ILR Summit 2024 Agenda | U.S. Chamber of Commerce Great Hall
8:30 am |
Breakfast |
9:00 am |
Opening Remarks: Taking it to the Trial Bar Suzanne P. Clark, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce |
9:05 am |
All In: The New ILR and the Civil Justice Movement Stephen Waguespack, President, Institute for Legal Reform and Senior Vice President Federation, State and Local Advocacy U.S. Chamber of Commerce |
9:15 am |
High Stakes: The Rising Costs of the U.S. Tort System America’s tort costs continue to grow, raising the stakes for families and companies across the country. This panel will dive into the details of ILR’s latest tort costs study, discussing the headline results, how these costs are trending over time, and how businesses respond to an elevated tort cost environment. The conversation will then turn to how civil justice advocates can make these numbers resonate with consumers and policymakers, and how to build momentum for reform.
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9:45 am |
Cards on the Table: Plaintiffs’ Bar Priorities in the States The plaintiffs’ bar never stops pushing to expand liability in the states, and 2024 has been no different. A panel of state chamber leaders will discuss the emerging liability trends in their states—each of which features a powerful plaintiffs’ bar and a robust legal reform movement—with a focus on how the plaintiffs’ bar is seeking to advance liability-expanding legislation and what the civil justice community can do to stop them.
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10:15 am |
Showing Their Hand: Third-Party Litigation Funding, Transparency, and the Role of the Courts After years of exploiting the civil justice system for massive profits with virtually no oversight, there is growing momentum among courts, legislators, and regulators to establish transparency and safeguards for third-party litigation funding (TPLF). This panel will feature a conversation among highly respected academics and a veteran litigator about the impact, evolution, and problematic aspects of TPLF for plaintiffs, defendants, and the judiciary, as well as what judges and legislators should do to safeguard our courts and protect those who rely on them to be a fair forum to resolve disputes.
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10:45 am |
New to the Table: State Attorneys General-Elect Share Their Perspective State attorneys general play a critical role as chief law enforcement officers in their states. In this segment, Steve Marshall, Attorney General of the State of Alabama, will hold a conversation with JB McCuskey, Derek Brown, and Dave Sunday, the state attorneys general-elect of West Virginia, Utah, and Pennsylvania, respectively. The discussion will focus on what motivates an AG to run for office, what challenges and pressures this group sees ahead, and how the newly elected AGs will bring a new perspective to civil justice issues and the crucial relationship between business and the enforcement community.
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11:15 am |
Ante Up: Curbing the Rise of PRAs Private rights of action (PRAs) are wasteful, destructive – and increasingly common. Over the last few decades, the plaintiffs’ bar has fought to include private rights of action in a dizzying array of legislation, and all too often, they have succeeded. In this segment, Mark Brennan of Hogan Lovells will give a broad update on the accelerating rise of PRAs and will present tactical arguments that advocates can use to oppose them as they arise in legislative proposals.
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11:30 am |
Shuffling the Deck: Loper Bright, Jarkesy, and Turning Defensive Wins Into Offense The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decisions in Loper Bright and Jarkesy dealt a new hand to businesses targeted by over-zealous agency enforcement by putting an end to Chevron deference and reining in the use of administrative courts when civil penalties are at issue, respectively. This panel of seasoned litigators will explore how the business community should view these decisions and proactively apply them going forward.
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12:00 pm |
Lunch |
12:45 pm |
Winning Hand: Building a Civil Justice Movement in the UK In recent years, the UK has witnessed a perfect storm of litigation funders and plaintiffs’ firms setting up shop and driving a wave of collective actions and funded cases targeting U.S. and British businesses. Fair Civil Justice—a British legal reform organization founded late in 2022—is looking to curb that momentum and has already experienced remarkable success. This segment will feature an interview with Seema Kennedy, former Member of Parliament and current Executive Director of Fair Civil Justice, about the founding of FCJ, the UK’s litigation environment, and the successful tactics she has employed to stymie liability-expanding initiatives from the plaintiffs’ bar.
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1:05 pm |
Doubling Down: Advancing Legal Reform in Europe Mass litigation is surging in the EU as funders and plaintiffs’ lawyers work to exploit the bloc’s Representative Actions Directive and its corresponding collective redress laws among member states. While the legal reform community has made tremendous progress towards TPLF safeguards and has softened many of the worst aspects of national collective redress laws, much work remains to be done. This panel will explore the state of play in the EU heading into 2025, including the major litigation drivers, the real-world impacts on EU businesses, and how ILR is building a unique advocacy model in Brussels and the member states.
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1:30 pm |
Betting on the Future: AI and the Evolution of Tort Law Companies are pouring billions of dollars of investment into developing AI tools and new applications for them, and they have already become staples in some professions. With the inevitable spread of AI across more aspects of American life, targeting AI in litigation may soon become a major bet for the plaintiffs’ bar. This segment will feature how AI tools fit into the current framework of American tort law, how the plaintiffs’ bar will likely seek to expand liability around AI, and how businesses and advocates can preserve this innovative technology from destructive litigation—while still protecting consumers.
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1:45 pm |
The Next Big Gamble: Plastics as the New Mass Tort The civil justice community may be witnessing the early stages of a wave of state and local governments, individual plaintiffs, NGOs, and consumer classes filing lawsuits targeting companies that make plastics or use plastic packaging, bringing a wide range of claims rooted in public nuisance, false advertising, and consumer protection statutes, among other causes of action. Though these claims remain fundamentally untested, plastics litigation may yet turn into the plaintiffs’ bar’s next big mass tort gamble. This panel will share unique perspectives on the current state of plastics litigation— and its trajectory.
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2:30 pm |
After the Cards Fall: 2024 Election Aftermath The outcome of the 2024 election offered a clear signal that voters are dissatisfied with the status quo, and January 2025 promises to launch a season of change in Washington and around the country. This panel will bring together seasoned political observers to unpick the threads of the 2024 election and its aftermath, with a focus on implications for the business community.
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3:00 pm |
Closing Remarks Stephen Waguespack, President, Institute for Legal Reform and Senior Vice President, Federation, State and Local Advocacy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce |
3:05 pm |
Reception |