IICJ | Civil Justice Colloquium: Seth Endo - Preventive Transparency in Third-Party Litigation Funding

Hosted by the UC Irvine Initiative for Inclusive Civil Justice, the Civil Justice Colloquium welcomes Professor Seth Endo (Seattle University School of Law) to discuss "Preventive Transparency in Third-Party Litigation Funding."

Abstract

For years, efforts to comprehensively regulate third-party litigation funding have been unsuccessful. But bills requiring mandatory disclosure are being introduced in Congress, and the Advisory Committee for Civil Rules has finally agreed to take up the issue. By grounding the discussion of third-party litigation funding in both the broader civil procedure and professional responsibility scholarship, this Article identifies an easy, uncontroversial reform to preventively address the categorical concerns raised by the practice. The primary contribution is a doctrinal intervention, identifying how legal ethics are an integral part of federal civil procedure and then drawing out the implications for third-party litigation funding transparency. The policy upshot of anchoring the analysis in legal ethics is that at minimum, litigants must disclose, in camera, both the existence of any third-party litigation funding agreements and provisions giving any control over the litigation to the funder. While the framework and resulting recommendation are modest—a first step based on a close study of where the law already is, not what it could or should be as a matter of first principles or other policy considerations—their effects should be significant, highlighting what is necessary to conform current practices to the federal judicial disqualification statute and several nationally uniform professional-conduct rules  while breaking the existing policy stalemate.

About the Civil Justice Colloquium

In these colloquia, leading scholars on civil justice are invited to present their works-in-progress to a seminar class at UCI Law. Students are provided with additional readings that contextualize the work and are expected to engage deeply with presenters. This format allows students a unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge scholarship across a range of topics related to civil justice. From empirical scholarship on the strategies people take in responding to civil legal problems to civil procedural scholarship investigating access to the courts, the series provides a multifaceted view of current challenges and opportunities in expanding access to civil justice.

Faculty from within and outside the law school, and anyone with a keen interest in civil justice is welcome to attend

To request reasonable accommodations for a disability, please email centers@law.uci.edu. 

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