UC Irvine Law Launches Civil Justice Research Center

The U.C. Irvine School of Law is launching a research institute to study factors that affect access to U.S. courts, funded with about $1 million in private donations.

Donors to the new Civil Justice Research Institute include the litigation funding company Bentham IMF, which has committed $300,000, and class-action lawyer Richard Bridgford, of Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian, who has committed $250,000.

“The Institute expects to serve as an academic and intellectual counterweight to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for Legal Reform, an outspoken critic of litigation, generally,” Bentham IMF said in a press release.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the U.C. Irvine School of Law, said he conceived ...