Tactics in Presenting Complex Subjects to Courts

Venable LLP
Washington, DC

The United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Federal Claims Bar Association are pleased to announce their next joint educational program: “Tactics in Presenting Complex Subjects to Courts.” This brown bag program will take place Monday, March 10, from noon to 1:30 pm. The Honorable Francis M. Allegra will be our speaker and, among other topics, he will be addressing using the Rule 16 conference to educate the Judge, the effective use of experts and export reports, and the best practices for demonstrative exhibits. This presentation will be geared to the addressing complex subject matter across all of the areas of practice before the Court of Federal Claims.

Senior Judge Allegra has been on the Court of Federal Claims since 1998. He is also a frequent lecturer at the Federal Judicial Center, particularly on topics involving electronic discovery and the use of technology in judging. Judge Allegra is an adjunct professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center. In 2012, he received from Georgetown the Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award.

Judge Allegra will be borrowing much of his presentation from Chapter 7 of his recent book, Plugged In: Guidebook to Software and the Law, by Francis M. Allegra and Daniel B. Garrie, published by Thomson Reuters. Chapter 7 is entitled: “A Procedural Framework for Educating Decisionmakers About Software.” This chapter of the book addresses in depth, the Rule 16 conference, party experts, the admissibility of expert testimony on software, finding and selecting the right expert, making more effective use of the expert reports, joint expert reports, Special Masters and court-appointed experts, effective direct and cross-examination of witnesses testifying about software, the proper use of demonstratives, and modes of questioning. He will be adapting his presentation so that the topic will have great utility to those in any practice area within the Court of Federal Claims’ jurisdiction.