Seth Katsuya Endo

Associate Professor of Law, Seattle University 

Professional Conduct Rules as Procedural Gap Filler

Commentator: Alexandra Lahav

Professor of Law, Cornell University

November 14, 2023  

3:00 – 4:15 p.m., Reception to Follow

In-Person and Online

DePaul Center

1 E. Jackson Boulevard, Room 8005

Chicago, Illinois

Professor Seth Endo writes and teaches civil procedure and professional responsibility. His scholarship has appeared in the Texas Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Boston College Law Review, and other legal journals. Prior to joining the Seattle University School of Law, he taught at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and in the Lawyering Program at NYU School of Law. His practice experience includes time at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Demos. Professor Endo also clerked for several judges, including the Honorable Rosemary Barkett, then-circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He received his BA from the University of Chicago and his JD from NYU.

Professional Conduct Rules as Procedural Gap Filler

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are silent about many key management problems faced by federal judges in complex multidistrict (MDL) litigation. Judges treat these “gaps” in the Federal Rules as invitations to invent ad hoc solutions.

Professor Endo argues that judges have failed to appreciate the degree to which the rules of legal ethics speak to these judicial management problems. Properly understood, these rules, he reasons, place important guardrails around judicial discretion when federal procedure is silent—guardrails that too many judges ignore. Professor Endo demonstrates this claim using one of the most hotly contested questions in MDL litigation—courts’ award of lucrative common benefit fees to the lead lawyers in MDL litigation—as a case study.

There is a room cap of 100 in-person attendees. Online participants will receive a link to view the presentation just ahead of the event.

No proof of vaccination is required of guests and masks are optional.

DePaul College of Law is an accredited  Illinois MCLE provider. This presentation is worth 1.25 hours of general CLE credit and approved for 1.25 hours of Legal Ethics CLE credit.