An Academic Symposium cosponsored by Stanford Law School’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession and the National Civil Justice Institute
May 1-2, 2026
Stanford Law School, Room 290 (Livestream also available)
CLE credits will be offered
Panel 1: Setting the Table
This opening session will situate the symposium’s core questions, outlining the conceptual, doctrinal, and empirical stakes of secrecy and transparency in modern civil litigation. Panelists will frame how these tensions play out across protective orders, settlements, and public access to court records. They will present new research showing that, despite formally stringent legal standards, judicial record sealing in federal courts operates as a largely unreviewed, party-driven process—one in which secrecy is routinely granted without meaningful scrutiny, often without opposition, and frequently without application of the governing law.
Panel 2: The Stakes of Secrecy and Transparency
Drawing on a diversity of perspectives, this panel will examine the real-world consequences of secrecy and openness in civil litigation, from public health and safety to institutional legitimacy and litigant welfare.
Lunch & Keynote Address
A Conversation with Gretchen Carlson (Lift Our Voices) with Andre Mura
Panel 3: Lawyers’ Obligations
Attorneys face complex ethical and professional responsibilities in navigating confidentiality orders, secret settlements, and client-driven demands for nondisclosure. Panelists will consider where lawyers’ duties to clients intersect and possibly conflict with duties to the public and the courts.
Panel 4: Judicial Obligations
Judges are the ultimate gatekeepers of court transparency. This panel will bring together members of the judiciary to discuss the scope and limits of judges’ discretion to seal records, approve protective orders, and balance privacy against the public’s right of access.
Panel 5: Institutional Design and the Architecture of Secrecy
This panel will present new academic research on how judicial practices and procedural design shape what remains hidden in civil litigation. The papers will examine the institutional and doctrinal architectures of secrecy, exploring how transparency affects judicial learning, public accountability, and the integrity of the legal system.
Panel 6: Digging Deeper on the Everyday Machinery of Secrecy
This panel will feature three scholarly papers examining how secrecy operates in distinct corners of civil litigation, including judicial self-dealing and sealed corruption, the growing privatization of trust disputes, and the uncertain law of pseudonymous litigation.
Panel 7: Going Forward
In the closing discussion, leading scholars and practitioners will reflect on the symposium’s findings and consider possible reforms to recalibrate the balance between confidentiality and transparency in the civil justice system.
