BarbriSFCourseDetails
  1. keyboard_arrow_leftBack

Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Class Action and Other Litigation

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, May 6, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE course will discuss how the courts have addressed such defenses as force majeure, impracticability, and impossibility, and "change of law" clauses in breach of contract cases. The panel will also review drafting strategies that parties may use to protect themselves from price increases resulting from uncontrollable events such as supply chain disruptions, tariffs, and governmental actions.

Faculty

Mark A. May
Shareholder
Dentons Law Firm

Mr. May is a shareholder at Dentons. He is a litigator with 25+ years of experience. Mr. May actively represents clients in complex, commercial litigation matters. He has extensive experience in using mediation, appraisal, arbitration, and litigation to obtain and monetary and non-monetary recoveries, settlements, awards, and verdicts for his clients. Mr. May has the unique experience of litigating on behalf of insurance companies and policyholders. He has secured significant dismissals of insurance coverage actions brought against his insurance company clients.

expand_circle_down Expand to View Full Bio expand_circle_up Collapse Bio
Amy L. Mitchell
Of Counsel
Spencer Fane LLP

Ms. Mitchell represents clients through a wide range of personal injury, construction defect, and commercial litigation matters, effectively managing all aspects of casework from inception to conclusion. During nearly four decades as an attorney, she has handled more than 3,000 litigation cases and successfully tried over 80 trials by utilizing her multifaceted skills as a powerful trial advocate and certified arbitrator to achieve favorable outcomes both in and out of the courtroom.

expand_circle_down Expand to View Full Bio expand_circle_up Collapse Bio

Description

Case law has emerged that sharpens and expands our understanding of force majeure clauses and their related provisions and doctrines. Since 2020 and in the wake of unpredictability, instability, and disruptions with respect to everything from pathogens, changing supply-chains and now tariffs, many parties have looked to these clauses and doctrines for relief from their supply obligations. Parties are revisiting the scope and substance of once boiler-plate force majeure clauses in their contracts and are viewing such clauses as a potential risk-transfer tool with an eye toward expanding their reach beyond acts of God and to more human and economic-based issues.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses what litigating force majeure defenses involves, the ramifications of settlement, the nuts and bolts of statutes of limitations, discovery issues, notice requirements, deadlines that have been or may be triggered, and damages. The panel will also review how well each argument has been received.

Outline

  1. Force majeure clauses and related doctrines
    1. Impracticability and impossibility
    2. Change of law clauses
    3. Types of cases in which they have been raised
    4. Industries in which the doctrines appear most frequently
    5. The relative success of arguments made
  2. Timeliness and waiver
  3. What facts must be shown
    1. Whether an objective or subjective standard applies to the definition of impossibility
    2. Whether the party invoking the defense contributed to the event
    3. In what fact patterns have force majeure proved most valuable
  4. Conflict of laws issues
  5. Settlement
  6. Recent cases

Benefits

The panel will review these and other critical matters:

  • How force majeure clauses and related doctrines of impracticability and impossibility are similar and different
  • Notice requirements and deadlines
  • How and when such defenses are best raised
  • Burdens of proof
  • Likely fact issues
  • Choice of law issues
  • Best drafting practices for revising force majeure provisions