Shearman & Sterling San Francisco litigation partner James Donato wrote an article titled “Defending a Class Action Trial,” which was published on DailyJournal.com on July 19. The piece discusses how class actions, although they are a rarity as the vast majority end in pretrial settlement, raise several special issues in terms of how to explain the class to a jury, how to handle a named plaintiff who might often not be knowledgeable about the facts and claims in the case and perhaps not passionate about telling the story against the defendant, and the predominance of live witnesses on the defense side. The article offers insights into how these issues should be addressed, as Donato notes that, "[m]ost practice guides offer little or no commentary on the unique trial issues that can arise in class cases."