturbances

    Edward D. Cavanagh

    The Supreme Court’s decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), has had a seismic impact on federal civil litigation. We all thought the notice pleading concept introduced under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure had substantially eased the plaintiff’s burden at the pleading stage. The Supreme Court in Twombly said “yes, but,” and emphasized that notice pleading was never intended to dispense entirely with the need to plead facts demonstrating a right to relief. In short, facts matter: Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires a statement of circumstances, events, and occurrences in support of the claim presented.