March 18, 2025 — The Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession is pleased to announce the launch of its groundbreaking MDL Toolkit, a comprehensive case management resource designed to assist judges, attorneys, litigants, and the public navigate the complex world of multidistrict litigation (MDL).

MDLs, which encompass more than 200,000 active claims nationwide, have become critical venues for addressing significant legal and policy matters. The majority of civil claims in federal courts are now swept into the MDL ecosystem. Despite their growing importance, there are currently few, if any, comprehensive sources of guidance available, to assist MDL practitioners and judges. The Rhode Center’s MDL Toolkit responds to this need. 

“MDL judges are tasked with making high-stakes decisions quickly, often with small and mostly inexperienced staffs, and in the face of limited formal authority,” said Nora Freeman Engstrom, the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford and a Co-Director of the Rhode Center. “While we believe flexibility and creativity are essential to effective MDL management, we also recognize that judges and stakeholders benefit tremendously from knowing what approaches have been tried before and how they’ve worked.” According to Engstrom, “the Toolkit empowers judges to learn what’s out there, in terms of managing MDLs, allowing them to build on and further improve past innovations. MDL judges may not want to be told how to pilot MDLs. But they also don’t want to reinvent the wheel.”

The MDL Toolkit provides a database of more than 250 exemplar MDL orders from nearly 65 MDLs, accompanied by curated guidance from scholars and leading practitioners. Focusing on critical decisions, including leadership appointments, common benefit fund disbursement, and various mechanisms to identify and cull non-meritorious claims, the Toolkit’s six modules include dozens of sample orders illustrating real-world approaches to these important moments in an MDL’s lifecycle. The Toolkit continues the Rhode Center’s cutting-edge work to improve the administration of MDLs, including the Center’s 2022 publication, Plaintiffs and Attorneys in Multidistrict Litigation: Strengths, Deficits, and Paths Forward and 2023 publication Harnessing Common Benefit Fees to Promote MDL Integrity.

The product of more than 1,000 hours of effort spanning nearly three years, the Toolkit is a living document that will continue to evolve as new developments emerge in the MDL landscape. The Rhode Center invites practitioners and judges to contribute additional noteworthy orders and provide feedback to enhance this resource by emailing the Toolkit team at legalprofession@law.stanford.edu.

For more information about the Rhode Center’s work on multidistrict litigation, please click here.

About Stanford’s Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession 

Through a multidisciplinary approach to teaching, research, and policy, the Rhode Center works to make civil justice more equitable, accessible, and transparent and to promote the legal profession’s commitment to the public interest. Since its founding at Stanford Law School in 2008 by Professor Deborah Rhode, the Center has become a leading voice in the scholarly and policy debates on the present and future challenges facing the profession, including particularly the crisis in access to justice and the role of technology in resolving it..  The Center is also a vivid example of the unique role law schools can play to connect theory with practice and translate scholarly research into real-world impact to benefit both the profession and the public.

About Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education. Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law, politics, business, and high technology. Faculty members argue before the Supreme Court, testify before Congress, produce outstanding legal scholarship and empirical analysis, and contribute regularly to the nation’s press as legal and policy experts. Stanford Law School has established a model for legal education that provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, hands-on experience, global perspective and a focus on public service.