Wal-Mart v. Dukes - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
SCOTUScast 04-05-11 featuring Brian T. Fitzpatrick
SCOTUScast 04-05-11 featuring Brian T. Fitzpatrick
On March 29, 2011 the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Wal-Mart v. Dukes. The central issue in this case is whether hundreds of thousands of current and former female Wal-Mart employees may assert claims of unlawful pay and promotion discrimination against Wal-Mart in the form of a single nationwide class action lawsuit.
To discuss the case, we have Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Associate Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School.
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Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.