BOOK REVIEW
BUSINESS and COMMERCIAL LITIGATION in
FEDERAL COURTS (FOURTH EDITION)
By E. Clayton Scofield III
United States Magistate Judge, N.D.
Ga.(Retired)
The new Fourth Edition of Busi-
ness and Commercial Litigation
in Federal Courts is a tour de force
in the literature of business and
commercial litigation. Now in
fourteen volumes with chapters
by 296 distinguished authors, this
panoramic work brings together
an incredible volume and range of
information addressing virtually
every aspect of commercial litiga-
tion in the federal courts.
Volumes One through Five cover
what you would expect -- jurisdic-
tion, pleadings, discovery, mo-
tions, jury trial, mediation, arbi-
tration and appeal, but with much
more to follow. What follows
thereafter are articles that focus
on specific subject matters saturat-
ing the landscape of federal com-
mercial litigation. In Volumes Six
through Twelve, the usual suspects
of banking, antitrust, and securi-
ties litigation are covered, along
with, of course, patents, labor and
employment, business torts, and
ERISA. Volume Thirteen addresses
important criminal law aspects
relating to commercial litigation,
to include money laundering and
quia timet litigation.
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November 2018
Volume Fourteen takes on E-
Commerce, Info-Tech, Enter-
tainment, Fashion and Retail, and
Envirnonmental Litigation. I was
also impressed with the chapters
addressing more peripheral issues
relating to business development,
marketing, litigation management,
teaching trial skills, pro bono,
and civility. See Crisis Manage-
ment (Chapter 64), Marketing to
Potential Clients (Chapter 70),
Litigation Management by Cor-
porations (Chapter 69), Teaching
Litigation Skills (Chapter 71), Pro
Bono (Chapter 72), and Civility
(Chapter 74).
The new Fourth Edition, published
in 2016 by Thomson Reuters, in
cooperation with the American
Bar Association Litigation Section,
added twenty-five new chapters
to the Third Edition. These new
chapters notably include Civil Jus-
tice Reform, Cross-Border Litiga-
tion, Mediation, Arbitration, Social
Media, Healthcare Institutions,
Marketing to Potential Clients, and
Mass Torts, all topics whose im-
portance has markedly increased
in recent years.
Since the publication of the Fourth
Edition, the authors have already
supplemented each volume with
updates for 2017-18, editing and
expanding text and footnotes as
changes and developments in the
subject matter have occurred. It
is also important to note that this
series of volumes is accompanied
by paperback volumes Fifteen and
Sixteen which comprise a Table of
Cases and a Table of Jury Instruc-
tions, Forms, Law and Rules, and
an Index to all the chapters con-
taining forms, jury instructions,
and other material that can be re-
vised and adapted for use. There
is also a CD Rom with forms and
other reviseable material. These
revisable forms and instructions
should be invaluable to the prac-
titioner.
This treatise has been favorably
reviewed in this publication be-
fore, by former Presidents Jeff
Bramlett and Rita Sheffey, whom
I acknowledge. I would also be re-
miss if I failed to give a shout out
to our home-grown contributors
to this outstanding publication.
Indeed, the chapter on Litiga-
tion Management by Law firms
(Chapter 68) is authored by Hal
Daniel with Holland and Knight,