Upcoming DRI Products Liability Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 11-13, 2012

(I am happy to post information about legal conferences pertaining to products liability issues. I always try to provide products liability information that is useful to the defense bar, plaintiff's bar, manufacturers, and individuals. Therefore, if anyone has a products liability seminar or conference (regardless of whether it is defense or plaintiff-oriented), please pass it along and I will be happy to post the pertinent information).

The Defense Research Institute is holding their Products Liability Conference at the Venetian Palazzo in Las Vegas this year on April 11-13, 2012. This is a great conference. I went to the 2011 conference in New Orleans and the 2010 conference that was also in Las Vegas.  The theme for this year's conference is "Product Liability Litigation in the 21st Century: The Future is Now."  This is a "must-attend" event if you do products liability defense work, and I try to go every year.  This year I am serving as the Vice-Chair of the "Agricultural/Construction/Mining/Industrial Equipment" ("ACMIE") Specialized Litigation Group.  I will be helping with our breakout session, which is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday morning. 

For our breakout session, we are doing two panel discussions.  The first discussion is entitled "What Keeps Me Up at Night: A Roundtable Discussoin of In-House Counsel's Expectations and Challenges, and How Outside Counsel Can Address Them."  It will include both in-house counsel from some large equipment manufacturers and outside counsel representatives.  The second discussion is entitled "'Age Ain't Nuthin' But a Number': The Challenges of Legacy Equipment."  The panelists for this discussion will talk about products liability claims involving older equipment (which is pretty common in ACMIE cases).  Finally, we will wrap up with the annual "ACMIE Top 10 Cases," which is a survey of the previous year's most interesting and most significant ACMIE cases.  If ACMIE is not your interest, then there are many other groups that will also do breakout sessions (ranging from recreational equipment to fire/casualty, mass torts, class actions, and everything in between).

All the details for the conference, including a brochure of the agenda, registration, etc., can be found here.

A cut and paste of the information from DRI's website follows:

DRI’s Product Liability Conference is indispensible for anyone who defends product liability litigation. Attendees will learn about the latest trends and decisions affecting product liability cases and get valuable practice tips, strategies and trial techniques to gain an advantage in defending the modern product liability case. Main stage speakers include experienced and well known product liability defense trial lawyers, in-house counsel and government lawyers.

The specialized litigation group (SLG) sessions will offer detailed analysis in 18 different product practice areas. A concurrent session on Wednesday presented by the Young Lawyers Committee offers an alternative track for lawyers of any age looking for high quality nuts-and-bolts presentations. The Corporate Counsel Committee invites in-house lawyers to a program and roundtable discussion on Thursday afternoon on issues unique to corporate counsel.

REGISTRATION RATES

Advanced Registration Cutoff Date: 3/22/2012
Online Registration Cutoff Date: 4/10/2012

Type	Registration Fee
Government Member	$600.00
Member	$895.00
Member In-House *	$0.00
Non Member	$1,025.00
Non Member In-House	$0.00

* In order to qualify for the in-house counsel member rate, you must be a member of DRI and the Corporate Counsel Committee

 I look forward to meeting anyone who plans to be there.  If you plan on attending, shoot me a comment or email and maybe we can organize a dinner of attendees or meet up at one of the receptions.