Patricia Moore

Professor of Law

Biography

Patricia Moore, J.D., teaches Civil Procedure, Evidence, Federal Courts and other courses related to litigation. She joins St. Mary’s University School of Law as a Professor of Law in the Fall 2023 semester.

Moore has taught at four other law schools. She was a Professor of Law at St. Thomas University College of Law (Florida) and at Oklahoma City University School of Law. She also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for several years at both of those institutions. Finally, Moore has been a visiting professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and at Stetson University College of Law.

Moore has testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary and the Oklahoma State Legislature on class actions. Her scholarship includes empirical and doctrinal work and focuses on how access to justice may be affected by procedural rules, the demographics of the federal courts, and the politicized nature of both. Her articles have been published in the University of Illinois Law Review, American University Law Review, Tennessee Law Review and many other leading journals.

Prior to teaching, Moore was a partner in the Chicago office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (now part of Dentons), practicing in civil litigation. She is a member of the Bar in Oklahoma (active) and Illinois (inactive).

Publications

Books

• The First Year of the 2015 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Refinement, Not Revolution, American Association for Justice (2017).
• Oklahoma Trial Practice (Thomson West, 2d ed. 1999) (with John Morris and Daniel Morgan).

Law Review Articles

• Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins: The Illusory “No-Injury” Class Reaches the Supreme Court, 2 ST. THOMAS JOURNAL OF COMPLEX LITIGATION 1 (2015).
• The Anti-Plaintiff Pending Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Pro-Defendant Composition of the Federal Rulemaking Committees, 83 U. CIN. L. REV. 1083 (2015).
• The Civil Caseload of the Federal District Courts, 2015 U. ILL. L. REV. 1177.
• Confronting the Myth of “State Court Class Action Abuses” Through an Understanding of Heuristics and a Plea for More Statistics, 82 UMKC L. REV. 133 (2013). ,
• An Updated Quantitative Study of Iqbal’s Impact on 12(b)(6) Motions, 46 U. RICHMOND L. REV. 603 (2012).
• Active Learning and Law School Performance (with Todd Sullivan), 3 JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH, No. 2, 67 (2011).
• The Tao of Pleading: Do Twombly and Iqbal Matter Empirically?, 59 AMERICAN U. L. REV. 553 (2010).
• The Effect of “Tort Reform” on Tort Case Filings, 43 VALPARAISO U. L. REV. 559 (2009).
• Are Women More Ethical Lawyers? An Empirical Study, 31 FLORIDA STATE U. L. REV. 785 (2004) (with Kevin Simmons).
• Interstate Establishment, Enforcement, and Modification of Child Support Orders, 25 OKLAHOMA CITY U. L. REV. 511 (2000).
• Critical Applications and Proposals for Improvement of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act and the Federal Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act, 71 ST. JOHN’S L. REV. 1 (1997).
• See No Evil? The Role of the Directed Trustee under ERISA, 64 TENNESSEE L. REV. 1 (1996).

Presentations

• Invited testimony, Hearing on “The State of Class Actions Ten Years after the Class Action Fairness Act,” Before the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, United States House of Representatives, February 27, 2015.Invited testimony, Oklahoma State Legislature, Proposed “Tort Reform” legislation, including class actions (2004).Invited panelist, The Roberts Court and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, Civil Procedure Section, San Francisco (Jan. 5, 2017).

  Invited panelist, Who Will Write Your Rules? Your State Court or the Federal Judiciary?, National Civil Justice Institute, 24th Annual Judges Forum, Los Angeles (July 23, 2016).

  Invited panelist, Workshop on Public Access to Federal Court Data (“What We Should Be Able to Do with Federal Court Data But Can’t”), University of Pennsylvania Law School (October 8-9, 2015).

Media Highlights

• Quoted in Joe Palazzolo and Jess Bravin, Businesses Win Lawsuit Curbs With New Rules, WALL ST. JOURNAL (March 22, 2016).
• Quoted in Rebecca Wilhelm, Civil Rule Changes Could Affect Environmental Litigation, BLOOMBERG BNA (January 19, 2016).
• Quoted in Colleen Wright, Parkland Families Want To Sue Gun Companies But Could Face Financial Ruin If They Do, MIAMI HERALD (May 24, 2018).