When tobacco manufacturers settled a major lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of more than 46 states by agreeing to pay $200 billion over 25 years and reform the way cigarettes are marketed in America, they sparked a seminal event in American civil litigation history.

The Clifford Symposium on Tort Law and Social Policy, a two-day seminar at the DePaul University College of Law, will examine how the practice, financing and ethics of civil litigation has changed in the wake of the tobacco wars. The symposium will be held at 10 a.m. April 5 and 9 a.m. April 6 at the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 8005. The program is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.

The seminar will look at such issues as the impact that huge cases like the tobacco litigation have had on the practice of law; the implications of substituting private litigation for public action; how the fees secured in the tobacco cases can change the way civil litigation is financed; and conflicts in public interest litigation. The seminar also will discuss some of the ethical questions raised by the tobacco litigation, which was settled in November of 1998.

“The impact and implications of the tobacco litigation remain to be sorted out,” explained Stephan Landsman, who holds the Robert A. Clifford Faculty Chair at DePaul’s College of Law and is one of the program’s organizers. “This symposium is designed to facilitate that sorting process by exploring the tobacco wars’ impact on the practice of law, the financing of future civil litigation, the relationship between state attorneys general and plaintiffs, the application of established ethical principals, and the worldwide legal scene.”

Legal scholars from across the country will join the discussions. Among them will be John Coffee, Columbia University School of Law; Marc Galanter, University of Wisconsin Law School; Saul Levmore, University of Chicago Law School; Richard Marcus, University of California-Hastings College of Law; Francis McGovern, Duke University School of Law, Martin Redish, Northwestern University School of Law and Richard Scruggs of the law firm Scruggs, Millette in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Each year the Clifford Symposium addresses a timely issue in the area of tort law to bring the latest scholarship and advances in legal practice to lawyers and scholars. Past programs have explored such topics as civil litigation and popular culture, the American jury system and judges as tort lawmakers. Reservations for this year’s symposium can be secured by phone at 312/362-5292, by fax at 312/362-5826 or on the web at http://www.law.depaul.edu/clifford