Iqbal at 15 Symposium

Ashcroft v. Iqbal was decided in 2009, just over a decade and a half ago. At the time, the case was viewed as cementing the transformation of the pleading standard applicable in federal civil actions from one that involved only notice pleading to…something more. How much more was hotly debated, partly because the Iqbal majority opinion was far from clear about what its new “plausibility pleading standard” requires. At least as controversial was whether raising the pleading standard was a good policy choice. Many legal scholars saw Iqbal as demanding too much of plaintiffs and injecting unwarranted subjectivity into evaluating a plaintiff’s complaint — which is filed before discovery gives plaintiffs the chance to develop facts in the possession of defendants. Many others saw Iqbal as welcome relief from what they viewed as a too-lax system that allowed plaintiffs to file nuisance suits and embark on unjustified discovery fishing expeditions.

At the Iqbal at 15 Symposium, sponsored by the California Law Review, eminent legal scholars and practitioners from around the United States will gather to discuss: new scholarship about Iqbal, views from practitioners about how the case matters in practice today, challenges and opportunities the case creates for teaching civil procedure, and Iqbal’s influence on the civil litigation system moving forward.

Please RSVP here.