Brian Fitzpatrick
Professor of Law | Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN, UNITED STATES
Expert on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, constitutional law and the Supreme Court.
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Biography
Brian Fitzpatrick's research at Vanderbilt focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection and constitutional law. Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Professor Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure course.
Areas of Expertise (13)
campaign contributions
Class action law suits
women's reproductive rights
Class Actions
Class Action Lawsuits
Civil Procedure
Supreme Court
Federal Courts
Constitutional Law
Judicial Selection
roe v. wade
Reproductive Rights
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Education (2)
Harvard Law School: J.D., Law 2000
University of Notre Dame: B.S., Chemical Engineering 1997
Affiliations (10)
- American Law Institute
- Journal of Law, Economics and Organization
- Journal of Empirical Legal Studies
- Oxford University Press
- Supreme Court Economic Review
- American Bar Association
- U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
- Tennessee Stonewall Bar Association
- American Swiss Foundation Young Leaders
- District of Columbia
Links (2)
Selected Media Appearances (10)
Lawyers Seeking Fees Can Be Less Shamelessly Self-Interested
Bloomberg Law online
2024-09-19
Brian Fitzpatrick, a Vanderbilt University law school professor who is one of the country’s leading fee petition experts, said Garson’s case is the only instance he’s ever seen a lawyer hired specifically to make a fee argument.
With Dell decision, Delaware justices reconfirm Chancery judges’ discretion over megafees
Reuters online
2024-08-15
Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick, who filed an amicus brief, opens new tab urging the Delaware Supreme Court not to adopt the declining-percentage model, said in an interview that the justices were “honest” about “the dilemma judges face all over the country” when they consider big fee requests.
Fight, settle or split? How a $60mn damages verdict is piling pressure on Reckitt
Financial Times online
2024-03-22
“It is going to be hard to button this thing up nicely,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, an expert on class-action litigation at Vanderbilt University, arguing that Reckitt — which is facing many more claims in relation to Enfamil — would have to fight it out over several trials. “That is going to take a while, and it is going to require victories,” he said.
Alabama IVF ruling highlights importance of state supreme court races in this year’s US elections
AP News online
2024-03-01
“In many cases, state supreme courts have a lot of power to shut down direct democracy by preventing a question from getting on the ballot,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School.
Biden lawyer who defended affirmative action grapples with diversity in her own office
The Washington Post online
2023-07-24
“It’s possible that having people of multiple races in the room when you’re writing your briefs and preparing for the argument could make the briefs better and the arguments better,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, a former clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia and a professor at Vanderbilt Law School. “I’m certainly open to that. But I just don’t think we should engage in racial discrimination based on speculation.”
What will colleges do in wake of affirmative action ruling?
The Hill online
2023-06-29
“The Court recognized the Constitution guarantees equal treatment for all races, and exceptions to that rule should be rare and fleeting. I do not expect universities to take this decision lightly — DEI has become one of the highest (if not the highest) priority at many schools — and I expect universities to look for loopholes and workarounds,” Brian Fitzpatrick, professor of law at Vanderbilt University, said.
The Politics of Litigation May Be Changing
The New York Times online
2022-07-25
But there’s at least one conservative legal scholar who argues that suing companies was a Republican thing before it was a Democratic thing and could once again be a Republican thing. Brian Fitzpatrick, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, made his case in a 2019 book, “The Conservative Case for Class Actions.” Fitzpatrick wrote that Republicans used to understand that if class action lawsuits are suppressed, the only alternative will be more government regulation. For decades, Republicans favored using the courts while Democrats leaned toward regulation. To many economists, a class action appears efficient: It’s a way to aggregate many small claims, each of which would not be worth pursuing on its own, into one big claim that is worth suing over.
Trump files class action lawsuits targeting Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube over ‘censorship’ of conservatives
The Washington Post online
2021-07-07
“The fact that they benefit from a federal law does not transform someone into the federal government,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, a professor of law at Vanderbilt University. “All of us benefit from laws at some point or another and that doesn’t transform us into the federal government.”
Trump sues Twitter, Facebook, Google – and immediately begins fundraising off the effort
CNBC online
2021-07-07
“I think the lawsuit has almost no chance of success,” Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick told CNBC in a phone interview. The tech platforms are private entities, not government institutions, and therefore the plaintiffs’ claims about constitutional violations do not hold up, Fitzpatrick said.
Trump-appointed judges under an election-year political lens
AP News online
2020-09-24
“I think it’s very unusual to make it so explicit that this decision had nothing to do with the judge’s predispositions,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, a Vanderbilt University law professor. “That is something that normally should go without saying.” But as Fitzpatrick noted, those who sift and weigh a judge’s decisions often overlook the fact that judges must act within the tight confines of law and jurisprudence and “don’t have unfettered discretion like politicians think they do.”
Selected Articles (3)
The Discovery Tax
Vanderbilt Law Research Paper No. 18-39Brian T Fitzpatrick
2018 "The American civil discovery regime is what is known as producer-pays: one side requests information and the other side has to pay whatever it costs to produce it. The 2015 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have not changed this much and are not likely to in the future."
Fair Division of Attorneys' Fees
Vanderbilt Law Research Paper No. 18-51Edward K Cheng, Paul H Edelman, Brian T Fitzpatrick
2018 "In complex litigation involving multiple law firms, courts often face the unenviable task of dividing attorneys' fees. Often, courts fall back on the so-called lodestar method, which has significant drawbacks and creates poor incentives."
Can and Should the New Third-Party Litigation Financing Come to Class Actions?
Theoretical Inquires in LawBrian T Fitzpatrick
2018 "In the United States, there has been tremendous growth in a form of third-party litigation financing where investors buy pieces of lawsuits from plaintiffs. Many scholars believe that this new financing helps to balance the risk tolerance of plaintiffs and defendants and thereby facilitates the resolution of litigation in a way that more closely tracks the goals of the substantive law."
