Document Type
Article
Publication Title
U. C. Davis Law Review
Publication Date
2020
ISSN
0197-4564
Page Number
337
Keywords
class action, agency costs, current practice
Disciplines
Agency | Law
Abstract
The agency relationship between class counsel and class members in Rule 23(b)(3) class actions is similar to that between executives and shareholders in U.S. public companies. This similarity has often been noted in class action literature, but until this Article no attempt has been made to systematically compare the approaches taken in these two settings to reduce agency costs. Class action scholars have downplayed the importance of the public company analogy because public companies are subject to market discipline and class actions are not. But this is precisely why the analogy is useful: because public companies are subject to market discipline, the tools they utilize to reduce agency costs are more likely to be efficient. This Article looks to those tools as inspiration for class action reform, proposing several novel ways to improve current practice.
Recommended Citation
Amanda M. Rose,
Cutting Class Action Agency Costs: Lessons from the Public Company, 54 U. C. Davis Law Review. 337
(2020)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/1193