Breakout 4: The Ethical and Practical Challenges of Amicus Participation

Session Description: Amici are subject to increasing disclosure and other procedural requirements, while there remains little ethical guidance—and some contradictory direction from judges and courts—over the proper nature and degree of coordination and communication between counsel for amici and counsel for the party they support.  In this program, a leading scholar on modern amicus practice, a legal ethicist, and an experienced jurist will address the thorny ethical and strategic issues facing today’s amici.

Learning Objectives:

-Understand whether, and to what extent, ethical principles limit the way that amici may communicate and coordinate with the parties to litigation.

-Learn about the practical realities of amicus participation and coordination.

-Learn strategies for effective amicus participation consistent with current ethical and procedural requirements.

Today’s amici curiae face a host of ethical and strategic challenges. Hear the judicial, ethical, practical, and scholarly perspectives on these challenges and on how best to navigate this changing, and sometimes rocky, terrain.  (Seeking CLE ethics credit for this program.)

Prof. David R. Cleveland, Clinical Professor of Law, Director of Legal Research & Writing, University of Minnesota

David Cleveland is a classically trained educator who has taught at the high school, college, and law school levels. He is also an experienced litigator and accomplished scholar, specializing in legal writing, legal ethics, and federal court reform issues. He has been teaching legal writing and legal ethics in law schools since 2005. Over the years, his teaching has included in-person, online, and hybrid instruction. He has taught a variety of J.D. courses including first-year legal writing, upper-level appellate advocacy, legal ethics, administrative law research, and gaming law seminars. He has also taught masters of law courses on federalism issues and business organizations.

Professor Cleveland is a nationally recognized expert in federal court structure and reform and a leader in the legal writing community. His widely cited scholarship includes works on federal court reform, legal writing pedagogy and history, and discrimination law. He has served in a variety of leadership roles in the legal writing community, including as President of the Association of Legal Writing Directors. He has a history of service and leadership in the law school setting having previously served as Dean, Associate Dean, and Legal Writing Director. In 2017, he was awarded the Jack A. Hiller Distinguished Faculty Award for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service, and in 2020 he was selected for the Legal Writing Institute’s rarely-given Terri LeClercq Courage Award.

Professor Cleveland is first and foremost an energetic and innovative teacher. He is also a devoted advisor to students, often serving as a co-curricular or academic advisor and as a supervising professor for independent scholarly research. Professor Cleveland holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from the College of Education at Western Michigan University.

Prof. Allison Orr Larsen, Alfred Wilson & Mary I.W. Lee Professor of Law, William & Mary

Allison Orr Larsen is the Alfred Wilson & Mary I.W. Lee Professor of Law at William & Mary where she also directs the Institute for the Bill of Rights Law.  Professor Larsen teaches courses in constitutional law, administrative law, and statutory interpretation. She is a graduate of both William & Mary where she received her undergraduate degree, and the University of Virginia School of Law where she graduated first in her class.  Following graduation, Professor Larsen clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and for Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. Since joining the William & Mary law faculty in 2010, Larsen has received many awards honoring her teaching and scholarship including the state-wide Outstanding Faculty Award in the “Rising Star” category (Virginia’s highest faculty honor).

Professor Larsen is a scholar of constitutional law and legal institutions, with a focus on how information dynamics affect both. Her work on fact-finding at the Supreme Court has been featured multiple times in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, and was also the subject of her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in April 2021.  Larsen has published in the nation’s top law reviews, and her work has been cited by four different U.S. Courts of Appeals.  She appeared with Stephen Colbert as a guest on The Colbert Report to discuss her scholarship on Supreme Court amicus briefs, a subject on which she also testified before the Presidential Commission on Supreme Court Reform.

Hon. Theodora Gaitas, Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court (Moderator)

The Honorable Theodora Gaïtas took the oath of office as the Minnesota Supreme Court’s newest associate justice in a formal ceremony at the Minnesota History Center on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024.

Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Justice Gaïtas served on the Court of Appeals for four years and as a judge in the Fourth Judicial District for two years. Before her appointment to the bench, she was in private practice with Matonich Law and served as an appellate public defender with the Office of the Minnesota Appellate Public Defender. Justice Gaïtas is a 1994 cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School.

Justice Gaïtas joined the Supreme Court on Aug. 1. The court held a private swearing-in ceremony on that day.