Tort law is often seen as a matter of money. But tort lawsuits can accomplish much more. They can bring misconduct and hidden dangers to light, force defendants to change their policies, practices, or products, and catalyze government reform, all of which protect the public long after a case ends. In their papers, How Tort Law Drives Change and The Injunctive Effect of Tort Law, Professor Nora Freeman Engstrom of Stanford Law School and Lisa Qian ’26 coin these effects the informational and injunctive effects of tort law.

“Building a Practice of Positive Change,” hosted by Stanford Law School’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession, is a free, 1.5-day conference at Stanford Law School on April 23–24, 2027. It will bring together some of the nation’s most accomplished attorneys, law professors, mediators, plaintiffs, and students to explore the informational and injunctive effects of tort law. Because these effects are not automatic byproducts of civil litigation, but arise when lawyers and clients make reform an explicit goal, the conference will explore what injured clients really want, how to secure meaningful reform in settlements, how to resist secret settlements and NDAs, and what duties lawyers owe their clients and the public.

Attorneys will earn California MCLE credit, and Stanford Law students may take the conference as a one-unit course.