Equipping Civil Procedure Students to Protect Clients in Discovery

Abstract

This paper selects amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that bear promise for cutting the costs of civil litigation. It suggests how to teach students (and lawyers) to take advantage of the amendments to protect one's client from overly costly or abusive discovery. It also includes an exercise designed to help law students cultivate a view of discovery that is less adversarial and more focused on productively using the Rules. It is an example of the kind of professional identity formation to which the Carnegie Report (2007) suggested law schools pally too little attention.