Transparency on Trial: Secrecy and Accountability in Civil Litigation

Transparency on Trial:
Secrecy and Accountability in Civil Litigation
 

Professor Nora Freeman Engstrom

Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law
Co-Director, Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession
Stanford Law School

Tuesday, April 14, 2026
4:00 p.m.
Room 165

In this lecture, Professor Engstrom will uncover the hidden world of secrecy in civil litigation and present new empirical evidence on how secrecy mechanisms actually operate. She will show that sealing and protective orders are granted at strikingly high rates—often with little real scrutiny—keeping critical information about public health, safety, and institutional misconduct out of view. Turning from diagnosis to reform, she will highlight new evidence from California’s STAND Act demonstrating that transparency need not derail settlement or burden courts—and can, instead, promote accountability while preserving efficiency. The talk will close by identifying the forces driving excessive secrecy and sketching a path toward a more open, accurate, and trustworthy civil justice system.

Professor Engstrom

A nationally recognized expert in tort law, complex litigation, and legal ethics, Professor Engstrom has published extensively on the subjects of complex litigation, access to justice, the legal ethics governing plaintiffs’ lawyers, and the functions of tort law. She co-directs the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School, the nation’s premier academic center seeking to make civil justice more transparent, accessible, and equitable. An elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI), she serves as a Reporter for two Third Restatement of Torts projects (Miscellaneous Provisions and Medical Malpractice), and as an Adviser to two additional projects (Remedies and Civil Liability for Artificial Intelligence). In 2022, the ALI awarded her the R. Ammi Cutter Reporter’s Chair for her efforts, one of the highest honors bestowed by the organization.

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The University of Denver Sturm College of Law is committed to providing facilities that are accessible to persons with and without disabilities. We encourage persons who need assistance with accessibility to contact Libby Fatta at Elizabeth.Fatta@du.edu for further information.

The use of University of Denver resources or facilities for this event does not constitute an endorsement by the University or the Sturm College of Law of the views of the organizers or speakers.