Double Duty

Howrey Partner Emily Maxwell (SF) authored the article “Double Duty,” about how “the validity of the class action mechanism to aggregate and finally determine the claims of people who are not before the court rests on several procedural safeguards designed to protect the due process rights of absent class members. Among these bedrock principles is adequate representation. To protect absent class members, the named plaintiff appointed as a class representative and the attorneys appointed as class counsel must both be ‘adequate’ and faithfully discharge their fiduciary obligations to the class.”