Linda Sandstrom Simard

Bar Admittance

• MA
• Federal District Court of Mass.
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• U.S. Supreme Court

Biography

Linda Sandstrom Simard, Professor and former Associate Dean, teaches Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, Pretrial Civil Litigation and Advanced Civil Procedure. She is active in national, international and state civil procedure organizations.

Professor Simard was appointed to the Civil Justice Improvements Committee by the Conference of Chief Justices, a two-year project that brought leaders of the bench, bar and academy together to develop a comprehensive national plan to reduce cost and delay in state courts. She has also reported on American class action procedure in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and presented her research in Heidelberg, Germany, as an invited speaker for the International Association of Procedural Law. She was elected Chair of the Civil Procedure Section of the Association of American Law Schools and served on the Section's Executive Committee. She also served as an appointed member of the Standing Advisory Committee on Civil and Appellate Rules for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for three terms.

Prior to joining the Suffolk Law faculty, Professor Simard practiced complex litigation at the Boston firm of Hale and Dorr (Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr) and she clerked for Judge William G. Young on the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Education

• JD, Boston College Law School
• BS, University of Delaware

Selected Publications

Articles

Linda Sandstrom Simard, Rule 23: What it Reveals About How, and When, Courts Should Ascertain the Identities of Individual Class Members, 84 U. PITT. L. Rev. (forthcoming March 2023)

Linda Sandstrom Simard, with Charles Rhodes and Cassandra Burke Robertson “Ford Motor Co.: The Murky Doctrine of Personal Jurisdiction.” 2020-2021 ACS Supreme Court Review.

Linda Sandstrom Simard, Partisan Gerrymander Claims, the Political Question Doctrine and Judicial Prudence?, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law (2021).

Ford's Hidden Fairness Defect, 106 Cornell L. Rev. Online 101 (2020) with Professor Cassandra Burke Robertson and Professor Charles "Rocky" Rhodes

Ford's Jurisdictional Crossroads, 109 Georgetown L. Journal Online 102 (2020) with Professor Cassandra Burke Robertson and Professor Charles "Rocky" Rhodes

Seeking Proportional Discovery: The Beginning of the End of Procedural Uniformity in Civil Rules, 71 Vand. L. Rev. 1919 (2018).

"Fair, Reasonable and Adequate" According to Who? Cy Pres Distributions that Result in Cheap Settlements and Generous Attorney Fees, But No Financial Benefit to Class Members, 88 S. CAL. L. REV. PS 55 (2015)

A View from Within the Fortune 500: An Empirical Study of Negative Value Class Actions and Deterrence, 47 INDIANA L. REV. 739 (2014)

Foreign Citizens in Transnational Class Actions, 97 CORNELL L. REV. 87 (2011)(with Jay Tidmarsh) reprinted in Procedure and Private International Law, edited by Wendy Collins Perdue (Elgar Publishing Co.) 

Fees, Incentives, and Deterrence: A Reply to Professor Fitzpatrick, 160 U. PA. L. REV. PENNumbra 10 (2011)

Other Publications

• Amicus Brief on behalf of Civil Procedure and Federal Courts Professors, Doucet v. FCA-US, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Case No. 2177-CV-00578, (co-authored with Professor Cassandra Burke Robertson, Case Western Reserve and Professor Charles Rocky Rhodes, South Texas College of Law) (January, 2023)
• Brief of Professors of Civil Procedure and Federal Courts as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents in Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court and Ford Motor Co. v. Bandemer, Nos. 19-368 and 19-369, Supreme Court of the United States (argued Oct. 7, 2020), with Professor Cassandra Burke Robertson and Professor Charles "Rocky" Rhodes
• Guest Commentator, New England Cable News (NECN), Dukes v. Walmart;
• Guest News Commentator, WBUR, Melendez Diaz v. Massachusetts;
• Commentator, Massachusetts Lawyer's Weekly, Class Action Litigation concerning Toyota recall;
• Guest Commentator, WHDH News, Appointment of Honorable Margaret Sosman, Associate Justice, Supreme Judicial Court;
• A Call to Action for Civil Justice Reform, August 16, 2016

Awards & Honors

• Professor of the Year (2022)
• Outstanding Professor Award, Section 1C and 4A (2022)
• Cornelius J. Moynihan Teaching Award (2017)
• Appointed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to the Standing Advisory Committee on Civil and Appellate Rules (2015-2022)
• Appointed by the Conference of Chief Justices to the Civil Justice Initiative (2014-2016)
• Appointed to the Civil Working Group of the Massachusetts Superior Court (2014-2015)
• Chair, AALS Civil Procedure Section (2013), elected by members of Civil Procedure Section Executive Committee, AALS Civil Procedure Section (2010-2014)
• Co-Chair, Advisory Council, Bridge Over Troubled Water, nonprofit organization providing services to homeless and at-risk youth ages 14-22, October 2017 – 2022, Member 2017- present, appointed by the Board of Directors