Author: Pamela K. Bookman

About Your First Semester Grades: A Word of Encouragement for 1Ls

It’s that time of year again: the beginning of the spring semester at American law schools, when 1Ls get their first set of law school grades. By virtue of your presence in law school, it’s fair to assume that you’re used to some measure of academic success; your fall semester grades may feel like a departure from that history. No matter how you fared, as a professor who teaches 1Ls and as a former law student who’s been through this process, I’d like to offer a few words of perspective. You’re the same student you were before your grades were posted. Your grades haven’t changed how intelligent or how capable you are; don’t let them change how you see yourself. You were admitted to Temple Law because we saw in you the potential to do great things and to make a meaningful contribution to the practice and profession of law. We believe in you: you should, too. This first set of grades doesn’t define you or your law school career. If you take nothing else …

Law student litigating

Litigation Isolationism

Over the past two decades, U.S. courts have pursued a studied avoidance of transnational litigation. The resulting litigation isolationism appears to be driven by courts’ desire to promote separation of powers, international comity, and the interests of defendants. This Article demonstrates, however, that this new kind of “avoidance” in fact frequently undermines not only these values but other significant U.S. interests as well by continuing to interfere with foreign relations and driving plaintiffs to sue in foreign courts. This Article offers four contributions: First, it focuses the conversation about transnational litigation on those doctrines designed to avoid it, i.e., doctrines that permit or require courts to dismiss a case based on its “foreignness.” Doing so helps to identify the particular concerns justifying this kind of avoidance and to evaluate them on their own terms. Second, the Article presents evidence of emerging foreign trends that increasingly (and surprisingly) permit traditionally American, plaintiff-friendly procedures, including higher damages awards, aggregate litigation, and third-party litigation financing. Third, the Article demonstrates that, particularly in light of these foreign trends, avoidance …