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Hi everyone,

I am going to be a civ pro research assistant this summer, and I was wondering if anyone has any input as to what the most useful civ pro topic (subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, summary judgment, stare decisis, etc.) is for various jobs (defense side litigation, prosecution side litigation, transactional, clerkships, etc.). I have some leeway as to what topic I research.

Opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

EDIT: also curious as to people's opinions for what might be the most challenging, stimulating, and rewarding topics; e.g. maybe personal jurisdiction would not be very useful in practice (i don't know) but would be a challenging and interesting topic to research for a summer, which might nonetheless prove more beneficial as a growing experience than research into a perhaps more "useful" topic

Again, thanks for your input

wolfpack37 wrote:Hi everyone,

I am going to be a civ pro research assistant this summer, and I was wondering if anyone has any input as to what the most useful civ pro topic (subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, summary judgment, stare decisis, etc.) is for various jobs (defense side litigation, prosecution side litigation, transactional, clerkships, etc.). I have some leeway as to what topic I research.

Opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If I were in your shoes I might research pleading requirements (i.e., Twombly/Iqbal). It's pretty new and unsettled, so I think that might be an interesting and fruitful area to know about. To be clear, i'm not necessarily saying that is the most useful civ pro topic in practice, i'm just suggesting what I would look into if I were in your shoes.

ph14 wrote:

wolfpack37 wrote:Hi everyone,

I am going to be a civ pro research assistant this summer, and I was wondering if anyone has any input as to what the most useful civ pro topic (subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, summary judgment, stare decisis, etc.) is for various jobs (defense side litigation, prosecution side litigation, transactional, clerkships, etc.). I have some leeway as to what topic I research.

Opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If I were in your shoes I might research pleading requirements (i.e., Twombly/Iqbal). It's pretty new and unsettled, so I think that might be an interesting and fruitful area to know about. To be clear, i'm not necessarily saying that is the most useful civ pro topic in practice, i'm just suggesting what I would look into if I were in your shoes.

Thanks for the input. If pleading were not an option, what would be your second choice if you don't mind me asking? Do you think personal jurisdiction would be likewise useful to look into, considering Nicastro? Or do you think it might be less so since that case had much less of a shakeup effect than Twombly/Iqbal?

I suppose as an alternative to my original question, what areas do people think would be most challenging, stimulating, or rewarding, as opposed to specifically useful?

wolfpack37 wrote:

ph14 wrote:

wolfpack37 wrote:Hi everyone,

I am going to be a civ pro research assistant this summer, and I was wondering if anyone has any input as to what the most useful civ pro topic (subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, summary judgment, stare decisis, etc.) is for various jobs (defense side litigation, prosecution side litigation, transactional, clerkships, etc.). I have some leeway as to what topic I research.

Opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If I were in your shoes I might research pleading requirements (i.e., Twombly/Iqbal). It's pretty new and unsettled, so I think that might be an interesting and fruitful area to know about. To be clear, i'm not necessarily saying that is the most useful civ pro topic in practice, i'm just suggesting what I would look into if I were in your shoes.

Thanks for the input. If pleading were not an option, what would be your second choice if you don't mind me asking? Do you think personal jurisdiction would be likewise useful to look into, considering Nicastro? Or do you think it might be less so since that case had much less of a shakeup effect than Twombly/Iqbal?

I suppose as an alternative to my original question, what areas do people think would be most challenging, stimulating, or rewarding, as opposed to specifically useful?

Twiqbal is pretty played out and pretty settled at this point in most circuits. If you want something interesting and useful, I would look at the growing use of mandamus to obtain review of venue transfer decisions.

wolfpack37 wrote:

ph14 wrote:

wolfpack37 wrote:Hi everyone,

I am going to be a civ pro research assistant this summer, and I was wondering if anyone has any input as to what the most useful civ pro topic (subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, summary judgment, stare decisis, etc.) is for various jobs (defense side litigation, prosecution side litigation, transactional, clerkships, etc.). I have some leeway as to what topic I research.

Opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If I were in your shoes I might research pleading requirements (i.e., Twombly/Iqbal). It's pretty new and unsettled, so I think that might be an interesting and fruitful area to know about. To be clear, i'm not necessarily saying that is the most useful civ pro topic in practice, i'm just suggesting what I would look into if I were in your shoes.

Thanks for the input. If pleading were not an option, what would be your second choice if you don't mind me asking? Do you think personal jurisdiction would be likewise useful to look into, considering Nicastro? Or do you think it might be less so since that case had much less of a shakeup effect than Twombly/Iqbal?

I suppose as an alternative to my original question, what areas do people think would be most challenging, stimulating, or rewarding, as opposed to specifically useful?

I'm a 3L, so obviously take what I say with a grain of salt. I get the sense that personal jurisdiction isn't a huge issue for the vast majority of cases. The Nicastro fact pattern isn't super relevant for the average lawyer arguing the average case in this country, if i'm recalling the fact pattern correctly. So I personally don't think I would focus on personal jurisdiction.

My second choice, off the top of my head, would be to look into arbitration. That's an area of law that is also seeing a lot of action and might also be relevant in practice for a lot of lawyers.

One of my professors swears that if you can get good at choice of law that has a ton of use in practice and will be well received by your firm.

In roughly descending order of generalized utility: choice of law, class certification, subject matter jurisdiction, ediscovery, remedies, appealability of orders.

Unless it's transactional, in which case the only important thing is choice of law (and enforceability of arbitration clauses).

Thanks for the input guys, I will keep all of this in mind

wolfpack37 wrote:Thanks for the input guys, I will keep all of this in mind

Also consider extraterritorial jurisdiction (along with the principle of comity). In recent years, federal prosecutors have pursued criminal prosecutions of foreign companies more and more (i.e., Swiss banks for aiding tax evasion). Will this trend flip and will foreign jdx's start applying their laws to US-based individuals/corporations?
http://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2013 ... t-actions/

If you could research how discovery request standards differ in collective and class actions, I'd appreciate it. Thanks

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