The conference, to be held on campus on October 15-16, 2026, is the fifth annual event addressing Complex Litigation Ethics. It will bring together luminaries in the field—judges, scholars, lawyers, and others—to discuss a cutting-edge topic that is of critical importance to our justice system.
Importance of the Topic
Data suggest about half of all cases filed in federal court are part of multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceedings or involve proposed class actions. Yet scant scholarly attention has been paid to the ways in which ethical rules should be adapted and applied to MDLs and class actions. The Complex Litigation Ethics Conference will address these important and timely issues.
About the Organizers
Professor Joshua P. Davis, a Research Professor at UC Law San Francisco (formerly Hastings) associated with its Center for Litigation and Courts, leads the organization of the conference. He collaborates with Professor Scott Dodson, the James Edgar Hervey Chair in Litigation, the Geoffrey C. Hazard Distinguished Professor of Law, and the founding Director of the Center for Litigation and Courts. Both have extensive academic knowledge and practical experience with complex-litigation ethics and in organizing academic conferences. Professor Davis is also the co-editor with Candice Enders, Julie Pollock, and Jessica Seigel of the first treatise on ethics on this topic, Class Actions and Other Complex Litigation: Ethics (Lexis Nexis 2026). Huntington National Bank co-sponsors the Conference. Organizational and directional authority, however, resides with Professors Davis and Dodson.
Toassistwithideasandtherecruitingofspeakers,theorganizershaveassembledadiverse, all-star Advisory Board for the conference composed of the following:
Hon. Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, District Judge, N.D. Cal.
Prof. Myriam Gilles, Cardozo Law School
Prof. Brad Wendel, Cornell Law School
Sarah Ray, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Eric Cramer, Chairman, Berger Montague PC
Nina Gliozzo, Associate, Girard Sharp LLP (and former Executive Symposium Editor of Hastings Law Journal)
