For years, critics warned that limiting confidential settlement agreements in sexual harassment and abuse cases would clog courts, prolong litigation, and make cases harder to resolve. A research team from the Deborah L. Rhode Center on the Legal Profession found otherwise.

Their article, “Shedding Light on Secret Settlements,” examined California’s STAND Act, which restricts nondisclosure agreements in cases involving sex discrimination, harassment, and abuse. Drawing on more than 250,000 court filings and interviews with nearly two dozen practitioners, the researchers found that the feared surge in litigation never materialized—and that greater transparency produced meaningful benefits for survivors.

The study received a 2026 Civil Justice Scholarship Award from the National Civil Justice Institute, which called it “groundbreaking.”

One of the study’s notable findings was what the authors call “the liberation effect.”

“We show that secret settlements can impose significant psychic harm on sexual assault survivors,” says Nora Freeman Engstrom, JD ’02, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law and co-director of the Rhode Center. “By freeing survivors from the long shadow of an oppressive NDA, legislation like the STAND Act can improve survivors’ lives.”

Engstrom co-authored the article with David Freeman Engstrom, JD ’02, LSVF Professor in Law and Rhode Center co-director; Austin Peters, JD ’22 (PhD ’23); Garrett Wen, JD ’24; and UC Berkeley Law Professor Jonah B. Gelbach. SL