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Casebook Read Credits
Lahav Complex Litigation Materials
Section 4
2 hours

Class Counsel

Alexandra Lahav

This section of the course considers the role of class counsel. Review Rule 23(g) to see how the courts determine who should be class counsel before your embark on these cases. Some people think the lawyer in a class action is a type of private attorney general. See, e.g., William B. Rubenstein, On What a Private Attorney General Is -- And Why it Matters, 57 Vand. L. Rev. 2129 (2004). Others see the class action lawyer as a legal entrepreneur or, in the worst formulation, a bounty hunter. See John C. Coffee, Jr., Rescuing the Private Attorney General: Why the Model of the Lawyer as Bounty Hunter is Not Working, 42 Md. L. Rev. 215 (1983). There are no special ethical rules for class counsel, and as we shall see the existing rules do not really fit the role that class counsel plays in the litigation.

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