Debate: Utility of Cross-Examination of Factual Witnesses

COMBAR North American Meeting (New Orleans, LA)

5.31.19

Partner Nicole Sullivan will participate in a debate on the utility of cross-examination of witnesses in commercial cases at the 2019 North American Meeting of the Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR). Nicole will debate on the side opposing the motion that cross-examination of factual witnesses merits its central place in the trial process in commercial cases. 

The debate, chaired by the Honourable Mr. Justice Teare of the High Court of England and Wales, is in light of Gestmin SGPS SA v. Credit Suisse (UK) Ltd & Anor, in which a judge called into question the credibility of the human memory in civil litigation. Prior to the debate, the eminent psychologist Professor Martin Conway, Director of the Centre for Memory & Law at City University in London, and a leading U.S. trial consultant, Dr. Douglas Green, will each give brief presentations and be questioned by the two debate teams. 

COMBAR is the specialist association of the English and Welsh Commercial Bar. It represents over 1,600 individual members and 38 leading barristers’ chambers, all of whom provide specialist advice, advocacy and mediation services in relation to commercial law for businesses, individuals and other organizations. Its members carry out work nationally and internationally, in the context of transactions, arbitration and litigation. Nicole and fellow White and Williams Partner Tom Butler are both longtime COMBAR members.