The firm’s Warren Burns is serving on a panel of distinguished legal experts at an upcoming American Bar Association conference to discuss potential improvements to the class action process for consumers and defendants.

In recent years some critics have charged that consumer class actions offer relatively little compensation to individuals compared to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. And while numerous studies focus on the “face value” of class action settlements, there is very little data on how much of this financial return actually makes its way to class members.

Joining Mr. Burns to discuss the possibility of new value metrics in class actions are U. S. District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum of Kansas City, Professor Brian T. Fitzpatrick of the Vanderbilt Law School, and Robert J. Herrington, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Greenberg Traurig.

The presentation is part of the American Bar Association’s 19th Annual National Institute on Class Actions, scheduled for Oct. 22-23 in New Orleans.