Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program
The Cecil D. Branstetter Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution Program
The Cecil D. Branstetter Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution program offers students an advanced legal curriculum designed to enable them to step immediately into sophisticated litigation practice anywhere in the country. The program’s name underscores a simple fact: The vast majority of litigation in the U.S. today results in settlements rather than trials. As a result, litigation practice today primarily involves the management and resolution of disputes. Students who complete Vanderbilt’s program are prepared to enter legal practice with both a practical and conceptual understanding of the different methods that our justice system employs to resolve disputes.
Headed by Richard Nagareda, a nationally renowned expert in class actions and complex tort litigation, the Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution program includes courses taught by eight accomplished Vanderbilt scholars.
Developing the Competencies Litigators Need
Students in the Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution program develop the core competencies essential to succeed as a litigator, including strong analytical, communication, negotiation, and writing skills. By placing litigation in the context of its role in the U.S. justice system, the program also teaches students what litigators do, how they interact with clients and other involved parties, and how litigation really works.
A Program Endowed through a Class Action Lawsuit
In 2005, the Cecil D. Branstetter Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution program received a $2.9 million endowment to fund significant research projects, course development and academic symposia. The endowment resulted from a cy pres settlement to a class action lawsuit brought in Tennessee Circuit Court by the Nashville law firm of Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings. Because the members of the plaintiff class were too numerous and difficult to identify to make distribution of settlement funds to all class members possible, the settlement agreement provided for a $2.9 million distribution to Vanderbilt Law School to support the study of litigation and dispute resolution as a cy pres (or “next best”) use of the settlement dollars to benefit the plaintiff class.
Two of the lawyers who brought the litigation – Gerard Stranch IV and C. Dewey Branstetter Jr. – are graduates of Vanderbilt Law School. The program is named in honor of Cecil D. Branstetter Sr., ’49, a founding partner in Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings.
