It’s always an exciting day in TortsProf Towers when the JPML releases the new hearing order [PDF] and so, despite the fact that it’s 77 and sunny outside, and I should be getting ready for the little party we’re having, I’m instead poring over the order for the September hearing in Santa Ana, which is, incidentally, installing new synthetic turf and a new marquee at the Santa Ana Stadium.  Go, Santa Ana! 

(There is, I’m sure, no truth to the rumor that the location for the hearing was selected because the panel was hoping to see some of the filming of the new season of The O.C.)

Anyway.  On with the show.  (The MDL show, not The O.C.)  Matters of interest that will have oral argument:

MDL-1796 — In re Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Data Theft Litigation

MDL-1795 — In re Insurance Industry Discriminatory Sales Practices Litigation

And…that’s it. 

Wow, pretty weak docket.  Maybe they really are going to see if they can find out what happense to those wacky OC kids Ryan and Marissa.  Bunch of torts stuff on the non-oral-argument docket – asbestos, MTBE, Zyprexa, Ephedra, Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex, Guidant defebrillators, Medtronic defibrilators, human tissue, Seroquel.  (Man, imagine how a Google AdSense banner would be flashing if we used their advertising.)

Photo of Christopher Robinette Christopher Robinette

Christopher J. Robinette, an expert in tort law and theory, was appointed Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School in 2021.  He teaches Torts, Products Liability, and Foundations of Tort Law Seminar.

Professor Robinette serves as the United States Representative to the European…

Christopher J. Robinette, an expert in tort law and theory, was appointed Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School in 2021.  He teaches Torts, Products Liability, and Foundations of Tort Law Seminar.

Professor Robinette serves as the United States Representative to the European Group on Tort Law.  In 2012, Robinette was elected a member of the American Law Institute (ALI); in 2019, the ALI Council appointed him as Adviser to the Restatement of the Law Third, Torts.  Robinette also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Tort Law, the only peer-reviewed journal devoted to tort law in the United States, where he previously served as editor-in-chief. He serves as an editor of a leading torts treatise, Harper, James & Gray on Torts, and a leading insurance treatise, New Appleman on Insurance Law Library Edition.  Additionally, Robinette edits TortsProf Blog, a member of the Law Professor Blogs Network. He is an elected member of the European Centre for Tort and Insurance Law and a contributing editor at JOTWELL Torts. Robinette served as chair of the AALS Torts & Compensation Systems Section in 2017.

He has presented on tort law across the United States and the world, including the United Kingdom (Oxford), Poland, Austria, and Malaysia (where he won a “Best Paper” award).  Professor Robinette’s work has been cited by federal and state courts in numerous jurisdictions.  He is frequently quoted in the media in outlets such as the Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters, and The Washington Post.

Before coming to Southwestern, Robinette was Professor of Law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, where he won both scholarship and teaching awards on multiple occasions.  In 2018, he received the Lindback Foundation’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Widener, a university-wide recognition awarded to one professor per year.  Robinette was also a visiting professor at the University of Iowa and Washington University in St. Louis.

Robinette served on the Advisory Board of Salvation Army corps in both Charlottesville, Virginia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; he was Chair of the Harrisburg Capital City Region Advisory Board from 2010-2012.  He was a member of the UPMC/Pinnacle Health Ethics Committee for several years, primarily addressing end-of-life issues.

Robinette litigated tort and contract cases prior to becoming a law professor, experiences he uses to engage students in his classes.

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