Francis McGovern, an internationally known legal pioneer, will discuss "Justice in the Balance: Using the Court System to Achieve Social Reforms" from 4-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 25 in the Cooperage at Sonoma State University.
The free lecture is a special program sponsored by the Lifelong Learning Institute at the University.
McGovern's name is virtually synonymous with "mass claim" litigation--the often tens of thousands of tort claims arising out of a major disaster or major product liability issue.
As a court-appointed special master or neutral expert, he has developed solutions in most of the significant mass claim litigation in the U.S., including the DDT toxic exposure litigation in Alabama, the Dalkon-Shield controversy, and the silicone gel breast implant litigation.
Working with the United Nations Compensation Commission, which was set up to ensure that Iraq compensates citizens, businesses and government agencies for losses suffered in the Persian Gulf War, McGovern helped construct a legal framework for handling the 2.6 million claims for reparations from Iraq.
He is developing a transnational Alternative Dispute Resolution center in Europe to handle torts, including silicone gel breast implants and HIV infected blood cases, that cross national boundaries.
McGovern, who teaches at Duke University and the University of California, Berkeley, is especially interested in how plaintiffs and their lawyers have resorted to the court system to address social issues which legislatures are reluctant to take on.
He has been motivated in all of his undertakings, practical, conceptual and educational, by the public's decreased faith in traditional governmental systems and procedures for resolving disputes.
Fur further information on this lecture, please phone Barbara Brooks, Lifelong Learning Institute, (707) 664-2691.
